How to teach chess...

I was asked to start a chess program for a small elementary school as an after school program. The school said it would buy a few chess sets to start out with but I'm not exactly sure where to start. How would I start out teaching Kinder students or 1st graders about chess? Need help you all! 

Check out KidsChess.com

I got that bakwards. It's ChessKid.com.

Try "chesskid.com" it's basically chess.com but kid friendly. And look on amazon for some chess books if your interested in getting books for your club.

ive recently joined a coaching organisation and have been wondering the same thing.

IMO, assuming they know how to move pieces, checkmate etc, teach them....

1.how to know when your winning: different types of advantages
show exaggerated examples, i sat in on a lesson to watch how it was done, and this seemed to work really well.

-show a game where one side loses their queen in first few moves to demonstrate material imbalance and advantage

-Show them space advanatge in a position like this:

throughout this ask them who is winning and why as well as answering other questions.

Im presenting a lesson tommorow on a topic of my choice and I decided to do it on pins.

This is how I laid it out:

describe to them what a pin is, ex/ when a piece cant move without exposing a more valuable piece to attack.

Give them two examples, one of an absolute pin where moving the piece is against the rules:

ask them if blacks knight is allowed to move:
reinterate the point by saying something along the lines of:

Blacks knight is not allowed to move here because it would put his king in check, which is against the rules.

In the next similar position show this:

Ask them if blacks knight can take the white pawn:
blacks knight CAN take the white pawn if he wants to, however the knight is still considered pinned as doing so would lose blacks best piece, the queen.

lastly im going to show them an example game of morphy's:
At moves 8.., 10. and 11.. ask them which pieces are pinned and if the pinned piece is allowed to move if it wants based on first and second examples. You can alose make short comments on the game, like each side is developing pieces, white is threatening to fork the queen and rook etc..

You can repeat this style of lesson for every strategy/tactic, ex/ forks, skewers etc.

Hopefully this helped.

For teaching how to play chess I start with pawns, four for each side (f-e-d-c pawns to be exact). after demonstrating (multiple times on multiple occasions usually!) how the pawns are governed concerning movements they can play four on four. The goal is to get a pawn on the last rank and be the first to do it. The idea is that the games are quick with four instead of eight for each side and people can grasp the situation with less pieces more effectively I find. It is also easier to demonstrate how a move is inferior or losing as the fewer pieces allow for fewer options and therefore forcing moves arise more quickly. They can quickly learn how to put each other into zugzwang for example, how to control space properly, en passant rule, as well as the importance and benefits of creating a passed pawn. At times stalemate may arise and this allows you to introduce one way a game can end without a winner in chess. This will not only help their chess playing but their end game play too.

Once playing with four pawns is mastered so they don't make illegal moves and understand the basic strategy and rules of them you can add more pawns until each side has eight. After which introduce the king, followed by bishops, rooks, queen, and last knights (because they are so different in movements than the other pieces). There are multiple methods to teach chess to people but I found this (especially with young kids) to be effective. Optional too is to remove the pieces as you introduce new pieces (for example when introducing the rooks, remove the bishops from play until they firmly understand how rooks operate) if you think they are beginning to feel overwhelmed with all the various pieces and their movement abilities. I usually don't do this because I won't introduce new pieces until they have shown complete understanding of the previous piece, but I've heard others do this with success. Whatever you do though, never remove the king from play once you've introduced it. I've seen a dad do this with their kid and it created all sorts of confusion later on.

Have fun! Teaching chess is a lot of fun and it also helps your own play I think!

First,teach them how to move the pieces (you must to be funny :)   show them that the knight moves like the L letter,the bishop moves on the diagonal...).There is an game,named Majestic Chess,that will learn them the chess game.You will need only an computer,the chess game and something to make the game bigger,like an projector (videoprojector).

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good topic. I think I will face that challenge very soon. Be patient, small children have the tendency to forget the moves. Repeat the rules a lot. Start out with letting them play with fewer pieces, like rooks only. Does not matter if it feels silly to you. the games of the kids will look silly to you anyway. Most importantly, always let them play a lot, even if it is not a complete game.

Here's something you should know about!

http://www.chess.com/download/view/chesskidcom-curriculum

No matter which method you use, keep the following in mind:

1) It should be fun for them! (build in small rewards, if you want to)

2) It should be fun for you!

3) Allow them to make many mistakes, don't correct everything.

4) If they don't progress as fast as you wanted, adjust

Good luck!

Then, after too many pawns are added, you send your kid to therapy for nervous exhaustion.

Whenever I analyze and help people with their games at the local highschool, i usually use a lot of funny references and inanimate objects to compare them with to make a serious connection with them. For example, your bishop is only good as your pawn structure, your bishops hates your pawns. Knights love pawns, in fact, whenever they are close, knights like to hug them (blockades for example).

This game has been popular with my kids (a 6-year-old who has a very basic understanding of the rules and a 3-year-old who likes to move the pieces):

http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Moves-1091-Stress-Chess/dp/B0007Q1IO4/

It's good for learning the names of the pieces and how they move.

That's exactly what I would do.

Thanks for all the tips guys. Keep 'em coming! I'm here to listen and learn. The more analogies, activities and tips I know about the more I can use. I'm sure I will refer back to this forum. I love the creativity! 

I would have about 30 minutes with them after the school day ends.

Is Kindergarten too young? About how fast/slow should I expect them to progress? 

Some might pick up on it quickly, others a long time (and possibly never if they don't like it). You'll have to see!

half an hour is a bit short. We normally do 45 -60h.

15-20 min of demonstration lecture

5-10 min for puzzle sheets to reinforce tactics learned and assess the students strength

the rest is playing time. If you dont let them play, they will lose interest quickly. Reinforce the rules when you observe and supervise the playtime. Be very careful about hints. The kids often see this as unfair.

Preps is ok. I don't know about kindergarten.

Be aware that many kids have problems sitting still after having spent so many hours at school. Carefully maintain discipline, the hardest part of this job, perhaps.

Don't expect too much. At first, make sure that everybody learns the rules within the first term. You do take-for-nothing exercises, show them how to checkmate (difficult but important) introduce them to the idea that all the pieces work as a team, introduce the opening principles, show them the dreaded 4 move checkmate.After that, you do lotsa tactics. As you watch their games and look at their puzzle sheets you realize how much they actually learn.

Dont confuse them with indepth chess knowledge. That would only bore them.

ilovechess, I think whatever you decide to do will be fine, so don't worry about it

I was in the same situation 5 months ago. I tried to find some material online just to start teaching kids who are new to chess. It was hard, finding a reliable material online. I wanted to make it simple. So I made a website just for that. It has everything to start off with.

Happy Coaching