I like playing chess with DS11 and occasionally with his friends when they come over. With one friend we dreamed up the idea that before each turn you could draw a card that would have various directions on it, such as "Move any of our oppponents's pieces on the board, as long as it's legal," or "Choose a piece from your graveyard and place it back on it's begining square as long as the square is unoccupied." or "give up a piece"
If we ever did make such a deck, I would stack it so the better player got more handicaping cards and the other got more helping cards, as it is more fun for all if the players are evenly matched.
Other tricks we have used is to 'give odds' where the more experienced player starts with pieces missing, ususally decided together. A favorite other trick is to allow the beginner to call switch, and change positions at will. Personally, if I can maintain enough attention to avoid making any blunders during a game, I count that as a personal win. If I can recover and keep trying after a blunder, that's a personal win also!
When DS and I play I usually win, but Oh! there are a million cliff hangers. I'm trying to teach him that there are are really good reasons to follow the accepted wisdom. He tends to have certian natural advantages over me, although he's read much less. I'm not actually 'good' at chess, just good at having fun with chess. Although if anyone has suggestion about online chess sites, I might be convinced to play.
Trinity
