How 6 Chess Masters solve the most challenging chess puzzle
The solution: chess should be fun for children
Teaching a new game to children takes equal parts playfulness and patience. Children get bored and distracted easily (surprise!), so keeping them focused on a complex, but beneficial game like chess can be a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be! While developing CrocoChess for children, our core research team studied the learning patterns of children, and we found that children learn quickly when they enjoy the game they are playing. It should be fun and engaging, otherwise children will not be interested in learning.
The game of chess is one of the toughest games in the world. Teaching the basics can be challenging enough for any chess tutor, to say nothing of all the subtle tactics it takes to excel. To understand how top chess grandmasters teach children the dynamics of chess, we conducted interviews with several of the best chess players in the world and asked them to share their views on teaching children the game of chess.
Take a look!
1) International Master John Bartholomew (FIDE Rating 2477)
John stated that keeping children focused is one of the most difficult tasks when teaching chess. Children can find it difficult to remember how the pieces move and can struggle to grasp the more intricate rules of the game. It is quite common for a child to withdraw from learning altogether.
“Keeping their attention on such a difficult game as chess [is the hardest part]. Depending upon a child’s age, it can even be very difficult for them to remember how the pieces move and the more complex rules such as castling and promotion. It’s quite common for a child to become disinterested when they struggle to remember the rules. This is the biggest stumbling block to teaching chess to young players, in my opinion.”
John also observed that once the child develops an interest in the game, the teaching process becomes easy. The biggest barrier is keeping the children interested long enough for them to naturally develop enthusiasm for the game.
In contrast, with new young chess players, you do not need to keep training them constantly. They have the ability to grasp the basics of chess quickly. John makes them play chess with each other, and when he has the time, he also gets involved in games with younger players. He guides them when they make mistakes and teaches them how to deal with different situations when they get stuck.
“With new young chess players, I avoid lecturing as much as possible, only enough to explain the basics; it’s OK with me if they don’t remember at all. I generally like to play a game of chess with them, or, in a class, have them play each other. I’ve had good success playing “material odds” games where I started without some pieces (e.g. my queen or more), while they start with a full set. This makes thing a bit more competitive. I will gently correct them on their rule mistakes throughout the game.
“I also like to demonstrate a couple famous games, such as Morphy’s Opera House game: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1233404. That one is particularly good because it illustrates core principles of the opening: development, controlling the center, and king safety. I’ll also show them flashy stuff like Scholar’s Mate and Fool’s Mate because those are easy to explain and they enjoy showing their friends this knowledge (or checkmating like that!).
“Finally, I’ve found it *very* helpful to give young players workbooks of tactics. Jeff Coakley’s books are amazing for this: https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Strategy-Kids-Coakley/dp/1895525055. I’ll assign pages to the students and usually offer an incentive/prize for those who produce the most correct answers on a homework set in the next class. Tactics are fun for the kids to solve, and they build important chess patterns.”
2) International Master Erik Kislik (FIDE Rating 2343)
Erick Kislik has experienced a lack of patience, a tendency to get discouraged by defeat, and a willingness to give up easily when he teaches kids chess. While playing chess requires a good amount of patience, Erick generally focuses on building confidence and cultivating a positive attitude to encourage the player to stick with the game until the end.
Rather than criticizing their moves, he helps them make wise decisions. He provides numerous options for how to play certain moves, and then he watches how the children react to the different choices. This personalized approach to training helps the player learn quickly, and it encourages them to try different things at every stage of gameplay without losing interest in the game.
“It takes time [for young chess players] to become patient and confident, and positive encouragement helps them a lot. Rather than criticizing their moves and decisions, I frequently say things like, “What do you think about this move?” when I suggest a better move, so that they agree that the move I am showing them is good, and it appears as a revelation, and not as a criticism. It’s important to be fun, upbeat, and show them things that will motivate them.”
3) Grand Master Bartosz Socko (FIDE rating 2593)
The biggest challenge Bartosz faces is making chess lessons fun for children. For many children, chess is considered to be a boring game, and unfortunately popular media often reinforces this idea. Children easily lose the interest when they already assume that the game will not be fun even before they sit down.
To solve this problem, Bartosz tried different things to keep the children concentrated on the game. One of the best ideas was telling them “Chess Stories,” which are fairy tales and legends that are modified to teach the lessons of chess. He has found that this approach works very well in keeping children interested in the game. Children love to listen to the stories, and it helps them build interest over time.
The CrocoChess development team considered this suggestion while developing the CrocoChess.com method for teaching chess to children. It is an online game that enables the users to learn the game in a fun way. In addition, the player is also incentivized with various rewards after each victory. Let your children learn the chess in a fun way and make the gameplay more interesting for them!
“The biggest problem when working with children was to make the lessons fun for them. When it starts to be boring, they immediately lose concentration and interest. And it’s really hard to keep them focused. I tried some different things to keep them focused but the best was to tell “chess stories”. Fairy tales and legends modified to chess. It was working perfectly!”
4) Grand Master Krasimir Rusev (FIDE rating 2532)
Unlike some of our other masters, Krasimir Rusev found that sometimes children can be a bit too enthusiastic, which can make teaching difficult in its own way. Instead of getting bored, the children wanted to keep playing — but without mastering the fundamentals first.
“The main problem with teaching little kids is that they prefer to play all the time instead of learning some basics and rules. In my opinion they need to learn the game while playing. Another problem is that they want to calculate the material and based on that they decide who is better. It’s really hard for the kids to evaluate the positions correctly if their pieces are passive but at the same time they are up a pawn.
“With my kid who is 6 years old, we talk about the pieces as if they are cars. He understand the brands so he knows that he has not have to trade off a Toyota for BMW.
“Another typical example might be helpful. I often use examples with a N on the edge of the board and the squares controlled by the piece there. For instance a N in the center has a lot more potential. Maybe if you add some pictures to illustrate that they will learn it quicker.”
5) International Master Johan-Sebastian Christiansen (FIDE rating 2499)
When teaching children to play chess, Johan-Sebastian Christiansen has had to tackle one of the biggest problems when teaching anything to youngsters: overactive parents. While the parents always mean well, sometimes the pressure to learn chess can make it hard to learn.
“The biggest problem that I’ve had is that the parents wants their children to play chess more than the kid themselves. So the kid just shows up to the training without any kind of motivation, just because their parents told them to go there. To overcome this problem, I have to show them some fun aspects of chess, to motivate them and make them find chess really entertaining. For example with playing some blitz or showing them some beautiful tactic puzzles.”
6) International Master Francois Godart (FIDE rating 2420)
For Francois Godart, retention is the biggest challenge when it comes to teaching children to play chess. Even if the motivation is there, sometimes it takes longer than we expect for the rules and the subtlety of the game to sink in.
“Honestly it’s hard for me to answer because I work and only worked with children who are at least 13, so I guess it’s quite different. The only experience I can share is during the Belgian Junior Championships, where I work as a French speaking coach every year, I sometimes analyse with younger children so I try to explain things as clearly as possible and I do my best to adjust at their level, avoiding giving them too many complex variations.”
“Sometimes I have the feeling that they don’t listen to what I say very much, and make the same mistakes again in their next games… Not always, fortunately. For example, this year the girl who ended 3rd in U8 made the same mistakes in 3 games before she finally understood, but to me it was very clear, so maybe another method would have been more effective.”
CrocoChess, a new approach to teach chess to young children.
It’s obvious that teaching chess to younger children the conventional way is hard, if not outright impossible.
That’s where Crocochess steps in.
The first step is CrocoChess Junior, which introduces the child to the pieces and the goal of chess: to get to the other side first. Mr. Croco adds to the fun and introduces a luck factor to the game.
Then comes CrocoChess Dice, where a dice is added, as are game variations like Whirlpool, Undercover Agent and Skip-a-Turn. Check and checkmate are introduced.
Mr. Croco ensures chess is exciting until the last move, even if young children don’t fully understand the rules yet.
Are your children ready to learn chess like never before? Back our Indiegogo Campaign today. Don’t miss Undercurrent1 and receive a 50% off ($15) for the coolest, crocodile-invaded chess game with this secret link:
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