Teaching young kids mid-game strategies

Hi,

My son started learning chess 4 months ago and by now he understands the moves and some basic principles such as castling early and protecting his pieces.  However, I don't know how to help him make progress beyond that, especially in terms of learning mid-game strategies.  

When I play against him, he usually starts pretty well, but then it seems he doesn't have much idea what to do in the mid-game.  

I'm posting a game I played with him today, and hope some of you can give me suggestions (he played Black):

After the last posted moves I noticed he started looking around and appeared to lose concentration.  Then I decided to stop the game.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

He's 4.  I was actually surprised that he decided to castle Queen side.  Most of the time he would respond to e4 with e5 and then try to castle on King side.  I guess he wanted to try something new.  

You are correct on how he knows how to defend his pieces and castle correctly. Thus, he played passively, only knowing how to defend. His pieces didn't pass the third rank (in his perspective), until you started your attack and he had to recapture. 

Try to teach your son with the concept of having the end in mind (Checkmate ofcourse!), meaning every move he makes has the progressive plan of ultimatlety coming out ahead and winning the game. 

So teaching him basic checkmates will help and so will engame strategies. It will give him a goal to work towards. Thus, teaching him tactics should not be forgotten, besides thats what makes chess fun!

Also remember that strategy begins in the opening, which is why you were able to mount an attack in that game, while he didn't really have anything developed. 

So I think it is great to teach him development as well. 

pavanshahm,

Thanks for your comment.  He knows the ultimate goal is to checkmate and I taught him some simple checkmate patterns (e.g. two rooks (or rook+Queen) vs King).  However I guess what discourages him is he doesn't know how to reach end game with an advantage.

Yeah, in the opening have him claim some center with at least 1 pawn (this is important for future development and mobility) and develop all his pieces (move 8 he moves a developed piece again).

In the middlegame have him keep things centralized, his king defended, and look for tactics.

Tactics are usually fun for kids, and it makes them practice visualization and being aware of which pieces are threatening which squares.

He seems to still have trouble with this e.g. on your 9th move you threaten his a pawn and he ignores it, on the 11th move he doesn't capture your bishop with his knight and on the 14th move he lets his bishop be captured by a pawn.

Until he can stop making errors like these, strategy isn't really going to help him.  Tips taken from Ruben Fine's Thirty Rules of Chess are useful and you could pick a few of those to give to him each session though.

Kiki_Cromartie,

A "responsible parent" is exactly what I would like to be :)  I like your suggestion and will encourage him continue with the e5 line.  

So anyway, I didn't really say my idea well...

I'd try introducing him to the elementary tactical motifs (pins, forks, skewers, etc) and tell him 1st get some center, develop all his pieces, castle, and 2nd (now in the middle game) look for double attacks and other tactics.

ahhh that's a toughy. Well, tactics are the most important way to gain and advantage. Does your son know any tactics? Such as fork, pin, or skewer. Tactics are the most important ways to gain an advantage. 

Other than that, have you taught him different mating nets or checkmate patters? 

Checkmates such as Back Rank, Smothered, Queen and Pawn on a castled King, Queen and Knight vs Castled King, Queen and Bishop vs castled King. 

Can all teach your son how to build a position against your castled king, thus giving him a plan or strategy to work on.  It also would teach him where bishops, knights, and rooks could be strategically placed. During the middlegame. 

Of course, these should not preoccuppy his strategy, they should just be tactics and patterns to consider.

One of the biggest pitfalls beginners have is using these basic checkmates to win nearly all their games, and once they play someone of their equal or better, their opponent easily refutes these heavily projected moves.And the player is lost on how to gain any advantage.  

I agree with waffllemaster, it's hard to teach him midgame strategies, when he still fully hasn't grasped the concept of protecting peices and which squares are being threatened.

I think tactics training would be most beneficial rather than some actual 'mid-game strategy' approach, especially if he's only 4.

wafflemaster,

I taught him forks before, and he was really interested (it was really funny when I watched him trying to "fork attack" two pawns with his own pawn :D, but later he did get the idea and he found a fork attack when playing his friend -- forking a Queen and a King with his knight)

I think you're absolutely right and I should keep teaching him those tactical motifs.

Of course I will also try your other suggestions such as moving pieces to the center.

pavanshahm,

I taught him back rank checkmate and two rooks vs King because that's the simplest.  I think I should keep teaching him tactics and mating patterns until he fully grasps them.

When I started training Benjamin Hamp at the age of four I actually printed out chess puzzles to have him set up on the board and play out. Setting up the position correctly is good training in itself. Then after going through 100 progressively harder puzzles I gave him the book, Bobby Fischer teaches chess. You do not need to know chess notation or even how to read to be able to go through it. He finished it in a week! He tried to do the puzzles on chess.com but had a hard time with the tactics trainer. So I started him out on ChessKid and he ran his tactics trainer rating over 1400 in 3 months. I had a hard time teaching him middle game plans. Whereas in the opening it is all about getting his pieces to the best squares and fighting for the center and you should teach him to play e4 or d4 and reply with e5 or d5 then latter to try Modern defenses. The middle game is about continuing to build on positional advantages and identifying weaknesses in his opponents camp and exploiting those weaknesses. IM Danny Rensch's video series, Everthing you need to know, is excellent and free to all chess.com members. Watch them with your son and show him the ideas OTB. This is a good start. I hope this helps. Good luck with your son.