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I am merely one episode into The Queen’s Gambit, which means I’m six episodes behind the rest of the world, but even one episode was enough to make a solid case that chess is cool, actually. It is a game of skill and strategy and perseverance. And we should teach it to our kids.
Start when they’re young
Chess is not just for grown-ups, or high-school kids. Young kids with their sponge-like brains are primed to learn it—and it may help them hone their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Every child is different, so there is no exact right age for all kids to begin learning, but they’re likely ready earlier than you think, as Beth Weinhouse writes for Parents.com:
Not all experts agree on the optimal age for children to start learning to play chess. Some simply say the earlier the better. “I believe the younger the child, the greater the impact,” says the American Chess School’s Dr. Ferguson, who has taught the game to kindergartners. “These kids have brains like sponges.”
While some children will be ready to learn the game by age 4, the consensus among chess teachers seems to be that second grade—meaning age 7 or 8—is the ideal time to start. “I’ve had mixed results when teaching kindergartners and first-graders, but by second grade, they’re all ready,” says Tom Brownscombe, scholastic director of the U.S. Chess Federation.
My own son began asking to learn how to play chess around Brownscombe’s optimal age of seven or eight. But since I myself didn’t know how to play, I avoided the request for a while. Finally, I decided the only thing to do was to try to learn to play along with him. And I learned a few tips along the way.
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Spend plenty of time on the basics
When I started searching for help learning chess, I came across No Stress Chess, a beginner’s version of the game that is geared toward kids ages seven and up and is the perfect way to get started if you, too, are learning how to play. The beauty of this set is that it puts all the strategy on the shelf for the moment while you learn the basic moves. It comes with a deck of cards, each of which contains a picture of a chess piece and a visual reminder about how the piece can move.
For each turn, a player picks a card and moves the piece pictured on the card. It makes for some pretty wacky matches at first because you have very little control over how the game progresses, but it helps reinforce how each piece can move about the board. Once you’ve got that down, you can graduate to the next “level” in which each player gets three cards. That means a bit of strategy comes in without it being too overwhelming. Once three cards starts to feel too limiting, you move to the next level in which each player gets five cards, giving you ever more options. And finally, you play some full-blown legit chess.
(By this point, my son had mastered the movements of each piece. My older brain apparently needed more reinforcement, so I kept one card of each piece face up as a visual reminder for a bit longer.)
If you already have a chess board and don’t want to spring for the beginner’s set, try playing first with just the pawns. Let them get used to how pawns can move and capture. Then, one at a time, add in the knights, bishops, rooks, the king and, finally, the queen. Go slow and allow enough practice with each type of piece before adding in the next to avoid overwhelming them.
Be sure to also emphasize basic key elements of the game as you play, including the importance of protecting one’s king at all costs and that the queen is the game’s most powerful piece. Once they’ve got the basics down, you can start to teach them different strategies. If you don’t already know some strategies yourself, the Kids Academy YouTube channel will be your friend:
Play it regularly—and have fun
As a novice myself, I can tell you that probably the most vital thing for a beginner is to play regularly. Play a game or two together each day for a couple of weeks, if you can, and then set up a standing “chess date” every week. The repetition will help reinforce the rules of the game and improve their strategic thinking over time.
If they want to practice on their own or more often, you can also sign them up for a free membership on ChessKid.com, where they can play live against other kids (or a bot), and access puzzles and other beginner content.
But above all else, make sure they’re having fun. If they don’t want to play, don’t force it.
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