Saturday I have the opportunity to spend 45 minutes teaching chess to a dozen kids who call themselves “beginners”. I won’t know until I get there whether they know how to move the pieces or not, all I know is they have an interest in learning something. This is a “1 and done” class, no chance for follow up later. I’d appreciate any suggestions as to what would be the most effective thing(s) to share with them that they have a chance of remembering and, I hope, spark their interest to look into it further later on their own, (a) if they don’t even know how the pieces move, or (b) if that’s about all they know.
It’s good to stick to one theme, given the limited time. Everybody loves back-rank mates!
This works with absolute beginners who know how the pieces move. Start by explaining when a back-rank check is & isn’t checkmate. (E.g., 1.Rd8+ and now maybe Black with castled K on g8 has made luft with a prior …h6 and can play 1…Kh7. Or Black can interpose with 1…Nf8. Or Black can play 1…Bb6xd8.)
The (not very demanding) chapter in Bain’s Chess Tactics for Students works well for this audience. I usually close with the Bernstein-Capablanca …Qb2!! It’s fun to work through the various refutations of possible defenses with students. You can get fancy & close with Adams-Torre.
Also Reshevsky-Fischer, Palma Interzonal 1970 is a good example of how even a very strong player like Reshevsky can blunder into a back rank mate, prevented only by an extreme loss of material.
Less than an hour will make it difficult…Without knowing what your future students already know makes it extremely difficult to give any suggestion, but what the fork, I’ll give it a go…
At the last meeting of the Ironman Chess Club two different couples walked by (The club is held in the food court of a mostly deserted mall) and, seeing all the ongoing Chess games, stopped momentarily. Each time I walked over and asked them if they played Chess, or knew the rules. They assured me they did, which was refuted when I asked if they could demonstrate en passant and/or stalemate. Neither couple had a clue, so I elucidated them while also informing them they were the two most difficult concepts for most newbies to understand, and was thanked profusely.
Depending on how much your students know before you show I would hafta say, given the limited amount of time involved, if you are able to teach them how the pieces move and how to checkmate, and, hopefully, en passant and stalemate, there must be many Chess businesses willing to put you to work teaching beginners IMMEDIATELY!
Good luck with that!
And share this quote:
The beauty of chess is it can be whatever you want it to be. It transcends language, age, race, religion, politics, gender and socioeconomic background. Whatever your circumstances, anyone can enjoy a good fight to the death over the chess board. – Simon Williams
If they are still listening after the above, conclude with this: Every chess master was once a beginner. – Irving Chernev
