Teaching my 4 year old nephew how to play chess

Originally posted by fgch
http://www.chesskids.com/ckapg.pdf

I think this is ok for older kids that already play chess and need to practice. But I think the method is a bit scholastic for younger kids that want to explore and have fun.

Saying things like:
"Did you see I am threatening your queen? What should your next move be?"
or "Oh, you are about to capture ... I should defend it."
puts stress on the kid for every move it will play, because you're guiding him to play on your strength.

Fun should be the goal, I think. When I was young, I liked playing 'four-on-a-row'. Now, I hate it, because it is too complex and I'm only focussing on the result. Chess has the same pitfall.

The idea of unbalanced teams is nice, at least if the kid can grasp the complexity of the initial position. Otherwise, starting with only just a few number of pieces is better. In fact, that's what we call the 'endgame'. Converting a 'won position' into a 'win' is already a big achievement for kids in my opinion.

Played a game with him today, gave myself just a king and he had 2 knights, a queen, rook, 1 bishop, a king and a pawn. Turned the pawn into another queen after losing one of his knights (took a couple of attempts with my lone kind for him to realize not to put anything one move away from my king)... with a bit of help he got his checkmate, at one point he had me pinned but was just going back and forth checking me with his rook, was good he was learning how move the piece and check the king but explained what was happening and helped him get his queen involved to help the rook.

Picking it up quite well considering he's only 4.

With small children, Mate in one prolems and pawn games are good ways of starting out (in pawn games only pawns are on the board and the goal is to get on to the 1/8 rank).