How to Teach a Kid Play Chess

Chess is a game that should’ve disappeared by now. Chess engines have become so strong that humans can no longer contribute to game theory—except by coding the chess engines. Yet, YouTube is filled with funny and wildly popular chess influencers. As a result, both of my kids have taken an interest in learning the game. Now, it’s time to teach my youngest, who is 6.

Here’s my strategy for teaching the game:

Show the piece movement, arrange the board and start playing
Do not win! Little kids seem to love beating their parents 🙂
Do not take any pieces outside of avoiding check or recapturing
Encourage them to use all pieces
Once you feel like the kid got a basic idea, switch to mini games
Give them 2 rooks and queen vs your king. Let them find a checkmate
Once they find a checkmate, give yourself a pawn and play hard
Once they find a checkmate, give yourself 2 pawns. Teach them how to attack the backward pawn
Once they find a checkmate, give yourself a knight. Teach them forks
Keep adding pieces to the board for both sides until a real game becomes possible

Around point 10 it’s time to find a chess club. This is when the chess became a chore for both of us with the big kid. Also, finding a tick where the kids played didn’t help much. I’ll try to improve the process with the second kid, maybe find a club without ticks.