Teach checkers/draughts before chess?

Hi there. Would love to hear some opinions about this. My daughter is about to turn 6. She loves games and is interested in/proficient at mathematics. At her school recently there was a talk entitled "Supporting Able Children to Thrive and Achieve" in which chess was recommended among a few other games to help young children develop strategy skills (I know tactics are as big a part of chess, but the point about it being developmentally beneficial I think is the salient one).

 

I was a very keen chess player in my youth and have always intended to teach her, and this has prompted me into thinking about doing it soon. I certainly feel she is capable of learning the game, albeit I have no idea how long it would take for her to learn to the extent of playing full games (could be quick, could be slow).

 

When I discussed this with my wife she said, "aren't you going to teach her draughts first?". I must admit, this didn't occur to me, and I have already bought her a chess book (which I haven't given to her yet). I learned chess at about my daughter's age (maybe a touch older), and although I knew draughts already it never really got much of a look-in after I learned chess. 

 

Is there any value in teaching her draughts/checkers first, as a stepping stone, then moving to chess after a year or six months or something? Or should I just jump straight in with chess if she is capable? Would love to hear some thoughts.

Funny there are 100's of women about 1900. Guess that idea was wrong.

Start with chess, as when they learn checkers (as I did and others have) first, lots of children are confused as they find that there are different pieces and how, in draughts (checkers) only the dark pieces can be occupied, but in chess any square can be occupied, black or white. (Excluding bishops).

So start with chess, move onto checkers.

Or, if they do struggle with chess, then stop chess for a while, start checkers then re-start chess.

no checkers and chess are different games and I think knowing the checkers rules, does not help her understanding chess better. so if she likes chess, you should let her play chess. maybe 6 is a little young but at least you can give her the chance to learn it. I did learn to play chess when I was 8 and it was not that hard for me to learn it :)

When I was a kid I always disliked draughts, but I was always fascinated by chess, even though I didn't know how to play the latter until years later. I wish my parents had gotten me involved with chess much earlier. In my experience attraction to a given game is inherent, probably influenced even by genetics at an early age, so I would go by natural attraction, not by complexity. Anyway, chess isn't very hard to learn. Even football has more rules than chess, and kids play football early on.

Teaching draughts before chess is a bright idea. I learned checkers first at 8 and chess at 9. By 11,. I play chess only as I have no opposition at checkers.

So a few differing perspectives (and two fairly lame attempts at trolling from one user). I could buy her a combined set for Christmas and let her drive where we go, in line with Sqod's post. Her having ownership of it might be a positive element, too.

I wouldn't even bother with checkers, unless you're keen to play checkers yourself. That game is simple enough that kids can teach it to each other, and I really doubt learning it will make learning chess any easier. 

 

My experience playing chess with children age 5 or 6 is that it takes them a a few times to get all the rules down and stop making illegal moves. After that they can get better and have more fun. The "Play Magnus" app at the lowest age setting is also fun for them, since it's so easy to beat and sometimes plays bizarrely. 

 

I learned draughts first and if it wasn't for draughts (I won a local kids tournament back when such things still existed) I wouldn't have learnt chess. Draughts is obviously an easier game to pick up because the moves are uniform and the board is half the size of a chess board as play is only on the black squares. However it contains a lot of depth and like chess contains many traps and different openings. It is a fun game and is a great stepping stone to chess, especially as pawns capture diagonally albeit via displacement rather than jumping. Also draughts contains Kings for when you promote a piece which have parallels with the Queen in chess. So although the games are quite different, the dynamics and themes are similar, especially as a lot of draughts games end with zugzwang which is much more common than in chess.

Some chess sets are dirt cheap, like those cheap plastic ones where the pieces fall over as soon as you touch them, so it couldn't hurt at all to buy a cheap set. I recently donated one of those lousy sets to a thrift store, so thrift stores and discount stores will have them at ridiculously low prices.

 

Have started a new club here and invite anyone interested in Checkers or Draughts to join the club.

https://www.chess.com/club/checkers-and-draughts-enthusiasts

 

My father taught me draughts first, but became fascinated by chess when I learned that you could play on either colour squares on the board. Chess I taught myself with books.