Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Playing chess and strategy

Just curious. DS6 (yes, officially 6 now) has started showing an interest in chess. We've played on and off over the last 9 months, mostly sparked by "wizards chess" as played in Harry Potter. Yes, there is a lot in our house that is sparked by Harry Potter. If you ever met DS, you'd know why!

So he's got the rules down well, sets up the board, and understands all of the moves--which far surpasses me when I was his age! We're working on strategy at the moment. In most games he's not thinking of anything but the current move and doesn't really think too much of the consequence although he's getting better. This is a different way of DS thinking, so it's a stretch for him (but in a good way; in a way that doesn't frustrate him and doesn't come easy to him).

Its interesting because he would play checkers in school with his classmates and tells us he's never won a game. Again, I think its great for him to experience that. It's also interesting that he wants to play chess at home rather than try to master checkers which is his normal MO.

Just curious about your experience with your child and when and how they starting learning about strategy.

JB

P.S. I'm still here; I lurk every day just haven't had much to say lately.

Hi JBDad,

We're going through a chess phase lately too. DS started playing checkers last summer and became pretty good at a surprisingly fast pace. Still, I thought that chess would be a stretch. He was interested, though, and about a month or two ago I got the Fritz and Chesster software (highly recommended!). He has made good progress, knows how all the pieces move, can set up the board, and can play legal games. (I even watched him capture en passant once.) Still, I confess that some of my gravest doubts about him come when we're playing chess. I'm constantly thinking, "No, not that move!", and wondering whether he's really as smart as I thought he was.

One big issue is that in general the whole strategy thing seems to elude him. I had the hardest time, for example, getting him to focus on winning control of the central squares during the opening. He just seemed to want to move pieces at random, even when I tried to get him to think about the central squares. Also, once the game is going his strategy seems to consist in taking whatever pieces he can whenever it doesn't involve losing something worth more. (I confess, though, my own strategy in the middle game isn't much more sophisticated.) The wonder of the software, though, is that at certain levels this is a winning strategy. We'll see if the whole chess thing sticks. But despite these odd frustrations, so far he seems pretty smitten.

BB

My DW taught all our nephews to play chinese checkers.

All but the youngest (7 years ) focused on getting one jump in, but D right away focused on getting multiple jumps.

I taught him chess, and while I am not great, after about 100 games, I had to focus to keep him from beating me. He learned every quickly to move a group of pieces down the board, rather than just one piece.

BBDad,

Yeah, ditto what you said. On the one hand I'm impressed that DS can actually play a legal game (aside from a couple of the more esoteric rules he gets it). And I'm with you on the strategy part sometimes makes one think really?. We played a game of triangular dots today before we played chess (you connect dots on a triangular grid and when you complete a triangle, you capture it, put your initial in it, and then move again; you can also play with squares). I watched the boy go from having no clue on strategy to--by the end of the game--sort of getting it. He made a decent attempt at a come back. So strategy must require a bit of experience and guidance.

For both checkers and chess he's really just focused on one move at a time right now too. Sounds like that's relatively common.

Thanks for the tip on the game. He loves computer games so I'll look into it...

JB

Yeah... I'll probably need to practice too! My chess skills are pretty rusty!

JB

JB - I love chess at this age. Just 'knowing how the pieces move' is lovely. Have you taught that each piece has a value and that when one is winning it's good to trade, but when one is behind in point value, it's good to only trade pieces when one comes out ahead?

That seems to be a useful 'baby step' towards teaching stratagy.

Also - you can try practicing chess puzzles or teaching endgame basics.

When I started playing with DS12 he was 5, and we had a rule that whenever he wanted to we could 'change sides.' I've also played this way with his friends as the learned, and they loved having that out. It let my play my hardest without crushing his ego.

I also teach kids that the pawns are like the children, the bishops and knights are like the teenagers, and the Queen, King and Rooks are like the grownups - and the children get to 'go outside and play' first, then the teenagers, then finally the grownups.

So much fun!

DS7 is a big chess fan. He's not very good at it--mostly because I am NOT a big fan, and so he never gets to play --but he enjoys it.

Have you considered finding a local chess club? They usually love to have kids around to teach.

Baseball Dad, I am glad you liked Fritz and Chesster. I ordered it last night for DS4 and hopefully DS6 as well. Neither one of them can play chess yet but they play checkers on regular basis.

I cannot really explain it but I have a feeling that one day DS4 will be much better in chess than DS6.

Chess is quite a complex game and it takes time to develop a sense of strategy (some people never do). Perhaps showing him a few sample games could help a little bit.

I noticed there is Fritz and Chester #1, #2, and #3. Have you tried all of them or just the first one?

LMom (who became fascinated by chess for years after reading her first chess book)

LMom,

We've only tried Fritz and Chesster #1, but DS has absolutely loved it. It's one of those games that's organized around a narrative, and you have to complete certain sub-games in order to move on in the story. The sub-games seem to me (admittedly, not much of a chess player myself) pretty terrific. The first games aren't even really chess games - they are games that get you used to the ways in which the various pieces move. (The bishop one, for instance, is a Pong-like game in which the ball moves along diagonals only and you try to get it to smash the toilet bowls that show up in random places. It's amazing how funny toilet bowls can be.) There is also a Pac-man like game. The only problem with these is that DS4's fine-motor skills aren't always quite up to the challenge.

After a while one gets to a stage in which you play games that are really organized around the various pieces - endgame exercises like capture the opponent's king with your king and one rook, for instance. Only after one has played all the sub-games can one go on to play a real game. And even there the level is so wonderfully low that it seems one can win pretty often just by making legal moves and capturing when possible. Lots of positive feedback. There are 10 levels of play, and DS is pretty motivated to go up the ranks.

I realize, re-reading my earlier message, what a curmudgeon I must sound like - getting frustrated because DS4 doesn't get the strategy of chess. I think the thing is that it's mostly frustrating because I can't figure out how his mind works: I thought I understood what would be easy for him and what would be hard, but then it turns out I was completely off. Ah, what a process this is...

BB

I think I need to play Fritz & Chester. I had to look up en passant. I didn't know you could do that!

JB