How to teach a 7 year old chess from scratch?

One of our friends' seven year old boy is keen for me to teach him how to play chess. 

He doesn't know anything at all about chess / how any of the pieces move, and I am kind of wondering where to start. 

Part of me thinks that you should start with just the kings, learn how they move / which squares they control, then add in some pawns and do king and pawn endings, then add in a couple of pieces etc.

However, this does sound rather boring doesn't it?  But if you start with all the pieces set up, where do you even begin?

He's a bright lad and I'm sure he'll pick things up pretty quickly, but any ideas about how to both (a) teach him well and (b) not put him off the game for life in the process would be much appreciated.

for a start: http://www.chess.com/learn-how-to-play-chess

then maybe this: http://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory

Teach him how the game is played. Don't mess him up with endgames before he even knows the rules.

You might be surprised how fast kids can learn. Just teach him how the pieces move (maybe ignore castling and other complicated rules), then that the goal is to capture the enemy king (forget about check for now) and just jump straight into a game.

Just for the kicks, show him the very basic chess stuff, and see how he plays his first game.

Get him on www.chesskid.com  Its designed for kids aged 6 - 13 to learn chess

I think is important to learn all of the rules including castling, en-passant, promotion and draws. It all part of the game.  

Nimzovitch and H G Wells should be your role models here:

http://iplayoochess.com/2011/12/08/how-to-teach-chess-to-absolute-beginners-using-piece-contacts-nimzovichs-way/

http://www.online-literature.com/wellshg/certain-personal-matters/30/

Library books in the kid section might be a good way to go about it too. 

Thanks everybody for you advice - that's much appreciated.  Let's hope old Herbert George was joking when he said that 'It is a curse upon a man. There is no happiness in chess.'

I'll let you know how I get on with my teaching - might be a few days yet, though.

don't try to teach him to much at once give him time to understand what he is learning

I wouldn't suggest teaching him en passant too soon. Right now I'm doing TA for a weekend chess class for kids around that age, who are beginning to learn how to play chess. During the second or third class, when the kids were still working on remembering how the pieces normally move, the teacher taught them how to do en passant. Now when they play against each other they do en passant all the time - except it's wrong. They think en passant means that in this position:

white can play exd4 or exf4. It took a pretty long time afterwards to get the kids to stop doing that.

I think I was 6 or 7 when I was tought the basics of chess. And I am pretty sure I learned everything but en-passant in one "sitting".

The only thing I had problems to grasp was Knight and castling. All the other stuff is basically the same with some easy to remember limitations.

As has been said before: Don't underestimate how fast a kid can learn something that looks interesting.

Tell him to just ask if he forgets something and simply show him again. Shouldn't take more than one or two hours before he can play the game without making illegal moves.

I taught my son last year when he was about 6 1/2.  I got a library book called "Chess for Children" by Murray Chandler.  I went through it with him chapter by chapter and it breaks everything down so nicely for kids that age.  There are little mini-games to teach you how each of the pieces move, and there are also little quizzes at the end of each chapter.  This is a wonderful book, I cannot recommend it enough. 

Download Battle chess and sit him in front of the computer, thats how I learned it when I was 6.

It also has the added benefit of minimal effort on your part =)

All said above are relevant and helpful

and I wanna add a secret setback that held me back when I was kid.

that was I learnt chess from father and he used to win over me all the time. For many years to come, I became dissappointed with the game, so let him learn on a solid persistant pace and and inside a relevant or of equal talent pool of players should help him grow in chess through the ranks. good luck

I agree that it would quickly frustrate a kid if you beat him ALL THE TIME.  But on the flip side, I think many parents are quick to let their kid win all the time too, wanting to build their confidence.  The problem is, kids do need to learn how to lose gracefully, especially if they want to be in a chess club or play in tournaments.  I play with my 7 year old son a couple times a week--  and I win my fair share of games.  Not all of them...  if he's been on a losing streak for a couple games I might throw him a bone and play an easier game.  But whenever he gets upset about losing, I remind him that he should be especially proud the times he beats me, because he knows that Mom is playing "for real" and not letting him win  :)

All this advice from last year has come in handy for our 5 year old who has suddenly taken an interest in chess.  Here's what I what I would have told myself last year if I'd known what I know now:

1. It's good to have a book - the Murray Chandler Chess for Children book mentioned above looks excellent, but the one I've got (called Chess is Child's Play) has been just right for us.  There are little bits of advice such as how to physically take another piece of the board without forgetting which square it was on that I'd never have thought of myself.

2. I was amazed how quickly he picked things up - I thought we'd be learning about the different pieces, check, checkmate etc for maybe a week before we played a proper game, but it was more like 1-2 days, if that.

3. There's an app called Dinosaur Chess, which cost all of 70p($1) on my Nexus, and has been really good at reinforcing what he's learnt from me. It's got lessons, drills and games where the computer is handicapped by having fewer pieces.

4. He's got his nine year old cousin interested, and despite the age gap, they are roughly the same level and this has been good practice for the pair of them.

5. He sure doesn't like losing though.  I've been trying to get him to shake hands and tell his cousin "good game" when he's lost.  But he doesn't like it at all.  Oh well, he's only five.

6.. The only rule I've not really bothered with is en passant (although Dinosaur Chess does talk about it, er, in passing).  Everything else, including under promotion, he knows about.

7. Praise, encouragement and positive reinforcement work wonders.

tell him the basic's and play together against a low-ratted computer. help him find out a good move and correct him if he makes a mistake.