English Chess Forum

Piece (Spanish language) in El Confidencial about Arturo Pomar, including an interview with Paco Cerdà, author of a new book, El Peón, about Pomar, apparently centring on the Stockholm Interzonal.

Looked at Facebook this morning, and I'd been sent an advert for the Jesuit nursery school - that's for 0-3 year olds - in Pamplona.

Great - the toddler is holding a black king, the rooks look odd and the board is probably the wrong way round. I don't buy it.

John McKenna wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 8:45 am

Great - the toddler is holding a black king, the rooks look odd and the board is probably the wrong way round. I don't buy it.

Surely the rooks, and the adjacent bishop, are off the board, having been captured?
In that case the board is the correct way round, and it could be he is holding a black king as a talisman and symbolic warning that the opponent is in his clutches.

https://beauchess.blogspot.com/

John McKenna wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 8:45 am

Great - the toddler is holding a black king, the rooks look odd and the board is probably the wrong way round. I don't buy it.

Agreed. Pamplona means it's a load of bull.

It doesn't seem odd to anybody else that children aged three or less are apparently being introduced to chess?

Very

It also seems odd to me that children are being introduced to Jesuits, though; not great at 3 I'd have thought, not great at 10 to 17 in my personal experience

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 4:37 pm

It doesn't seem odd to anybody else that children aged three or less are apparently being introduced to chess?

Now, next to Karjakin, Russia’s best-known active chess player is Mikhail Osipov. At three, he played a televised game with Karpov. At four last month, he played Yuri Averbakh, 95, the world’s oldest GM, who blundered a rook due to his now poor eyesight. [Leonard Barden in the Guardian, several years ago].

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 4:37 pm

It doesn't seem odd to anybody else that children aged three or less are apparently being introduced to chess?

Absolutely not, although of course it only works if the child is naturally interested.

I have always believed that young children are capable of quite serious thinking, and are limited primarily by their powers of expression. Pushing around pieces of wood of different shapes and colours is one of the things they do best.

Averbakh just turned 98 - as I mentioned when IM Zhukhovitsky died just short of his century, no titled player has reached that milestone yet.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 6:32 pm

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 4:37 pm

It doesn't seem odd to anybody else that children aged three or less are apparently being introduced to chess?

Absolutely not, although of course it only works if the child is naturally interested.

I have always believed that young children are capable of quite serious thinking, and are limited primarily by their powers of expression. Pushing around pieces of wood of different shapes and colours is one of the things they do best.

As a certain pre-Boris PM was prone to say, "I agree with Nick".

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 6:32 pm

Pushing around pieces of wood of different shapes and colours is one of the things they do best.

No doubt, but I'm not seeing the virtue of bringing that to them in the shape of chess.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 7:53 pm

No doubt, but I'm not seeing the virtue of bringing that to them in the shape of chess.

What shape would you prefer?

Something a little less formally structured, I guess.

This reminds me of a (possibly apocryphal) tale featuring John Nunn. In essence, it was told to me as follows ...

"John's mother picked him up from his first day of elementary school and was called over by the teacher. She warned Mrs Nunn that they suspected John may be a slow learner, as he had shown no interest in the building blocks that the other kids were playing with. Mrs Nunn politely informed her that John was probably just bored, as he was currently reading his Dad's algebra books at home."

Has anyone else heard this story? I can't remember who told it to me, but occasionally wonder if it is widely known and/or has any truth to it.