Gregory has been bugging me about learning to play chess.  Why?  I have no idea.  How do you teach such a complex game to a 6 year old?  Simple.

Get rid of all of the back-row pieces.

Just line up the two rows of pawns and have them battle each other.  You can teach opening moves (1 versus 2 spaces), attacks, en passant–and believe me, that’s plenty on the first go-round.

Once comfortable with those, add the bishops–or rooks–but not both.

Then add the queen, saying that she can do the moves of BOTH the bishops and rooks.

Only then would I add the knights.  And finally the kings.

And above all, for fun–let the children pick some rules at first.  It’s fun watching what they come up with!