Start with basic mates. KQ vs. K, KR vs. K, KRR vs. K. let them see the moves on the board,so as you check, they will see that the King must move out of check.
Teaching Check & Checkmate
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HI, I explain to kids that Check means their King is being directly attacked. If they don't move their King then whatever piece is checking "could" take the King if that wasn't against the rules.
Then I explain that when you are in Check that you must do one of three things: Block, capture, or run away. Checkmate means that you are in check but cannot do one of those three things.
Are you showing this to them on a board, or just telling them?
instead of saying you "can't" take the king say that because of the following rules you don't get the opportunity to
when the king is in danger you have to get it out of danger(meaning colud be captured) and if that's possible, if it's not then that's checkmate you lose (the king isn't removed you simply declare the game over) and you can't move the king into danger. rules mean you never get the opportunity
I show them on the board. I also give them handouts I made that work as sort of mini exercises.
Sep 12, 2014
0
#7
You could tell them:
A) When the King is attacked it is called a "check"
B) When a player's King is under attack (in check) he MUST do one of the following-
1) Take (kill) the attacking piece
2) Block the attack with one of his pieces
3) Move the King onto a square on which it is no longer under attack
If he cannot do any of the three, he loses the game and this is called "checkmate".
I showed them on the board in scenarios I set up, along with whenever it happened in one of their games. It seemed like they really struggled to understand check. I'm making exercises that go over the pieces' moves. Hopefully this will help them. Thanks for the feedback.
How about trying to ground the rules in a story to put it in more understandable terms? For example, you might say something like: we don't kill kings, that's the work of assassins and savages. Therefore, the goal of the game is to make the opponent's king surrender which happens if he is attacked and the attack cannot be stopped (checkmate).
Hmmmm surrender is a good way to put it. I like that a lot! Thank you!
i think you were on the right track and that it'll just take a little more time.
it seems like they had it right the first time and then you confused them though, lol.
Winning in chess IS capturing the king. Stopping at mate isn't much different than pros stopping (resigning) when they're down a pawn.
The part these kids are missing is that they're FORCED to defend the King. And FORCED to announce that they're attacking the King
Tell them it's like calling "last card" in crazy 8's. they still want to win and get rid of that last card, but the rules state that you must ANNOUNCE your possible "win" with the upcoming move.
i like the surrender idea too, very colloquial
Sep 16, 2014
0
#13
Or you could just let them take the king for the first few weeks, and then bring up the surrender thing once the get they basic ideas. This has worked for me.
I like to explain that Chess is a game of war. The king is the commander. If he is captured, the war is over.
"Checkmate" literally means "the king is dead." (Expand on sheiks and elephants and rocs if they like that kind of thing...)
Chess is also a polite game. When you attack the king, you are required to warn your opponent to protect his king. You say "check", which means "king."
It's so polite that we don't allow a player to put himself into check, and if a player in check makes a move that doesn't get him out of check, we'll let him try again until he finds a move that gets him out of check.
Because I am working at a public library, and these are younger kids, I'd like to stay away from terms such as kill and murder, so as to not offend parents. I like the politeness idea, though. Perhaps they'll understand being nice to your opponent.
Capturing the king is definitely the right idea. The missing bit is to capture the king in such a way that the opponent can do nothing about it. (If the king can somehow escape, this must be allowed.)
So it's not just the capture of the king, but the inevitable capture of the king. (Or trapping the king.)
Well, I wouldn't roleplay too much. I suppose using it once in a while for reminders and such is ok, but too much is destracting and disorienting.
Sep 17, 2014
0
#18
In checkmate, the king IS captured, but he is not allowed to leave the board.
I'm not being flippant. Teaching these concepts to third graders is very difficult. I've taught hundreds of kids in grades K-3 how to play chess. I have not found a foolproof formula.
One of the most tragi-comic moments came when a player insisted during a tournament that he could not be in checkmate because his opponent was not allowed to capture his king (such a rule does exist in print).
See http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2011/11/teaching-rules-of-chess.html for a more detailed description of this episode.
Sep 17, 2014
0
#19
Hello everyone,
I've started a Chess club at my library, and six new 3rd graders joined us last night. I took for granted the concept of check, and I couldn't seem to get across to them what check and checkmate mean.
All of them had it in their minds that you need to take the opponent's King. Consequently, they wouldn't tell their opponent that he or she was in check. On the next move, the attacking player would simply take their opponent's king and "win". I explained to them that you can't capture the king in chess, and that if your piece is attacking the enemy king, you need to announce "check".
Later on, a player was in check by a rook (White: Kc3 and Black: Rf3). White moved his king to the left (Kb3), which was still in the rook's attack line. I told the player that his king was still in check, and could be taken by the rook if he did that, thus the move was illegal. The kid turned to me and said "but I thought you can't take the king".
Does anyone have advice on how to better convey the idea of check and checkmate to 7 year olds? I think many games teach us to actively take something to win, as opposed to Chess, which ends just before taking the piece.
Thank you!