Recommendations for teaching kids? (No Stress Chess?)
Richard
kids (ages 5 and 7 in this case) chess?
Just to complicate matters, they're my nephews, and I don't live
anywhere near them. I've taught them the basics in the past, and they
seem interested in continuing, but I only see them maybe twice a year
for a few of days at a time, so I can't really play with them
regularly. My sister plays with them occasionally, but she barely knows
all the rules of the game. I had to remind her how castling works last
time. So when I do play with the boys, half the time is spent reminding
them of how the pieces move, since they play so infrequently.
On a related note, I saw a product in stores called "No Stress Chess".
It's a chess set for beginners that supposedly makes it easy for anyone
to learn the basic moves in no time. The board is two sided, with a
regular board on one side, while the flip side has a board with some
writing on it, to remind new players of where the pieces go to start
the game and how they move from the starting spots. The bigger
innovation is that it comes with a deck of cards that show the piece
and a diagram of how it moves on the board. Apparently, the beginner
version of this game has players picking cards at random to decide
which piece to move.
This actually seems like it might be a good way to get beginners
comfortable with the basic moves, although I'm not sure if covers
things like castling and pawn promotion at all. This "dive in without
learning how the pieces move in advance" approach actually seems like a
great way to teach young kids like my nephews, who have little
attention span at this age. I was thinking of buying it for them. Does
anyone here have any experience with this product?
Any other recommendations?
--Richard
googlekr...@spamex.com
Richard wrote:
> Hi all. Does anyone have any recommendations for the best way to teach
> kids (ages 5 and 7 in this case) chess?
If you all have internet access, then you might try to play via FICS or
the like. You could teach them through the chat window. If I may
humbly recommend something of my own as a teaching source, a very basic
(and free!) primer of chess is online here:
http://chessville.com/instruction/instr_begin_intro.htm
You might recommend they buy Chessmaster -- it has lots of tutorials,
many even designed for younger beginners (lots of bells and whistles to
keep their attention, etc.). CM10 is only $20; CM9 can probably be
found for $10, and it's basically as good.
I've seen that No Stress Chess product before. Probably not worth the
money -- you can download "cheat sheets" with the basic rules (piece
movement, etc.), which is basically all the cards are. Picking cards
at random seems like a bad way to teach kids the basics of strategy,
opening play, etc.
Richard
googlekr...@spamex.com wrote:
> Richard wrote:
> > Hi all. Does anyone have any recommendations for the best way to teach
> > kids (ages 5 and 7 in this case) chess?
>
> If you all have internet access, then you might try to play via FICS or
> the like. You could teach them through the chat window.
I wasn't thinking in terms of wanting try and teach them remotely. I
just don't think that would work well. It's hard enough managing the
attention span of kids that age when you can see that they're not
paying attention, but via the internet, it would be even harder. I was
looking more in terms of books or computer programs that their parents
could use to teach them, despite their own lack of knowledge.
>If I may
> humbly recommend something of my own as a teaching source, a very basic
> (and free!) primer of chess is online here:
> http://chessville.com/instruction/instr_begin_intro.htm
>
Thanks. I'll check it out later when I have more time, and maybe send
it along to my sister.
> You might recommend they buy Chessmaster -- it has lots of tutorials,
> many even designed for younger beginners (lots of bells and whistles to
> keep their attention, etc.). CM10 is only $20; CM9 can probably be
> found for $10, and it's basically as good.
>
Good thought. I didn't realize CM10 was that cheap these days. I've had
CM8k for years, and I never looked at pricing on the newer versions.
> I've seen that No Stress Chess product before. Probably not worth the
> money -- you can download "cheat sheets" with the basic rules (piece
> movement, etc.), which is basically all the cards are. Picking cards
> at random seems like a bad way to teach kids the basics of strategy,
> opening play, etc.
Heh. Have you ever played with kids that young? The reason they don't
remember how all the pieces move is that they generally only play with
one at a time. The 5 year old became fixated on the knights and
wouldn't move anything else, even when I told him to, until they both
got captured. The 7 year old was a little better, but he'd still have
phases where he'd focus on one piece for 4 or 5 moves in a row.
There's no strategy, tactics or opening play at that stage. Until
they've got the basic moves down, you have to stick to constantly
reminding them of that over and over. The closest I come to giving them
any instruction beyond the rules is pointing out when their pieces can
be captured, in the hopes that they'll learn not to leave things en
prise. But again, they won't notice what can capture their stuff if
they don't remember how their opponent's pieces move.
That's why the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of that
No Stress Chess. The random cards not only remind them of how the
pieces move, but also force them to move a different piece each turn.
And because the cards explain the game to them on every move, they can
even play against each other without needing adult supervision to
remind them how to move correctly. If they enjoy the game enough to
stick with it, they'll eventually need additional instruction beyond
that, but to get them through learning the basics and making the
movement of the pieces instinctive, it seems like a good way to go.
--Richard
googlekr...@spamex.com
Richard wrote:
> googlekr...@spamex.com wrote:
> > Richard wrote:
>
> Heh. Have you ever played with kids that young?
Not since I was a kid that young. :-) You have a good point there. I
guess the bottom line is "Whatever will keep them interested in the
game," so if it works, go for it.
As far as books that their parents might use: The Complete Idiot's
Guide to Chess by Patrick Wolff (sp?) is very good, despite the
insulting title. It would really help their parents get the basics of
the game down so that they could teach them a little themselves. It's
available in practically any bookstore, or Amazon for cheap.
I also remember a book called something like "How to Beat Your Dad at
Chess" though I've never looked at it myself. Sounds geared toward the
younger crowd.
googlekr...@spamex.com
rob.w...@gmail.com
> I've also heard good things about this:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000950SM/sr=8-2/qid=1156274475/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-6647073-3196036?ie=UTF8
My own son (now 6) learned with this product (Learn to Play Chess with
Fritz and Chesster), when he was only 5 years old.
The program introduces the different pieces and their movement through
simple mini-games. Over the course of 1-2 weeks, he gradually built up
enough knowledge to play a complete game (including rules such as
castling and en passant). The program does a fair job of playing
"dumbed down" chess, allowing the child to gain confidence, but it can
be set to a level which is quite challenging.
There is even a follow on version of the game which introduces basic
tactics and strategy. My son didn't care for that one as much. By the
time he was ready for that type of training, he just jumped straight to
Chessmaster 10 which has much more extensive training materials
available.
-R
Harold Buck
rob.w...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> My own son (now 6) learned with this product (Learn to Play Chess with
> Fritz and Chesster), when he was only 5 years old.
>
> The program introduces the different pieces and their movement through
> simple mini-games. Over the course of 1-2 weeks, he gradually built up
> enough knowledge to play a complete game (including rules such as
> castling and en passant). The program does a fair job of playing
> "dumbed down" chess, allowing the child to gain confidence, but it can
> be set to a level which is quite challenging.
>
I have seen this and considered buying it. My son is 4 and knows how the
pieces move but it still at the stage where he's only moving his own
pieces and not worried about mine. Do you think it's worth it for a kid
at his level? And do you want to sell your copy of the game?
--Harold Buck
"Hubris always wins in the end. The Greeks taught us that."
-Homer J. Simpson
googlekr...@spamex.com
precocious younger child might be able to handle it.
rob.w...@gmail.com
> I have seen this and considered buying it. My son is 4 and knows how the
> pieces move but it still at the stage where he's only moving his own
> pieces and not worried about mine. Do you think it's worth it for a kid
> at his level? And do you want to sell your copy of the game?
Well, I'm not sure how much time it spends directly focusing on this
issue, but it does have a good "kid-level" chess engine. Your son can
learn a lot from playing games and seeing what works and what doesn't.
My son started playing on a fairly low-level, but quickly won most of
his games (once he understood that stalemate was a bad thing). He was
able to ratchet up the difficulty setting a bit at a time, always
finding "just the right challenge".
Unfortunately, I'm not interested in selling the game. My son still
likes to break it out every once in a while to see if he can still beat
the evil King Black. Also, once your son develops into a good little
player, you'll find it can be challenging to get him opponents. We are
constantly loaning out this title to friends and cousins to get more
kids interested in chess. It is only about $25 at amazon. Also, you
might want to check out your local library. Ours has several copies of
Fritz and Chesster as well as Fritz and Chesster 2.
-R
Richard
Oddly, "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess" is not really a kids book. It's
a tactics book. It's written in a way that's easy to follow, so younger
players who already know all the rules can probably learn from it
easier than many instructional tactics books, but there are plenty of
adults (myself included) who have learned a lot from this one.
As for the "No Stress Chess" that I originally asked about, I broke
down and bought it. I opened it up to take a look before sending it
along to my sister and nephews. I'm actually really impressed. The
board and pieces are sturdier than I expected from a cheapy generic
set. It's still a cardboard board and hollow plastic pieces, but
thicker and better constructed than the typical $3 sets that are
available anywhere.
The cards with the instructions for moving pieces are very clear.
There's also a card telling you to play your choice of cards from the
top of your or your opponent's discard piles, so that adds some variety
to the random game. There are 3 levels for how to play with the cards,
also. The first is just pick a card and play the piece on it. The
second has each player have a "hand" of 3 cards, and each turn they
pick a 4th card from the deck and play one of the 4 in their hand. The
third level is the same as the second, but with a hand of 5 cards. So
it gradually eases the players into having more pieces to choose from
when playing.
Another thing they don't mention on the outside of the box is that the
starting position in the "No Stress" version of the game (using the
cards) isn' t the normal chess starting position. The center pawns
start on d4 and e3 for white, and d5 and e6 for black. This allows
queen, king, and bishop moves from the very first move, as well as
introducing the concept of bringing out your center pawns first, which
is a good instructional idea for new players.
Also, the instructions do a good job of explaining "real chess" for
once you outgrow the random card version. Besides just the basics of
moving pieces, they cover all the special moves like pawn promotion,
castling, and en pessant, as well as the touch move rule and some basic
strategy tips. Their strategy tips are pretty basic, but they mention
the standard 1, 3, 5, 9 values of the pieces, advancing the center
pawns first, etc. These instructions will never replace a good book on
tactics or strategy, but it's a decent step above just giving the
rules.
All in all, I'm impressed with the product, although the $14-16 price
point seems a little high. This really does seem like a terrific way to
introduce young kids to chess, though. I think my 5 and 7 year old
nephews will love it.
--Richard
David Richerby
> All in all, I'm impressed with the product, although the $14-16
> price point seems a little high. This really does seem like a
> terrific way to introduce young kids to chess, though. I think my 5
> and 7 year old nephews will love it.
Be sure to let us know how they get on!
Dave.
--
David Richerby Psychotic Simple Laser (TM): it's like
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ an intense beam of light but it has no
moving parts and it wants to kill you!