Teaching my 4 year old nephew how to play chess

How would you do it?

Starting young, I like it 🙂
Trial and error? Deliberately lose the first couple of games? Play against him with less pieces (e.g. K + 8P for you, full set for him) and gradually make the difference less?
Maybe not now, but in a couple of years this site may be useful:
http://www.chesskids.com/kidzone/index1.shtml

Originally posted by Trev33
How would you do it?

Start with simple endgames to learn the moves of the pieces. This will already bring the joy of checkmating.

Play some kind of a pawnrush to get a feeling with the pawns.

Forget about opening principles, because he won't understand their purpose. And if he does, he won't grasp the difference between the 'rules' and the 'principles'.

Try to focus on basic tactics like taking undefended pieces and the values of the pieces. Forget about strategy, the game is about material untill there is enough space for an endgame.

Originally posted by morgski
Starting young, I like it 🙂
Trial and error? Deliberately lose the first couple of games? Play against him with less pieces (e.g. K + 8P for you, full set for him) and gradually make the difference less?
Maybe not now, but in a couple of years this site may be useful:
http://www.chesskids.com/kidzone/index1.shtml

I like tvochess's endgame idea.

We've played two full games so far which i won, didn't want to let him win when he doesn't understand how all the pieces move yet. That's why i like the endgame idea, he gets to win without actually beating me.

I showed him the board and pieces about 6 months ago when he was only 3 and after seeing it in Harry Potter for the past month he was at me about playing chess, finally gave in a few days ago and started to play with him.

He knows all the pieces now but struggles with how some of them move, especially the knight.

Originally posted by tvochess

Try to focus on basic tactics like taking undefended pieces and the values of the pieces.

I've been trying to teach him the value of the pieces, he knows the queen is important but doesn't really understand how... he just wants to take pieces in the games we've played so far, that meant taking a pawn and losing his queen.

Originally posted by Trev33
I've been trying to teach him the value of the pieces, he knows the queen is important but doesn't really understand how... he just wants to take pieces in the games we've played so far, that meant taking a pawn and losing his queen.

Maybe, that's where the endgame can help. He'll see which pieces he should keep to trap the king in the end. A pawn is worthless in the endgame, if promotion wouldn't exist. I hope you didn't explain that to him yet?

Is he aware that his queen is lost when he captures those pawns? Or does he fall from the sky and starts crying?

Try the knight moves on an empty board and play some games with that (e.g. try to get from this square to that square, or let him position the knight so that it attacks the king on a certain square)

Good luck!

Teach him how to play the guitar instead, he will make money. 😉

All young players have Queenitus.

Show him this position.



Offer him £20.00 worth of sweets if he can checkmate Black,

Lesson: Even the mighty Queen needs help. By herself she is useless.

Don't let him win games on purpose, but do take lost on positions asking him
to finish you off.

Show him how to mate with a King + Rook v King - the most common
ending he will face.
When he has it off to pat he will beat you (the lone King) over and over again
thus gaining confidence.

Then back a step: Elementry pawn promotions. He must promote the pawn
take a Rook and mate you.
His confidence rises and he sees how a game fits together.

Brilliant? Not really, it's the Russian method.

There are some smashing Kids books on chess.
With cartoons and easy to follow text. Get him one of those.

If you have a copy of Battle Chess (I think you can download it free somewhere)
get that up and running. You play it on it's lowest level and hammer it.
He will want to do the same.

It worked with my two kids. For a months they were fascinated with chess.
Then other things took over. I did not force the game on them.

Originally posted by tvochess
if promotion wouldn't exist. I hope you didn't explain that to him yet?

Oops. He asked if he could get his knight back (it's his favorite piece even though he doesn't get how it moves... ) so i told him about the pawn promotion.

Is he aware that his queen is lost when he captures those pawns? Or does he fall from the sky and starts crying?

He's fine when i take his pieces, the only time he got a little upset is when i took a pawn he was trying to promote (probably shouldn't have told him that) but after explaining it wasn't something to worry about just yet he was ok.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Teach him how to play the guitar instead, he will make money. 😉

All young players have Queenitus.

Show him this position.

[fen]8/8/8/4k3/8/8/8/3Q4 w - - 0 1[/fen]

Offer him £20.00 worth of sweets if he can checkmate Black,

Lesson: Even the mighty Queen needs help. By herself she is useless.

Don't let him win games on purpose, but do t ...[text shortened]... y were fascinated with chess.
Then other things took over. I did not force the game on them.

What's battle chess?

Nice idea letting him finish off my win, i haven't let him win a game and don't plan to but i think this and the setting up endgames ideas.

BTW if i can force a draw in that position can i have £20 worth of sweets?

Another nice idea is playing King and 3 Pawns vs a King, especially if he likes the idea of promotion. That was he learns the benefit of pawns working together, the importance of the King aiding in the endgame, the risks of stalemate etc.

Battle Chess is a very old Spectrum/CM 64 game that you can get
on the PC.

Normal chess but the pieces fight each other when a pieces is taken.

see it action here with the Spctrum 48K

YouTube

http://www.chesskids.com/ckapg.pdf
^
This is a bit dated but the ideas are sound. It's worth taking the time to check out Richard James' site, he's an interesting man and very passionate about teaching chess.

I had Battlechess on the Atari ST, it was great but I found the sexy Queen rather confusing.

Originally posted by fgch
http://www.chesskids.com/ckapg.pdf
^
This is a bit dated but the ideas are sound. It's worth taking the time to check out Richard James' site, he's an interesting man and very passionate about teaching chess.

I had Battlechess on the Atari ST, it was great but I found the sexy Queen rather confusing.

He's 4, for Christ's sake.

As I answered in GF:

I'd mow his lawn into 64 squares of criss-cross grass pattern. Then I'd get a blow up bouncy Castle in each corner, followed by 4 blow up Horsies he can sit on, to go on the next squares to corner on baselines. Then I'd get 4 blow up dolls, wrap them in cassocks and put beards and crucifixes on them, and pretend to him they have boy balls, same as his. Then I'd get 2 of each, a blow up King and Queen.

Then I'd get 16 blow up rabbity rabbits, cute ones, and align them as needed.

Then I'd teach him the phonetic alphabet, from 'a-h', and to count from '1-8'.

I would then scotch tape him to Rabbity d2 and tell him every first time he moves he has to jumpy to squary d4. Then it would be Uncle Trev's move, and knowing Trev he'd jump on to the cassock clad doll, also with scotch tape, and try to make an illegal move. Of course, this would have to be corrected, and honesty shown by Uncle, who would mount a Horsey and swiftly jump the Horsey to f6. Nephew would then be taped to c2 Rabbity, and told to jump to c4, and so on. Once he has learned to master each alternative, he is allowed to go to a corner for a break and play on the Bouncy Castle.

This is the 4 year old Gospel of learning, according to Blowy Uppy Thingies and young chess.

-m. 😉

Originally posted by mikelom
He's 4, for Christ's sake.

I was recommending the literature for the uncle rather than the nephew. Apologies if this wasn't obvious.

Originally posted by fgch
I was recommending the literature for the uncle rather than the nephew. Apologies if this wasn't obvious.

I think the Uncle would have more of a problem dealing with an Atari or BBC computer, or a simple opening than the 4 year old would. 😀

I missed your plot, my apologies. 😳

-m.