Teaching chess to an eight year old

Any suggestions?

make sure you keep fun as the #1 priority so he'll want to keep learning. 🙂

Trounce him with the Scholar's Mate time after time.

Originally posted by gonzalez70
Any suggestions?

1. Teach him or her the basic rules of the game.

2. Get Fritz vs. Chesster (software program for kids)

3. Pick up the following two books:
--Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess (Bobby Fischer)
--A World Champion's Guide to Chess (Susan Polgar)

This is how I taught my son.

Originally posted by gonzalez70
Any suggestions?

Let the kid turn the board around instead of making a move. As the pupil improves, limit the number of rotations. This way, you can play hard and still lose. It's better than making bad moves to keep the kid interested.

[b]2. Get Fritz vs. Chesster (software program for kids)[b]

i like this idea

Originally posted by Wulebgr
Let the kid turn the board around instead of making a move. As the pupil improves, limit the number of rotations. This way, you can play hard and still lose. It's better than making bad moves to keep the kid interested.

Can you explain the mechanics of that. A friend of mine is teaching his 7 year old, and this idea sounds interesting.

D

USCF used to sell a thing called "Quickchess" used about half the board. My girls liked it quite a it.

Jon

Originally posted by Over40
USCF used to sell a thing called "Quickchess" used about half the board. My girls liked it quite a it.

Jon

Yeah I had something like that on Win. 3.1 1 rook, 1 bishop, 1 knight, 1king and 4 pawns per side. It ended up having a brute force calculated win from move 1. That said, it was a good place to learn. At 8 I was beating my dad about 1/5 tries, after playing that for a couple of months my Dad was beating me 1/3 (asa far as I can tell, he was trying but I can't garuntee it - he never played rated chess and my estimation is that he is a class E USCF player.).

Originally posted by Ragnorak
Can you explain the mechanics of that. A friend of mine is teaching his 7 year old, and this idea sounds interesting.

D

I start by turning the board around when I have a forced checkmate in a move or two. Now the child has the side I had, and I am defending against the attack I created. If the kid can find the checkmate, she wins (and I'll give her a chess pencil). After doing this a few times, I let the kid decide when the board should be turned around. This way I don't play easy against a beginner, yet the game is fair.

Pawn wars is also a great learning game. Play with only pawns. Getting a pawn to the promotion square wins the game. The Polgar sisters started this way.

Like someone else mentioned, the #1 thing is to keep it fun. If it's not fun they won't want to learn. It's a good idea to teach your kids friends too, so that they have someone at their level to play with. If there is a chess program for kids in your area you should take her to that.

Originally posted by gonzalez70
Any suggestions?

You must first keep it fun.
Second you must keep it from becoming boring.
I teach chess 3 days a week, most of my students are ages 6-10 years old.
When children lose they sometimes get quite emotional. This is normal, don't we all feel like crying when we throw a game away. I tell the story of a world champion who frequently broke down in tears when he loat as a child (Boris Spassky).
When they tire of regular chess teach them the Pawn Game. Set up the pawns in starting position with none of the pieces, no kings. The winner is the one who can get their pawn to the other side first. This seems rather boring to most players but introduces strategy in pawn play.
And lastly, chess should be fun...

If anyone wants more info on teaching chess to children send me a private message.

Angela

The way I was taught was, well, got my ass kicked time after time after time after time...soon enough, my competitive nature kicked in and I started practicing more and more each day until I was finaly able to draw my teacher. I still haven't beaten him yet, but in a year or so I hope to be able to. He is very high ranked, and plays on this site.

I don't believe in 'making chess fun'. For those who are ready to learn it, chess IS fun. Adapting 'lessons' or 'learning sessions' should not be done according to age, but according to achieved playing strength. Perhaps with the exception of the very beginning, the basic rules and concepts (mainly in case the child cannot yet read). But the far better way for the child (holds for adults too) to make this first step is to be in a chess-playing environment. He/she will pick up most of the concepts without formal teaching, and also learn behaviour in winning/losing.

edit:ah yes, someone mentioned turning the board around. That does work indeed. It increases the playing level of the entire game. Works also with adults, and at ANY level.

how about this....Instead of playing them and beating them and/or losing to you why not play as a team on the same side?

Find a weak computer engine (that you could easily crush 99% of the time) and ask them to "help you" as you play....and while your at it explain the basic principles