How and When to teach a child Chess?

I have a niece (3.5 yrs old) and nephew (5 yrs old) living with my sis and brother-in-law in Wisconsin.  On a recent trip, I brought them a chess set.

 

Does anyone have any advice for what age is best to teach chess to a child and what methods work well? 

In my experience, age 7 has been the best age to start.  Those were the ages that I started teaching Jordy Mont-Reynaud and Vinay Bhat.  Both of them became masters at age 10.  So three years of constant play starting at 7 can get you to master strength.  The best way to teach them is to play traps and short games so they can remember the mating patterns or tactical ideas of how to win a piece or the game.  Besides, its fun and they have a way of grasping patterns and remembering them than adults.  Another trick I used was to follow opening books (I had the book open, they did not) and see if they were following "book" moves (I would always follow book moves).  As soon as they got out of "book" we played the game as an original game.  If they survived the opening or won the game, it bacame known as the Jordy variation or the Bhat variation.  But if the move led to a bad opening, and a bad game, we would try all over to improve the opening and game.  Very little was focused on endgames.  They had to master the openings, but learned the endgames from experience and lots of play such as in blitz.

I always felt handicapped by learning the "L" movement pattern for a knight when I was a kid.  I have troubles seeing more than one option and move at a time when I see through a knight.  Is there a better way to teach knight movement to kids?

A knight gets to alter the color of his square every time he moves.  So if he is on white, he gets to move to a black square.  Also, a knight attacks the squares of it own colored square.  So a knight on a white square will move to some black square, then threaten as many as 8 white squares.

Also, it will take 4 moves to get to a square that is 1 square diagonal away.  Thats handy to remember when thinking defensively. 

 

 

Indemnity,

I used to have the same problem.  What I realized one day was that the knight has a "circle of death" around him that the 'L' shapes create.

 

I've tried to demonstrate this with the diagram attached here.  When I play, I try to envision this "circle of death" around each knight to understand what the knight is able to attack and what it is not able to attack.

 

I'm not that good at visualizing multiple knight moves, however.

 

Hope that helps. 

Bill,

Thanks for you great advice.  Another member here started teaching his daughter by using just endgame pieces randomly on the board and playing.

I actually started my nephew with one piece (bishop), and placing pieces across the board, but only one in a position to be captured by the bishop and asked him to try and find which piece could be captured and "put in jail".  He was remarkably good at picking this up, even at 5 years old.

 

As Indemnity mentioned, the Knight threw him off.  He couldn't get his little head around that one.  Maybe I should have waited with the knight until later. 

I tel you wut, yooz larn 'em how to yung en for you no wut theyz gettin all uppity with ya....

well i started teaching my nephew at age 3(gonna try teachin my daughter earlier than that but) i taught a few openings like scicilian, queens gambit since they are the most popular but focused more on eg. i found that most kis get to that and dont know what to do or how to finish easy winnable games, but he achieved a 2000 rating ina  couple of years, probably could have been a GM but he stopped playing after that

I wouldn't know I don't have children, but I would say you could probably start as early as five.

whenever they can say a full sentence.So they can say checkmate-you lose.lol

Haha... that should be a first word instead of mama or dada, right?

I will teach mine as soon as possible... well, not really teach, but expose them to it. So, I will have a chess room with chess toys - big ones, so they they cannot swallow them. I will get them chess clothes - chess.com tshirt, for example. Then i will sit them on the lap as I play... and then I will take them to kids tournaments. and then I will follow Billwall's advice - start "serious" instruction at age 7. Thing is, I would like to let them be a child and enjoy their childhood, but at the same time, make Chess something that they are very comfortable doing/playing. They will assimilate stuff along the way. That will be my approach with my two kids - yet to be born!

i often wondered when to start teaching my son chess. then he settled it for me when he asked if i would teach him. hes 6. so my answer would be when they ask or show interest. hes having trouble with the knight but hes getting it..good luck..see you at the junior nationals

I started teaching chess for my son when he turned 6 yrs. We played every day. Within 2 month he become comfortable with the moves and concept of check and mate.

Easy,

 

Chessat3.com teaches chess to any three year old

 

-Tyler

I am also curious how to make "a second degree/next step" by teaching child. Mine has (too) enormous wish to play at 4,5 years. He knows what moves are possible, how to "eat" pieces, when i ask him to give me check with a figure, he find the solution, but still lacking "the overview" of the game of corse.

His best interest at this stage is to "eat" figures, nevertheless how much are they worthed. So i wanna move to "the next level" :)

I am 15 and have a Fide Rating over 2000. But I started chess with 10 or older and I really hate that. It would be much easier for me to get better if I would have started earlier. Its perfect to Start with 7!

I've taught a group of young children aged about 12-14 years old. I think you can do it younger.

I tried to keep it fun. introducing the board and pieces. Placement. Movement.

The first "game" was just playing with pawns (starting in their normal positions). I'd say the winner was who got the most pawns to the back rank. This introduces concepts such as pawn movement, captures, en passant, pawn structure and promotion.

ChessKids has a lot of resources that could help. I recall they might even have lesson plans and study guides.

You might want to consider a small board and small unweighted pieces for small hands. I haven't used silicon pieces yet but I hear they are indestructible and softer than hard plastic.

no age, kids shouldn't be taught chess. i wish i had never met chess.