I want to learn to teach chess. Ideally, I’d love to find some sort of organized class to take to learn techniques. I haven’t had a lot of luck finding anything like that online. Does anyone have suggestions?
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I am no expert, but I teach children chess at a local school. A good resource I have used before is the Chess Steps Method:
https://www.stappenmethode.nl/en/
It comes with the teacher guide and student work books. You read the lesson, then set up the board for the kids to learn it, then they reinforce it with the work book.
Here is Noel Struder blogging about how it is great for people who want to learn, and great for people who want to teach but don’t know how:
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Watch other people teach. I picked up techniques from Grandmasters and 1200s. You can even learn from instructional videos online.
If you are teaching beginners, then search Google for chess curriculum and download one. You may even wish to watch ChessKid videos for ideas.
For intermediate students, you can devise a lesson plan using books. There are many quality authors: Silman, Nunn, Pandolfini, Horowitz, Chernev, Del Rosario and even the legend Fischer himself.
If you are teaching advanced students, then you probably want to start by looking at their games to identify weaknesses.
The challenge for any teacher (not just chess) is to clearly explain a concept that is obvious to you and make it come alive for the students. Not everyone can! Chess lessons should be more than the teacher playing chess against the student(s) for an hour. (Although back-and-forth analysis sessions can be useful especially with advanced students.)
Last bit of advice: Make chess fun again!
Michael Aigner
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I think the most important thing you can do as a chess teacher is teach them that chess is FUN!
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Please take the following advice with a grain of salt. I am (or rather, was—it’s been awhile) good at taking players from 800 to 1400-1600. I have never been good at taking absolute beginners to 800.
The Chess Steps Method is both VERY GOOD and DRY AS DUST. It’s useful as a resource, but I would not advise building a curriculum around it if my time with the students was limited.
The best beginner’s book IMO is Jeff Coakley’s Winning Chess Strategy for Kids (the green book). Shulman & Sethi’s Chess! Lessons from a Grandmaster (2nd edition only) is also great and can be used in conjunction with Coakley.
Coakley’s red (advanced beginner) and blue (intermediate) books are excellent supplements for your stronger students. Elizabeth Spiegel swears by Coakley: hard to imagine a better recommendation!
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FYI: Jeff Coakley has a column in Chess Life Kids!
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Have you looked at the U.S. Chess Center approach? Our entire lesson plan for beginners is available for free at Teach - U.S. Chess Center
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I teach an online college credit course about teaching chess from October through December (8 weeks) see https://is.utdallas.edu/academics/chess/ * Chess I, ED 4358: Using Chess in Schools (3 semester hours) – Using chess to teach critical thinking, math and reading skills in elementary and secondary classrooms. This course is also appropriate for chess instructors who wish to incorporate additional academic and humanistic goals into their programs. No previous knowledge of chess is required. This course is offered through UT Dallas eLearning. (3-0) R
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I definitely was looking for this sort of thing (like a college course for instructors/coaches). Do you think it would be appropriate for someone who has tons of chess experience but no teaching experience?
I will take a look, thank you!
Hi, no teaching background is required. I messaged you the syllabus. Thanks, Alexey