With DS5, I found that a few drills, repeated several times, were sufficient for him to remember how the pieces moved.
For example, for the knight, I taught him to see the possible moves as a circle of the opposite color from the starting position. We spent some time with me placing a knight on a square, and him setting up opposite-colored pawns on the squares reachable by the knight. He quickly picked up the knight move this way. IIRC we did this at three.
Another easy way to learn the moves is to let a child play a software program that shows available moves upon selecting a piece. Most chess software does this, even Windows 7 "Chess Titans" and a free chess application I have installed on my Android phone.
Another approach would be to simply print out, and keep next to the board, a diagram of the legal moves for each piece while you play.
The thing I don't like about "no stress chess" is that the strategy of chess goes out the window, and that's the fun of the game. I don't see what it offers that's superior to using other methods to learn the moves. I also don't see why restricting the child's choice of moves to one type of piece is necessary.
Last edited by Iucounu; 09/29/10 01:09 AM.
