Chess is a pretty complex thing compared to just about all other board games. I'm amazed that I learnt to play it when I was about 8 years old.
My Grandad had an Acorn Electron computer with a few games such as repton through time, arcaliens etc. I found a game called "chess" assuming it was some kind of space game. Finding it was a board game I asked my Grandad how to play it. He showed me how the pieces moved but he didn't know much more than that. I played for a while and then got bored untill I found a game called "Baltle Chess". about 8 months later. This got me interested becaues each time you captured a piece a comical battle sequence happened.
After that I played at school and then stopped playing once I got to high school. I have since picked it up again by playing people on websites like this.
I was just interested in how others leant since chess has so many wierd concepts to get your head around. different pieces moving differently never fails to confuse people I try to teach.
I'd-a-been in sixth grade, it seems like. A kid in my class at school had moved from New York City a year or two earlier--not that that is relevant. He explained the way the pieces moved, as best he could. I am sure I had to keep asking him, "Now how does the horse move again?" Very likely we made some illegal moves, and we wouldn't have known about en passant. As for strategy--there was none.
I was taught by my daddy at the age of seven. I played for a few months in a chess club and then lost interest, stopped playing regularly - perhaps playing a couple of games a year. Now, near enough ten years later I have picked it up again..
So yeah I learnt from my dad