How to Teach a Child the Game of Chess
By T Wann
http://www.associatedcontent.com/
February 01, 2007
I was twenty years old when I learned to play chess and I immediately fell in love with the game. The moment I learned how to play I instantly regretted that I had never learned as a child. Most of the reason I never learned as a child is because I was often told that the game was too complicated and too difficult to play. I honestly thought you had to be a genius in order to understand the rules of chess at all. Once I learned how to play, I realized that this was not the case. I vowed that I would teach the children in my life this game. I did not want them to have the same misconceptions that I had as a child.
The truth is chess is complicated. I am not a chess expert and I probably never will be. However, I do understand the rules and I have one a few games since I started playing. Imagine how much more I would have known if I started playing earlier in life. Keep in mind that just because the game is complicated, it does not mean that a child cannot learn. In fact, teaching them the rules now will ensure that the game makes more sense to them in the future.
Here is the full article.
I know this is a site for people who like chess, but let’s keep things in perspective.
Learning to play chess takes resource (mind, time) which could arguably be better employed elsewhere. Imagine spending that time having your children play team games with other children, learn about other countries, other religions etc.
A friend of mine said his father banned him from learning to play chess on the grounds that it would take up too much time. He has a point.
I enjoy chess to a degree but there’s also more to life – and it’s not the chess players that have had the greatest impact on life as we know it today.
Great point ‘anon’: there is more to life than enjoying it. And social activities like chess only distract people from time they could otherwise use to stay home alone and study accounting.
It’s not as if chess has to be studied to the exclusion of everything else. My daughter is a good chess player for her age (top 100 of her age group in the country) but also enjoys many other activities like reading, math, figure skating, art, tennis, swimming, music, etc. I think if she wanted to make a push to be at the very top of her age group, she might have to give up some of her other activities but she doesn’t want to and that’s fine. As it is she has a skill for life that she can take with her anywhere in the world.
“and it’s not the chess players that have had the greatest impact on life as we know it today”
I guess I have a few issues with this part of Anon’s post. I’m wondering just who is making the greatest impact and just what ways they like to recreate…perhaps the greatest impact people are golfers or those who enjoy crossword puzzles instead? I remember Reagan liked to cut wood at his ranch…perhaps it is wood cutters who make an impact? My neighbor runs a very successful software company and happens to also be big on model trains. I guess the model train people are the true movers-and-shakers? I know several people who loved smoking pot with their buddies in high school who seem to have done very well (I believe Clinton claimed to everything but inhale)…maybe the real impact people are pot smokers?
Ultimately, chess is clearly an interesting game and has a strong social component to it…albiet more limited than, say, smoking pot with someone’s buddies. Perhaps narrowing the definition of just what “impact” means would be in order?
To be an outstanding chess player one doesn’t need to have outstanding brain or special intelligence.
Judit,Susan and Sophy Polgar are very good examples for that.
Believe it or not, quite the opposite sometimes might well be the case!Example: 2730 ELO player M.Adams.