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Tips For Teaching Your Kids How To Play Chess

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Do you love to play chess, and want to get your kids into it as well? These tips are going to help you teach your kids how to play chess.

Explain How To Set Up The Board

Everything starts with telling them the name of each piece and where they go. That's why you'll want to teach them how to set up the board. By doing this they are going to start learning the names of the pieces and familiarize themselves with them. It can help to put a piece of tape on the board on each piece's starting position with the name of the piece on it. This will only help to reinforce the names as they continue to look at the board 

Explain The Basic Movements

The first thing that you are going to do is teach your kid the basic moves that each piece can make. In the beginning, it can be very confusing, so it helps to have some flashcards in front of them to remind them of what each piece can do. You can purchase these cards online, or make some yourself. They need to have a picture of the chess pieces, as well as a diagram of all the basic moves that they can make. 

Explain The Goal Of The Game

With all of the basics in place, it's important to teach your kids the goal of winning a game of chess. Rather than get rid of all your opponent's pieces like in checkers, the goal is to capture the king. This is done by strategically placing your pieces so that your opponent's King cannot move and avoid being captured. Now is a good time to show some examples of what this means. Clear off the board and set up a few scenarios of how you can essentially trap someone's king so that they are unable to move without being captured. 

Try Playing On The Computer

With the basics in mind using a real chessboard, it can actually help to go on an electronic device and play a game of chess online. An online chess game can help guide a beginning player with reminders of how each piece moves so that they learn what they can and can't do. You can also set the difficulty of the computer so that they have a chance of winning their initials games and can learn from them. There are also plenty of tools online that can teach your kids strategies as well.

Learning chess online can be an effective way to teach chess.


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