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9781958398975

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When my 5 year old daughter started kindergarten, I wanted to open her up to the world of chess. The first opportunity came in the form of the chess club at school. When I checked it out, most of the kids were much older (7-8 years old and up). I was concerned that in this environment she would simply become frustrated, and learn that playing chess is about losing every game to these older kids. I felt like I would be throwing a sheep to the wolves, only to turn her off to the game for life. I purchased two products to teach my 5 year old daughter to play: this product and No Stress Chess . I had already taught her some basics before purchasing this product. I found that the toughest thing to teach was how the knight moves. I still started from the beginning with the tutorial books, and they made the learning process a lot more fun for my daughter. She was much more engaged and captivated to learn chess in the context of a story line, rather than purely in the context of equations. The books start out with basic set up and piece movement, and then expand to simple chess problems and rules of play. In a very short time she has become proficient in all piece movement, rules of play, and even basic principles of strategy. She is also able to see consequences of her moves beyond the immediate move. Its truly incredible at what they can pick up at such a young age. I believe laying this foundation will allow her to become a strong player when I introduce her to the chess club with older kids at school. Rather than throwing her to the wolves as a sheep, I believe this is going to be more like introducing a wolf in sheep's clothing. The first several games we played were with No Stress Chess. That game uses a deck of cards that forces each player to move the piece show on a card that is selected from the deck. While this kept her interested in playing, it did not serve well to teach fundamentals of basic strategy and proper rules of play. It didn't allow for her to learn the difference between sound moves and unsound moves. Also, in that game there is no concept of check or checkmate, you play until the cards will allow you to move a piece that will actually take the opponent's king. While this was fine in the beginning for the limited purposes of practicing piece movement, I think it started to promote bad habits. After completing the lessons in both books, we now play in three ways: 1. setting up chess problems where I will set up a scenario on the board ( puzzles ) and work through the analysis with her to arrive at the best solution. The dry erase chess board is very useful in working these problems out; 2. setting up an end game situation on the board (like two rooks and a king against a king) and have her try to checkmate me; and 3. Full games, where I allow her to play and I play my best moves, but when I get to the point of a mathematically impossible win, I will turn the board around and allow her to finish me off. I can't say how amazed I am at the chess logic that can be taught from such an early age. The books were very valuable in teaching, and I believe that next year she will be holding her own against the older kids at her school's chess club. This product was very valuable in that teaching.

"When my 5 year old daughter started kindergarten, I wanted to open her up to the world of chess. The first opportunity came in the form of the chess club at school. When I checked it out, most of the kids were much older (7-8 years old and up). I was concerned that in this environment she would simply become frustrated, and learn that playing chess is about losing every game to these older kids. I felt like I would be throwing a sheep to the wolves, only to turn her off to the game for life. I purchased two products to teach my 5 year old daughter to play: this product and ""No Stress Chess"". I had already taught her some basics before purchasing this product. I found that the toughest thing to teach was how the knight moves. I still started from the beginning with the tutorial books, and they made the learning process a lot more fun for my daughter. She was much more engaged and captivated to learn chess in the context of a story line, rather than purely in the context of equations. The books start out with basic set up and piece movement, and then expand to simple chess problems and rules of play. In a very short time she has become proficient in all piece movement, rules of play, and even basic principles of strategy. She is also able to see consequences of her moves beyond the immediate move. Its truly incredible at what they can pick up at such a young age. I believe laying this foundation will allow her to become a strong player when I introduce her to the chess club with older kids at school. Rather than throwing her to the wolves as a sheep, I believe this is going to be more like introducing a wolf in sheep's clothing. The first several games we played were with No Stress Chess. That game uses a deck of cards that forces each player to move the piece show on a card that is selected from the deck. While this kept her interested in playing, it did not serve well to teach fundamentals of basic strategy and proper rules of play. It didn't allow for her to learn the difference between sound moves and unsound moves. Also, in that game there is no concept of check or checkmate, you play until the cards will allow you to move a piece that will actually take the opponent's king. While this was fine in the beginning for the limited purposes of practicing piece movement, I think it started to promote bad habits. After completing the lessons in both books, we now play in three ways: 1. setting up chess ""problems"" where I will set up a scenario on the board (""puzzles"") and work through the analysis with her to arrive at the best solution. The dry erase chess board is very useful in working these problems out; 2. setting up an end game situation on the board (like two rooks and a king against a king) and have her try to checkmate me; and 3. Full games, where I allow her to play and I play my best moves, but when I get to the point of a mathematically impossible win, I will turn the board around and allow her to finish me off. I can't say how amazed I am at the chess logic that can be taught from such an early age. The books were very valuable in teaching, and I believe that next year she will be holding her own against the older kids at her school's chess club. This product was very valuable in that teaching."

Author Information

AUTHOR: Patzi Stewart is a chess education specialist who taught chess in both the public and private schools. She taught students in after school programs throughout the greater San Francisco East Bay for 15 years. Her classes developed a strong following. In fact, when some of her students had to change to new schools within the district, they asked that Patzi teach a chess class at their new schools.Patzi developed a kindergarten chess program as well. She directed the Children's Living Chess Board for many years at the Berkeley Parks and Recreation Department Yearly Festival. The two engaging Once A Pawn a Time Chess books, recipients of The Modern Library Award, are based on her years of experience in teaching elementary children to play chess.

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