Instruction vs Playing

I'm coaching a group of 20 elementary school students (beginners) for one hour a week on Thursday. We've met twice so far, covering the board, pieces and how they move, and the rules pertaining to checkmate. We haven't covered castling or en passant yet. Today we will be looking at simple checkmating patterns such as supported queen mates and double rook mates. This will more than likely take up the whole hour.

My concern is that some of the kids complained the first class about how boring it was because the already "knew" how to play. So last week I rushed through the lesson on checkmating and stalemating in order for the kids to have time to play. After watching them play, it became obvious that even though the ones complaining knew how the pieces move, they have absolutely no idea of how to play chess. In thirty minutes most of them had not even captured a piece! So at this point, wouldn't it be more important for them to learn how to play rather than spending a lot of time moving pieces around the board?

Precisely.   The fun + learning balance is the most important thing. If the kids want to play,  they should be playing.

Though you can be a little clever and come up with fun training exercises that can be practiced Player. vs Player and after letting them exhaust their energy on it, start a lesson and teach them how to  play those positions better.

A few of my favorites are:

1. Pawn Battle:

http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/media/Pawn_Battle_Strategies.pdf

2. Queen vs. Knight. Place a queen on any corner and the  knight anywhere on the center where it is not attacked. Take turns (queen to move first) until the  Queen captures the Knight.  This exercise forces "one move ahead" thinking ... you won't solve it if you just make knee-jerk moves. Ask the students how the Knight should play (stay in the center, avoid the RIM!!!) and how the Queen should play ( figure out where the knight can escape to and cover those squares)

3. The untouchable King: After perfecting Queen + King vs King mates, set up a position as follows and ask them to Play White and try to mate without moving the White king.  ( I love hearing them say "Oh, this is easy" before I get to finish telling them the complete problem :) )

Remember, it's easy to find something fun that challenges them as well.

Thank you so much for the tips Shivsky. I will definately be using those. We had a good time today and an hour flies by, but I could tell some of the kids were spacing out (though they are the ones who really need it). I did see some very bright spots. I set up the Scholar's Mate position one move before white's queen delivers mate and then asked them to find whites best move. These are brand new beginners and one boy got it in a few seconds. I'll be keeping my eye on him.

This was surprisingly hard for me to do -- I think I spent the last 10-15 minutes trying to figure it out, what a terribly evil puzzle... maybe for others it's easier... I have a feeling it took me awfully long time.  Somehow I came up with the idea that if it were black to move it'd be easier and the relative position of the king/queen must be some sort of mutual zugzwang (??) so I came up with 1.Qe3 Kg2 2.Qe1 Kf3 3.Qe6! yes I'm very proud of this, I don't care if it's a kids puzzle, it took me forever!!

@orangehonda: What really helps from a training perspective is that it teaches kids to control squares with a Queen ... not use it as some silly checking bazooka. :)

Hello Chess Players!

I am a professional chess instructor for children and young adults of all ages and abilities. If your child would like to have fun and improve their chess skills please visit my website and contact me to find out more information about how private or group lessons can help them gain a better appreciation and skill in the wonderful game of chess.

Thank you,

Dylan Fitzpatrick
www.allcitychess.com

P.S. I just started my Chess.com account so please pardon the low rating!

Have you considered a "mixed learning" approach-- I think that is the term, I have to ask my brother who is a teacher.  Basically, you use the same lesson but have it extend just a little for the advanced students.

For example, using Shivisky's puzzle, the advanced students cannot use their king while the intermediate students can.  I don't like calling students "basic".

Or with the Scholar's mate, you can have the advanced try to defend the position and avoid the side traps.  The intermediate students can try to find the mate when black makes and inferior block attempt.