Tips for U7 chess

[Jim Campbell]

I've been running an U7 (year 2) chess club for two years now and thought I'd share my / request your pearls of wisdom for teaching chess to 6 and 7 year olds.

In my experience, these are the best dos and don'ts:

DO
Teach handshakes before and after the game. A win is not a win without a handshake. Expect left handed shakes, and handshakes that can be measured on the Richter scale that scatter pieces left, right and centre, but insist on them from the beginning.

Start them playing games as soon as possible. Teaching rook moves is easiest in a game of rooks v rooks. Likewise bishops, knights, Queens and pawns. They also learn taking turns, the concept of capturing, and even protection right from the start.

Start off playing 'capture the King'. Some will be ready for checkmate quite soon, some won't

Enter them in the UK Chess Challenge. It won't be stuffed full of prodigies, and if you're wary about entering some children who can play 20 odd moves whilst still in check, forget whose move it is and struggle to win with two rooks and two Queens against a King, they won't be alone! My best players could beat me by the end of the year if I was playing with just pawns and King, but most of them really struggled. I think this is probably a good yardstick as to whether they'd enjoy and benefit from being in a Megafinal.

Teach them the two rook check mate. It is hard work getting them to understand it, rather than just learn the moves, but once it clicks, they love to do it over and over again. I've found nothing better to teach co-ordination and basic planning. Plus they are then always able to convert overwhelming piece superioriry into a win. Well, nearly always.

DON'T
Stand for gloating or sulking. Gentle encouragement and a game of rooks and Queen against your King quickly restores confidence if someone is on a losing streak.

Be shy about handing out cheap medals, certificates for trophies. They work bloody wonders.

Worry if girls especially focus on makng patterns with their pawns rather than trying to win. For some reason they all do it, but they all stop eventually.


Anyone have any other tips?

[Andrew Varney]

Number 1 (it goes without saying, I guess, but especially true at the youngest ages) - keep it fun.

I'd also say don't push too much and praise small improvements.

As well as medals and trophies, consider a sticker chart for small things (e.g. from beginner stage: learning how pieces move, demonstrating a fork, solving a mate in 1 puzzle) with prizes at the end of term.

Keep it shorter for this age group.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Anyone have any other tips?

Read everything you can find that Richard James has to say on the subject.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Read everything you can find that Richard James has to say on the subject."

Then ask him if he's thought of anything else since.

[Richard James]

Anyone have any other tips?

Read everything you can find that Richard James has to say on the subject.

"Read everything you can find that Richard James has to say on the subject."

Then ask him if he's thought of anything else since.

Thanks for the plugs: you can read my articles (including the Streatham series) here.

Actually the advice so far is very helpful for me (although I don't necessarily agree with everything) as I'm starting courses for young beginners in September: the website is here.

In principle, such clubs should be encouraged - it's better for young children to learn from first principles from a teacher who knows what he/she is doing rather than in half an hour from a well-meaning but perhaps ill-informed relative or friend.

Jim, you didn't say whether your club is a school club or a junior chess club. There's a very big difference between the two.

I would start by saying that you have to get parents involved. There's little point in children of this age being encouraged to do chess unless their parents are prepared to provide proactive support. Sure, they'll have a good time and enjoy the badges and stickers, but without parental involvement this will come at the expense of a long-term interest in the game. How much do YOU remember about what you learnt or did when you were 6? I'm planning to run small groups (about 8 children) so that I can monitor each child's progress. I will send a general email to all parents once a week to explain what we've done and what we're going to be doing next week. I will also send specific emails to parents if their child has a particular problem or if their child is doing particularly well.

Wear a teacher's hat, not a chess player's hat. Apply critical thinking to everything you do. Question your motives, the school's motives, the parents' motives and the children's motives. Identify what everyone wants out of what you're doing and see whether or not you're delivering it. Check that the children have genuinely understood, rather than just remembered, what you've taught them. Yes, you can teach them how to mate with 2 rooks this week, but will they still be able to do it next week? Or next month?

Unless the school is really committed to giving the children the chance to play on a daily rather than weekly basis, I'd rather run a group for children of this age as a community group, partly because there will be children at other local schools who would like to learn chess but can't because their school doesn't offer it, and partly because if they come to me rather than me going to them I'm going to get a higher level of parental commitment.

Use a structured course: you might choose the Steps Method, or Ehlvest's Chess Gymnasium, or the materials on chessKIDS academy together with my book Chess for Kids. I'm going to spend the summer writing a book for parents and teachers on how to teach chess to young children: it will, with any luck, be published in about June 2013. Ensure that all children have a proper full-size Staunton Pattern set at home. Eventually I'd like to sell all parents a package comprising a full-size chess set, Chess for Kids and my next book.

Bear in mind that many international experts on early years chess believe that children of this age should spend between 1 and 2 years learning the moves, while, at the same time, developing chessboard vision and logic, and learning, through mini-games and puzzles, the basic principles of attack and defence. Proponents of this view would not be happy about children with only 3 or 4 months experience entering the UK Chess Challenge. YOUR child, who has a father who plays chess and perhaps plays several times a week at home, may well be ready for the UKCC, but others will not.

[Jim Campbell]

Wow.

That is brilliant, thanks Richard. Two years ago I reorganised my hours at work and found myself with Monday afternoons off. With fond memories of my own primary school chess club I volunteered to run an after school club at my daughter's school. We've had 10 regulars for two years.

I must admit I found your writing extraordinarily useful when I was setting the club up, so thank you for that!

Out of the 10, five play at home and receive enormous parental support, whilst five are basically left to push wood around for an hour under the supervision of a free baby-sitter. You're absolutely right that getting the parents on board is crucial. If they don't consolidate what they've learned by playing at home, preferably against a knowledgable adult rather than an uninterested sibling, it can be like banging your head against a brick wall.

I'm no great shakes as a player, but the 'top set' of five (all year 2) can all hand me a pretty sound beating if I play with just pawns and a King, they can all execute a sound two rook checkmate against best defence on any nominated side of the board, and they can all get most of a series of basic 'mate in one' type puzzles. The group I took to the Megafinal had been playing for two years and I was reasonably confident they wouldn't be humiliated. On the other side, they all struggle to see danger from 'long range' pieces and find it extraordinarily difficult to predict their opponent's next move. The time their opponent spends thinking is basically dead time as they wait to implement the next move of their cunning plan! As I tell their parents - they can plan 10 moves in advance to plan a rook capture, but those moves will all be with their own king, and based on the assumption that the opponent doesn't move his rook in the mean time!

I hope I'm doing the right thing. There are some fantastic kids in the group and I love teaching them, frustrating as they are sometimes, for that moment when something clicks, their eyes ilght up and you know they've understood the principle. Two rook checkmate, stale mate, check mate were all extraordinarily difficult to teach, but I'm pretty sure the top 5 understand the concepts. One of them, aged six, even requested the confirmation of an assistant at the Megafinal that she'd rescued a draw by stalemate in the face of overwhelming odds! The last thing I'd want to do is misdirect or God forbid, quash their enthusiasm, so I try my damndest to make the lessons fun (a checkered floor is a Godsend for an Under 7 chess club!).