Chess for 3 years old

Is it too early to teach chess to a 3 year old?

My daughter already know the piece names and able to distinguish between White and Black. Somehow, I am able to teach her to put the pieces on a square, but she does not know yet where the proper places are.

After we arranged the pieces, she let them dance. And she prefer to call the Rook as Castle.

When your daughter find other kids that play chess too, she might get interested. Its like when my daughter and I was inside a play house with no other kids than her. She does not want to play and just laugh beside me in amusement. When other kids start coming I cant see my daughter in one place.

I guess  I will continue teaching my daughter too. She is a fast learner. At least compared to her cousins.

mmm. no. well, not exactly.

I think there's absolutely nothing wrong oc, for showing your three year the peices- but to them they are toys, and they can be nothing more for awhile.

somewhere in a few years the dancing might become more structured, and then perhaps the time to show exactly How the peices dance.

BTW, I strongly recommend you keep the sense of a game for a long, long time- it is better for a kid to see it as a fun movement of the peices, before there is a Right and a Wrong;

and a good and better way to improve them.

...

both my kids learned chess, neither has ultimately become interested in it, but both learned it enough to beat novice players and still both take some joy in that.

... one of my daughters BF made the decision to call himself Much better at chess than her (15 y.o). lol. she showed him.

BIG ego crushing wins.  and my daughter was like - "he's not even good at his - it was beyond simple..."

and so - I think I succeeded. thats as good as you can get with a kid thats not really very interested in chess.   (Dad's proud moment)...

Alvin, last thought.

every kid is different.  if you daughter were very advanced for her age- perhaps I'd be off about the "no" for a three year old.

let her dictate what you say.  you'll know if you listen to her...

My daughter does not isten to me. But when she likes to learn she comes to me for help. 

I dont want to impose chess to her. But she sees me every day playing on my laptop. 2D and 3D chess sets are different. She also call 2D pieces the way I thought her the real ones, except for the King and Queen.

Right now I will be happy if she learn to put the pieces in place without my help. That might teach her some neatness too.

So far, she is disciplined enough to put a piece center of a square and wait for all pieces to be in starting position... before making them dance. I will continue this until she reach age 5 I guess. Depending on her level of interest. She likes doing things with me, a father's girl perhaps, so she might play chess at some point.

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Before I enter school I used to throw pawns as cannon balls from a Bishop with rooks as wheels and Knights as cannoneers. Got to protect the King and Queen from a barrage of bottle cup army. The board serves as wrestling ring for my WWF superstar action figures.

Things are different now. Kids know more about my tablet more than I know my mobile phone. I want my daughter to know something else. Something ancient.

Drills might be too early. But I doubt I will allow her to learn chess from other sources than me. Right now, just the board is fine. Every day. Of course you can have an autograph.

I agree.

Prince Hans is not to trust, btw.

As you might see in the photo, she has all the Knights. Before this, I was shocked to see her lift the b1-Knight and put it on c4! I readily told her it should be at c3 then she get the other 3 knights. 

Haha, its was just an illusion. I thought my daughter will play against me with the Dunst Opening. That triggers me to take the photo and post it here.

As with me. The first thing I check when buying a set is the Knight, and then the King.

The knights are very dangerous and powerful weapons in the chess game if used properly. 

My son is 3 and occasionally asks to play with me. He knows the pieces names and how to set up the board. He knows how the pieces move and capture with occasional reminders. Somewhere in the middle game he is always ready for another activity. I never ask him to play but am very happy when he wants to.

I teached younger family members (including my son) to play chess at age 6. Somewhere I heard, long time ago and can't remember, that 6 is the age to teach chess to clever kids, and not before. At 6 they learn it very fast and easily.

That's cool.

I highly recommend my book, The Real Beginner's Guide to Chess by Ben Rothschild, which goes over the fundamentals like getting good at moving the pieces and recognizing captures, check, and checkmate. It's available on Amazon.com for $6. Check it out!

Thanks for the offer. Hmm, I will not consider this as an advertisement since its inline with the topic. But hey, my daughter is yet to learn to read. And I have trained many people to play chess so I think I can handle the basics.

^

The advantages of beginners book, there are nice drawings and colorfull images that attract kids. I don't think he is advertising for his own profit. Many here suggest books and gives amazon as link.

Yeah, I didn't really considered it as advertisement. Chess for Kids books really are a plus but maybe not at my daughter as of the moment.

I started even earlier, with my son. 

He's five now, and the main thing keeping him from club play is only the late nights; he tends to get very tired around 10pm, and for club nights he needs to be able to stay up until 11pm if I'm playing.

 

I have a three year old that plays chess. In fact, he's the reason I'm here brushing up on my game. We started with a board game called "no stress chess." It was great because it was basically a chess set and some chess playing cards. It teaches how to properly set up the board and also how to move the pieces. You "play" by picking a card and moving the piece that is featured on the card. No strategy is needed in the beginning and with a little luck, they can actually win. After a few weeks he learned all the movements and started playing more defensively and with strategy.

One night we went to a restaurant that happened to have one of those life size chess boards/pieces and played "the big kid chess game" with no cards. Since then he's been hooked. We play daily at home (it has become our pre-bedtime ritual) and go to a local park weekly where they host open chess games for the public by one of the local school chess clubs. He really loves the attention he gets from doting adults impressed with his skills. 😀

I highly recommend the "no stress chess" game as an introduction for younger kids.