"Dad or mom taught me chess"

Most chess players I've met claim dad taught them chess at a young age. We could mention Morphy and Capablanca. Most of the ones I've met said dad taught them. There's something about learning from dad. We saw dads as our heroes or first role models, in some cases, subconsciously, some peoples' only role model for life. "I want to be like dad" syndrome! Did dad, grandparent, uncle or mom teach you how to play chess. How has it impacted your playing? Did it pose any advantages for you? I imagine it made it alot of easier to take of training wheels of the chess bikes huh.

I don't remember anyone teaching me the rules.  But my dad must have because I knew how to play as young as 7 or 8.  But he really only knew how the pieces moved (didn't know about en passant for example) so didn't really help with the "taking off training wheels" really :)

Eric must be my dad then, cause I learned how the pieces move on this site.

Because I was a little brat and saw a chess set in a window and I whined a lot my mother bought it for me when I was 6.  We knew it was some kind of game but that was it.  It came with a little folded rule book with crappy rules, but neither my mother nor I could make heads or tails of it.  Honest to god, we couldn't figure out what a capture was.  Did that mean you occupied the same square with the captured piece and then dragged it around with you?  It never said you removed it from the board.  LOL  Anyway, we gave up in frustration.  I had to wait for my dad to return from Europe.  He couldn't believe how foolish we were. OK this story had nothing to do with the OP, but dat's my story.

Amy

LOL...no one really fooled me with the fools mate aka scholar's mate. I was playing for a while and then I read about it books...but I think it was Yassar Sierawan who claimed he was fooled by it at a young age. 

I grew up playing snakes and ladders u know the roll dice thingy. There was also monopoly, connect 4, scrabble, pick 2 memory cards set of all cards faced down, etc. and of course the infamous checkers.  As a youngster,  I vaguely saw kids playing chess in high school. Then there are some who are bored by such games and will never bother to look this way considering the influx of video games that have taken society by storm. I vaguely recall seeing kids play chess in high school and fooled myself into thinking that's too hard for me and I'll never learn it. You know, the self defeating attitude. Thank God I got rid of it. I'm not a championship player, but I'm glad I learned it from just acquring a passion, reading books and hopefully in a couple years I'll probably never be a GM, who knows, but I'll definitey be outstanding. Using the brain to assimilate new information such as chess during adulthood can be quite a challenge. I tell the kids real men play chess. 

...and by the way, the book "How to beat your dad at chess" by Murray Chandler is not for kids, unless the kid's a genius. It's a far cry from the more deep "chinese writing looking" analyses chess books on the market, but its  definitely not meant for the average kid. The cover and title is misleading

I had a step-dad for a while that absolutely loved chess.  It was his only real hobby.  He bought me my first chess board when I was 7, and taught me how the pieces moved.  He was always more than willing to play a game of chess with me, but unfortunately he didn't seem to have any desire to teach me chess.  The thought of getting a chess book, or even asking him the right questions aside from how does the rook move just never occurred to me.  Playing amounted to me moving pieces around half hazardly and consistently losing.  Therefor it wasn't until my mid 20's when I even sporadically started to study chess.

Honestly, I'm a little bitter about it because I now love chess.  If he would have taken an interest in explaining the game rather than just the rules, or even let me know if I wanted to understand more I had books available at the library or in his bedroom my interest in chess and our relationship might have gone very differently.  I'd imagine having any role model, be it a family member or coach encourage you in your growth is absolutely huge especially while young.. In my opinion it would take a very rare and lucky individual to really flourish without it, at least while still young.

yep, my pops did, I talk to him about chess sometimes, and het told me that me and my little brother just couldn't see how to check mate with a king and rook back then.

When I was 13 I was a bit full of myself, and I wasn't giving my mom much respect. She finally had enough and asked me if I wanted to learn to play chess. She kicked my ass for six months straight. I learned. 

I coulda been a CONTENDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MattMCan, thanks for being honest and up front. That's real talk man. Some step dads can be like that! 

Like many abilities, having a good teacher at a young age is tantamount. ex. music lessons at a young age. Many of us could kick our selves now for not taking an interest in playing an instrument or chess lessons when our parents forced us. Now we have a lifelong obsession and passion for it along with serious regrets. 

There are some people who are good self teachers. If you're like me having a coach is good, but I like to kinda feel my way around, read books, etc. although some players totally hate learning chess from books. Learning in formally settings or studying puts a damper on their innate abilities. There are literally, many famous geniuses like that. But hey, look at our great American hero, Bobby Fischer--studied a lot of chess books at an early age; no family member taught him!

When I was about 8 or 9 I saw a chess game on TV.  The game caught my interest so I pestered the crap out of my parents to get a set for my birthday.  You know, the fold up black/red board with plastic pieces and a one page instruction sheet that explained the moves.  Me and my older brother played, but he got tired of me beating him all the time so gave it up. Had an uncle that I rarely saw who was a good chess player, but for 99% of it all, I am completely self-taught.

"LOL...no one really fooled me with the fools mate aka scholar's mate."

Two different mates.

I think geographic variations exist, but traditionally Scholars mate is (4 moves) and fools mate (2 moves) so though sometimes called the same i guess it depends where you come from though.

Fools mate is:

1. f3 35

2. g4 Qh4#

Scholars mate is :

1. e4 e5

2. Qh5 Nc6

3. Bc4 Nf6

4. Qxf7#

Though this can have variations, at least thats how i know them so i assume them to be different.

peace

Edit: ahh i see you were saying the same and responding to the previous statement about aka...sorry ;-)