I have been running a chess club for about 1 year for 3-8 grades.
we are not USCF affiliated. I have been able to teach them the basic rules but there seems to be a lack of motivaition to learn beyond this. Most of them cannot even reach a basic checkmate of KvsKQ!
I welcome any suggestions on how to approach the learning issue beyond the minimum rules. There is not much interest in ‘classroom’ style instruction, so i move around the room and demonstrate as i can. i will also be trying prizes as an incentive.
At my club we do a 15-20 minute lesson before we allow the kids to start playing. Generally, that is all the motivation I need. The kids want to play chess (I want them to play chess!) but that isn’t going to happen until the lesson is done. And as I always tell them, “the sooner we get through the lesson, the sooner you can start playing.”
It’s important to ask lots of questions for the kids to answer and to keep them involved. In regards to K vs KQ, I would usually bring a student up to the board to help me demo to the class.
Recently, I’ve also included 1 page handouts for either material to follow along with or as homework review.
The more you make studying chess seem like schoolwork, the harder it is to get the kids to do it. Find ways to make it FUN and they won’t notice that it is also instructive.
How about this? Set up a K v. K+Q position. You play the defense. Then challenge the students to checkmate you. Those who successfully do will get a prize! Maybe that will motivate them to learn it? Then you can di it with K+R and maybe even K+2 Bs later.
The problem with giving prizes is it gets difficult (and expensive) to keep doing so. Further, RECOGNITION is a pretty good motivator for most students.
You can also award points and give prizes on a weekly/monthly basis. (If you were running rated events, the prize could be a free entry into the next such event.)
One way I used to teach the basic mates (K+Q, K+R) was to have the players write down their moves (which is good practice, too) and see who could do it in the fewest moves. (Similarly, you can keep track of the players on the losing side and give points for lasting the longest.)
I can’t agree with Nolan more. One of the hardest and most important things I teach the young ones was to record moves on a piece of paper. it helps in many, many ways.
it helps them analyze. it helps you, the coach, analyze. Its something they can take home and bring back and always refer to. There are soo many reasons to write down thier moves.
I always made it competitive to see who could close out certain postions first, and in this way it was fun…
I’m talking very , very basic stuff such as the following:
empty board with just a single piece on it:
Bishop at a8, who can it the quickest to c4
Rook at a1, whats the fastest way to get it to d3.
…you get the idea. Then i introduce extra pieces, or opponents pieces. First they need to understand how the pieces move. then you move on to mates.
I also did coloring sketches with a queen in the middle, and asked them to shade in squares the queen could move to (or shade in pieces the queen was attacking) … and then I ask them to write in the names of the squares the queen could move/attack… etc… take things in steps… I’ll add an extra peice here or there eventually - making it more complicated… etc… etc…
Sketches, puzzles seem to work real well for me…
Keep it fun, keep it simple, and dont’ try to teach too much… Kids get bored quick. And also don’t give up, be persistent and extremely patient, spend a month on K+Q vs K mates if need be.
Small group lessons are a great way to accomplish this. At our club, we have one adult who sits off to the side and works with groups of about four kids who are all at the same level. He’ll spend about 10 or 15 minutes with each group working on some little skill. Their attention span lasts that long, he makes it fun, and they still have time to play a couple of “real” chess games.
Motivation? Jeez, kids, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to checkmate someone once in a while? Tell those kiddos that they weren’t born knowing how to do this, and their #1 goal should be to learn as much as they can!
I sense that you may be running this club solo. You really need at least two adults present to be effective with any more than about 10 kids. One person runs the room; the other does one-on-one or small group teaching.
And don’t forget to pat yourself on the back for starting a kids’ chess club. Keep up the good work.
Run a internal, unrated tournament. When someone gets K v KQ and they cannot mate in a reasonable time, adjudicate the game as a draw, and tell them it’s a shame they got a draw, because they could have won. Then tell them that after the tournament you are going to review some basic checkmates.
Or, you could have a progress chart, and put little gold stars when they demonstrate basic skills. (Works well even at middle school level)
When you teach the skill, make the first few players that demonstrate the skill go to other kids and teach it. Then have those kids go to others. In 15 minutes, 80% of the club will “get it”, at least for the day.
I did something like this, and right before I re-taught some basic checkmates, I made a little speech about the tournament, and how we had several players that had to accept draws because they did not know how to bring the point home. I told them that after today’s class that should never again be a problem. And for a lot of them, it wasn’t.
I would like to thank everyone for their help so far. We did infact have a internal tournament with an exciting KQvsK ending. We used a clock with delay so the player with advantage could not lose on time but he had to make his moves very fast. After about 90 moves, everyone in the club was watching this game. I then announced he had another 90 moves to get checkmate or i would call it a draw. His opponent was not mindful of the fact he could claim a 50 move draw so I did not mention it either. one student tried to help by saying ‘move your king!’ before i told them not to interfere. So another 90 moves went by and I called it a draw. I felt this episode was the best ‘lesson’ we had seen so far.
K+Q vs K and around 180 moves before a draw. Next example of a K+Q vs K, teach the students to cut down the space of the King. When I teach students the K+Q vs K, I teach the students you do not even have to give a check once to win the game – only the checkmate. Next time you take the K+Q and one of your students the K. Have the students watch you checkmate the student. Than pick the next student for the next example, but change the position of the pieces.
Example (White) Ke1 Qb2 (Black) Kf7 (black has 30 squares of space)
Qe5 (black has only 6 squares of space) Kg6
Kf2 Kh6
Qf5 (black has only 4 squares of space) Kg7
Qe6 Kh7
Qf6 (black has only 3 squares of space) Kg8
Qe7
Bring the white king to f6 or g7, it will take white 11 moves for a checkmate. During the game, white did not have to give a check. White just cut down the space to win!
Jeez, kids, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to checkmate someone once in a while? Tell those kiddos that they weren’t born knowing how to do this, and their 