CHESSKIDS
ACADEMY PARENTS PAGE
We're delighted that you are considering teaching
your children to play chess, and that you are visiting chessKIDS
academy.
You'll find a lot more information about chess and children on our
FAQ PAGE. We'd advise you to read that as well as this page before you
start.
Chess can be approached at several levels. At one level you can teach your
children the moves so that they can play Uncle Fred when he comes round at
Christmas. At the opposite extreme, you can spend several hours every day
teaching your children the game in the hope that they will become Grandmasters.
At chessKIDS academy we
are well aware of the many benefits, both educational and social, of learning
chess. At the same time, we believe that, to make the most out of chess, it
needs to be approached with very much the same level of commitment as learning a
musical instrument. We also believe that learning chess, as well as playing
chess, should be fun.
We advise children to spend time every week both studying and playing chess.
In our
KIDS' ZONE you have a choice of two interfaces. The original interface, the
chess school, is a three-year interactive chess course for kids.
There are nine classes, each of which corresponds to a ten-week school term, but
of course you can go faster if you want.
The first three classes teach you the basics. If all your kids want to do is
play at a low level you can stop there, but if they would like to play
competitively you should continue as far as you want to go. By the end of the
ninth class they'll know enough to compete against adult tournament players.
The new interface tells the story of chessKID
and enables your children to train to be a superhero by learning chess. The
first level covers the basics: the moves of the pieces, and an understanding of
check and checkmate, and, as well as lessons, includes a series of games and
quizzes enabling children to practise and reinforce their knowledge. Then there
is an intermediate stage which tests and develops children's cognitive skills,
ensuring that they do not move up to tackle more challenging concepts until they
are ready to do so. The second level of the course covers all you need to know
to play chess competitively - lessons on openings, middle games and endings,
backed up by quizzes and games designed to reinforce what has been learned in
the lessons. You can find out more about the chessKID
project
here. You will probably need to supervise your kids' use of this site.
Younger children will certainly need some help with much of what is on here.
The best place to start playing chess is at school: if you're interested in
helping your school start a chess club please visit our
Schools page. Beyond that, you may be able to find a children's chess club
in your area - you'll find advice about this on our
Links page.
You could also consider playing chess by email, or over the internet in real
time.
We will be adding many more lessons and other features to chessKIDS
academy over the coming months. Keep on coming back to see what's new on the
site.
NEW (OCTOBER 2005) -
chessKIDS academy guide for parents.
Recommendations
There is a lot of good commercial software available for children.
We particularly recommend:
Instructional:
Fritz and Chesster/Fritz and Chesster 2
Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess
Chess School for Beginners
Advanced Chess School
Chess Playing Programs:
Lego Chess
the ChessMaster series
Fritz
Chess Database Programs:
ChessBase
Chess Assistant
There are many chess books for beginners - if you see one you like go ahead and
buy it - but we have reservations about many of them.
Most of them are either written by chess players who can't teach or by teachers
who can't play chess. Of course, if you come across a second hand copy of
Move One by Richard James you should snap it up, but it's out of print and
not easy to find. Perhaps one day I'll put it up on chessKIDS
academy.
We also believe that these books can be enhanced by using computer software (and
chessKIDS academy which
give children the chance to reinforce and put into practice what they have
learned.
One book we would particularly recommend for parents is Everyone's 2nd Chess
Book, by Dan Heisman.Heisman is one of the few writers on the subject who
clearly has a lot of experience teaching young children and is aware of the
problems involved. Dan Heisman also writes a regular colulmn at the
Chess Café.
We must also recommend The Even More Complete Chess Addict, by Mike Fox
and Richard James - a compendium of chess trivia, anecdotes, history and much
else. Again, it's out of print, but you could try EBay, Amazon, Bookfinder or
Abebooks. There may be a third edition sometime in future, and at some point
there'll be something up on
the Chess Addict website.
Finally, we'd recommend all parents (and their children) to watch the film
Searching for Bobby Fischer (it's called Innocent Moves in the UK), based on
the true story of a young chess player, or better still, read the book (by Fred
Waitzkin).
Much of what we recommend can be bought through our
ONLINE CHESS SHOP.
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