Forums

5 Year old training

Sort:
kevinrector

So, I have a 5 year old (soon to be 6) that likes playing chess. I don't really push it, but she asks to play. She's knows how all the pieces move and understands some very simple basics like controlling the center, not randomly moving pawns, not bringing the queen out too early, not putting knights on the edge without good reasons, etc. She usually wants to play white and the following is a pretty typical opening for her (she has very basic opening theory so I always play e5 to her e4).

So, after she gets her king castled she loses all her confidence and doesn't know what to do from there.

I've tried setting us some very basic mating patterns, but she quickly gets bored with tactical training, she wants to play. 

 

She is also very hesitant to trade pieces. She knows the basic value of a piece but I don't think she knows how to decide if it's a good trade or a bad trade. She has very very limited understanding of positional chess and often misses things like pins etc. (very understandable based on her age).

Yesterday when she was playing and we got to a position very similar to the above diagram I heard her talking to herself under her breath saying, "look for something to take."

Anyway, I don't want to "train" too hard with her as I want this to be fun for her, but she has really suprised me with what she's understood at 5 years of age. I also know that the more she "trains" the more fun it will be to play.

Any advice on how to help her learn from here? I'm rated about 1300 USCF so my skill set is limited and there's no way I could justify paying for coaching (besides the whole point for her is to have something fun to do with her dad - if I brought in a coach I think she'd lose interest instantly).

She has a chesskid.com account, but again that's not a lot of fun for her because that a solitary activity and she always wants to play OTB with dad (or siblings).

ZofoMojo
Bravo for teaching basic opening theory. Very impressive. My first thought for next level thinking would be for you to help her

1. Look two moves deep
2. Predict your next move

Consider allowing her to make move A / predict your move / decide her B move / and then decide if she wants to keep her A move.
You could try playing along with her predictions to get her in the mode of thinking multiple moves ahead.

Also try games where you handicap yourself by taking pieces off the board.

Those are a couple ideas.
Good luck! I'd be interested to know how you got as far as you did teaching her!
0110001101101000

Workbooks for kids who are also beginners:
https://www.newinchess.com/The_Complete_Step_by_Step_Method-p-1933.html


Otherwise this is a difficult question to answer IMO. Very young + doesn't want coach + parent isn't a master or something like this. I would say just continue to play games. I would guess just playing games is probably as useful as anything for a few years.

This next bit of advice is a bit in the reverse: usually when players get confused, flustered, low on time, etc -- they will start pushing pawns. So, not that this is good advice, but when confused if she starts pushing pawns it will definitely change the landscape of the position... don't know how helpful that is Tongue Out, but strategic advice is way too abstract at this stage and age IMO (other than being sure to get all the knights and bishops off the back rank).

ChristopherYoo

I highly recommend the book _Chess is Child's Play_ by Laura Sherman.  Among other things, it introduces a series of mini-games you can play with subsets of the pieces.  The mini-games will give your childen confidence as they will build up her game literally piece by piece and idea by idea without boring her.

jambyvedar2

Actually many kids really enjoy solving chess puzzles. Maybe let hear solve 4 chess puzzles a day and don't over do it. I suggest you get World's Champion's Guide to Chess. The puzzles here are suited for your daughter.

Teach her also the basic endgame mate which is two rook mates against a lone king. Tell here that she should always look if you have a threat.

oneshotveth

Does she know it's ok to make mistakes?  That you (as the father first) won't be mad or disappointed if she makes mistakes?

Maybe you could come up with something like, "If you're stuck and not sure what to do, do this." Whatever "this" is, is up to you.