Below are a few things I did with both my sons to encourage them to enjoy playing chess and able to take part in tournaments. I hope other parents will add their tips and advice.
NOTE: We have a few extraordinarily talented chess players in Year 1 – I think they are really exceptional for their age – but this list of hints is not about developing strong chess players, but rather it is an introduction to going from zero to being able to compete at a basic level and enjoy playing against friends.
Chess is a tough game and it takes time to move through the stages, particularly at the ages of 5, 6 and 7. There will be times when your son (and maybe even you) find chess frustrating. However, I think it is definitely worth persevering, as it is a fun game and the boys learn about winning/losing, competing, logic, what’s going on inside someone else’s head, planning, patience and focus.
Start with a real board and real pieces. Introduce the pieces one at a time. For example, explain the rook to your son rook and see if he can chase/capture your king. Then introduce the bishop, and so on, but your son should master one piece before moving onto the next one.
There are some brilliant apps around for learning chess. Magnus Kingdom of Chess is one of the best. It does not feel like chess, but it gradually introducers the key concepts of moving, capturing and checkmate. https://magnuskingdom.com/
Once your son has a grasp of chess, then Pawn Wars is a simple, fun game played on a real board. Each player has 8 pawns lined up in the normal position, and the winner is whoever gets one of their pawns to the other side. This allows kids to practice all the complexities of pawns (i.e, 1 or 2 squares at the start, moving forward, but taking diagonally). You can then play 8 pawns plus a rook, or 8 pawns plus a bishop and a knight, and so on. The goal is still to get one pawn to the other side, but your son is now learning about other pieces. If you are playing against your son, you could play (8 pawns + queen) against (8 pawns + bishop), so that your son has an advantage.
Although we play all our tournaments on chess.com, chesskid.com is a better site for learning the chess basics. They have videos, lessons, puzzles and you can play against the bots. You can even play the bots when you are offline. The free version allows you to do a huge amount, so no need to buy an account to start with. This is the best site for developing into a confident beginner (and more).
However, in terms of playing games online, which I think is a really good way for players to get in lots of games and develop quickly, chess.com is a better site than chesskid.com. Because chess.com has many more users, you will find a game within a few seconds, rather than having to wait a few minutes. Each player has a ranking, which goes up and down after each match, depending on whether it is a win or a loss. Hence, boys tend to end up playing against people of a similar level. Other parents might have advice about online safety, or read chess.com’s own advice. For example, you could turn off the chat function. Personally, our experience has been entirely positive WRT the boys playing on chess.com.
(Time: you will be able to choose how long your son has to play all his moves in an online game on chess.com, and typically he will get a bit of extra time (increment) for each move he makes. My advice is to play 15 mins/player + 10 seconds increment. Your son will probably move very quickly, and he will never run out of time to start with … indeed, he will probably gain time if his moves take less than 10 seconds each. So, the challenge is to find ways of encouraging your soon to slow down and consider each move – why did my opponent make his move, what’s changed, what are the threats, what are the opportunities, what is my plan, what is my best move, checking that move, then finally moving. There is no such thing as moving too slowly, only the curse of little boys who think every move has to be made at lightning speed, because their first idea must be the best idea.)
Playing the bots on chesskid.com is also good practice. There several levels, so your son will quickly learn to play and beat Bot 1. Then move up quickly to Bot 2, Bot 3 and so on, as staying with a bad bot will result in bad habits. For example, Bot 1 might not take your queen if you place it in danger, and you would not want your son to think that endangering his queen is harmless.
In short, chess.com is great for playing people/kids online, chesskid.com is great for watching teaching videos and playing bots, and those two sites will allow your son to develop into a really confident player.
However, don’t forget to play games on a real board, particularly against mum/dad or older siblings. These can always be made fair by starting off with a disadvantage. The most basic level would be that your son has a full set of chess pieces, but you only have 8 pawns and a King … and then when you start losing you move to 8 pawns, a king and two bishops, and so on.
Finally, it is fairly easy for boys to learn about capturing and avoiding capture, but actually learning how to checkmate is really tricky. Boys can play a whole game, have a huge advantage and then struggle to checkmate their opponent. So, eventually, you (or chesskid.com) will need to teach your son how to checkmate with (King + Queen + Helper), then (King + Rook + Queen), then (King + Queen), then (King + Rook). Your son will need some help from you, but chesskid.com has some great lessons, such as this one (which also gives you a sense of what chesskid.com can offer more generally). https://www.chesskid.com/videos/king-and-queen-mate
Other parents might have other advice, so please do add your comments below. Or you might disagree, in which case please also add your comment.
In a few weeks from now, I will add another note to forum, focussing on advice for our online tournaments and tournaments more generally. In the meantime, I will mention two quick points. First, I forgot to mention stalemate, which your son will need to know about – it should have been point 9.5 in the list above. It is a tricky concept, and it will take a while to absorb the how/when of stalemate. Second, apps are great, and I wish they were available when I was kid, but your son should play on a real board with a real human once per week.
Below are a few things I did with both my sons to encourage them to enjoy playing chess and able to take part in tournaments. I hope other parents will add their tips and advice.
NOTE: We have a few extraordinarily talented chess players in Year 1 – I think they are really exceptional for their age – but this list of hints is not about developing strong chess players, but rather it is an introduction to going from zero to being able to compete at a basic level and enjoy playing against friends.
Chess is a tough game and it takes time to move through the stages, particularly at the ages of 5, 6 and 7. There will be times when your son (and maybe even you) find chess frustrating. However, I think it is definitely worth persevering, as it is a fun game and the boys learn about winning/losing, competing, logic, what’s going on inside someone else’s head, planning, patience and focus.
(Time: you will be able to choose how long your son has to play all his moves in an online game on chess.com, and typically he will get a bit of extra time (increment) for each move he makes. My advice is to play 15 mins/player + 10 seconds increment. Your son will probably move very quickly, and he will never run out of time to start with … indeed, he will probably gain time if his moves take less than 10 seconds each. So, the challenge is to find ways of encouraging your soon to slow down and consider each move – why did my opponent make his move, what’s changed, what are the threats, what are the opportunities, what is my plan, what is my best move, checking that move, then finally moving. There is no such thing as moving too slowly, only the curse of little boys who think every move has to be made at lightning speed, because their first idea must be the best idea.)
Other parents might have other advice, so please do add your comments below. Or you might disagree, in which case please also add your comment.
In a few weeks from now, I will add another note to forum, focussing on advice for our online tournaments and tournaments more generally. In the meantime, I will mention two quick points. First, I forgot to mention stalemate, which your son will need to know about – it should have been point 9.5 in the list above. It is a tricky concept, and it will take a while to absorb the how/when of stalemate. Second, apps are great, and I wish they were available when I was kid, but your son should play on a real board with a real human once per week.