Category: Chess

I was a bit more than surprised tonight–my oldest challenged me to a game of chess.  I love the game, but I’ve never studied it.  It’s much deeper than the limited amount of time to which I’ve devoted it.

So Greg has been playing it at school–he’s in a special program that pulls him out of class for a variety of extra-curricular activities–brain-expanding stuff.  Mind you, he’s in second grade.  So, chess.  Yup.

And he completely surprised me.  Even took some of my pieces because I made the mistake of underestimating him.  And I rewarded him for it with “Good job” and “Wow, didn’t see that coming!”  And I meant it.  It was maybe a 20 minute game, but it felt really nice playing a game and watching his skills develop.

So, take a few minutes.  Really, it was twenty.  Grab a child and play a game.  And be surprised…

Another neat idea we stumbled upon.  My wife set Greg up with the pre-installed Chess game on her laptop–and had him play both sides.  The benefits?

1.  The computer won’t let him make an illegal move.

  In doing this, he will gradually gain the knowledge of what pieces can move where–and when.

2.  We changed the game so that the computer plays itself. 

For whatever reason, Greg was fascinated watching the game play out.  I’m not saying he’ll do this again and again, but it’s another good tool to keep in mind.

If you don’t have a pre-installed version, the Apple App store has a couple freebies, and a little web-surfing can find any number of PC-compatible choices.

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!