Chess for Children – How to Inspire Kids to Play Chess?

Chess is an age-old game which is played by young kids worldwide. The parents should inspire kids to play chess as it helps in their holistic and all-round personality development. It was believed to have come from the game called “chaturanga” famous during the 7th century. This highly interesting board game is completely dependent upon the plays of the mind and the strategies and techniques.

This the reason why this quote goes,

“In Life as in Chess, forethought wins.”

Charles Buxton

Why should you teach chess to young kids?

Parents should inspire their kids to play chess at an early age. It is useful in a varied number of ways and provides the kids with better logical, mathematical and scientific abilities.

According to various studies, chess helps in using both sides of the brain and makes a child calm. Children during their growing phases learn maximum skills and hence they are quite fast in catching or adopting new games and skills. Chess is not an illusory skill, rather, it is something which may help them to develop in a dynamic way.

Inspire them by the brief History of Chess

Anything in this world has a beautiful history behind its discovery so letting the children know the development and the saga behind playing chess is an important starting point towards attracting their interest in this board game. Parents should adopt the method of storytelling in order to let their child know how chess came up to be played across the timeline.

Read Learn Chess Online: The complete beginners guide

Patience — The master tip to make your kid learn chess

The game of chess is not that of a simple one. It needs a certain amount of time for a kid to learn. The kids should imbibe several numbers of pieces and a hefty number of rules to learn chess. Rushing through everything in a short time may create an extra burden for your kids. It may make them lose interest in learning the game. So, it is extremely essential that one takes time to inspire and teach the game of chess. The parent should teach kids the moves, the structure of the board, the rules of the game etc.

Teach them about the chessboard

The kids should be introduced about the board whereby there are 8 horizontal alternative squares and 8 vertical alternative squares. The kids should learn the placements of each piece on the board. They will understand the placing and learn about the various pieces on the board one by one.

Each and every child has separate learning power, so while teaching chess it should be done patiently. The kids should inculcate the board structure and various pieces one by one. The kids should identify each and every piece on the board by placing it in its respective places time and again. This is useful for the kids to remember the game in a comprehensive way. The child should know that the white pieces get the first chance to play.

Inspire Kids to play chess only with the pawns

The first introduction of playing should get introduced using only the pawns which are also called the foot soldiers. Then its movement across the chessboard must get taught whereby it can move one step in front each time and can cut one square diagonally its opponent. Explaining the moves as well as how many squares it can move makes it very essential to learn in chess for the kids.

The teaching of the pawns game can be done by asking the kid to successfully move the pawn from one side of the board to the other by strategically giving each move so that the pawns do not get cut by the opponent.

Demonstrate the bishops and its moves

The next job of the one teaching chess to the kid is that of telling the kid about the moves a bishop can make which is diagonal in each direction and to as many squares it may unless it gets obstructed by the pieces of the opponent.

Also read The French Defense: A Complete Guide to French Defense

Illustrate the Rooks Moves or the castling

The next step is to place the rooks or the castles, pawns and bishops on the board and letting the child play. Before that, the move of the castle must be introduced which is that it can move both vertically and horizontally to any direction whatsoever. This will help the child one by one thoroughly understand how to play the game in a proper way. Also, the rooks can move to any number of squares across the board as it wishes.

Letting the Kid Know About the Knight Moves

The next piece which needs to be introduced is the knight which can move in an L shape or 3 squares to any direction. The uniqueness of any knight in the board is that it can cross over the other opponent’s pieces on the chessboard.

Introducing the Queen – The Most Powerful Piece On The Board

The queen plays the most important role on the board. It is meant to save the king by moving in all directions and across any number of squares across the board, it can move horizontally, vertically and diagonally across the chessboard.

Defending The King On The Chessboard

The ultimate objective of the chess game is to capture the opponent’s king and save your own king. Both the competitor tries to defend their own king and attack the king of the other team. Here two terms are very important for kids to know which is “check” and the “checkmate” whereby if checkmate occurs the opponent achieves victory. If there is check it means that the king may be saved by the help of other pieces or by moving it to some other direction. The king can move one square to any direction.

Final Thoughts

The tips and techniques and the ways to inspire kids to learn chess can be summed up as follows:

• One who is teaching the kids to learn chess must be positive and should be patient regarding the time the kid takes to learn.
• The kid should learn chess on a simple board during the early days.
• Teaching the kids, the values of accepting both victories and defeat through the game.
• The videos and the reading material can inspire kids to learn chess easily.
• Also fixing a separate time for playing the game can also prove helpful in learning the game well.