Wondering about Chess...

[GEM555]

Sorry to trouble everyone, but I am wondering. I myself don't know anything about chess - wait: correct that. I know how the pieces are supposed to move, but don't know how to play.

 

My son has an interest and I encourged him to join the local 8th grade chess club. After a month, he reported that he was dropping out. Turns out that he couldn't get a game because he was too easy to beat. I went to one meeting to see how it was run. In addition to the facility advisor, there were 9 or 10 kids - 4 of whom were not playing: my son and another "weak" player and 2 others. The reason the two others weren't playing was that no one could beat them and so no one would play them. They left early.

 

Now, I learned to play back in school during a time when chess was undergoing a resurgence. My roomie taught me. However, despite my best efforts, I quickly ran up something like a 0-56 record and realized that I simply was not smart enough to play. Occasional dabbling in the years since have re-enforced that opinion.

 

I was once told that you simply can't teach chess, not really. You either get it or you don't and that's that. Never having won a game myself, I understand this. My question is: has anything changed in 25+ years or should I tell my son to just drop it and move on?

 

Thanks

[Javier]

Shocking story! I wonder who runs that club but let me tell you that it definitely isn't someone who a) knows much about chess/respects chess knows how to teach kids.

 

The desire to quit is understandable after a traumatic experience. However, perserverance can help your son to build his character.

Maybe you should take your son somewhere else.´

 

As for learning chess, yes, things have definitely improved, but you're always bound to run into people who simply don't know how to teach others and how to develop their interest in chess.

 

I couldn't agree less with the sentence "chess simply can't be taught".

[GEM555]

OK, good to hear. So, what to do? I recently borrowed one of those chess computer things from someone I know, and both of us working together ran up a 0-5 record with the thing set at the simple setting. The only thing we learned was how to lose.

 

If chess can be taught, how to learn?

[kris]

hi

chess can definitely be taught as my son is getting personal coaching twice a week for the past few months. They say the most important thing in chess is that the child should play maximum number of tournaments .This exposure will help him. Also if he is a beginner he should join an academy and play against children of his calibre. you could invest in 'Grand Master Electronic Chess Set' which is approximately 2100 master-strength. A book called 'your first move-chess for beginners by A P Sokolskii is highly recommended by teachers.

kris

[mudchess]

Now, I learned to play back in school during a time when chess was undergoing a resurgence. My roomie taught me. However, despite my best efforts, I quickly ran up something like a 0-56 record and realized that I simply was not smart enough to play. Occasional dabbling in the years since have re-enforced that opinion

 

******************

 

I have a couple of suggestions.

 

[1] In my view someone's IQ is less important than someone's desire to learn and improve. I suggest starting off with a couple of points to apply in any game of chess. From the outset try to place at least one pawn in the four centre squares [ at e4, e5, d4 or d5] . Then bring out pieces and try to clear the back rank so that the rooks can swivel across. Don't worry so much about the results if you are applying the above you will get better.

 

[2] Give some consideration to playing by correspondence. These days events can be done by email/fax etc and they provide a safe learning process.

 

[3] I am not sure what books to start out with. I am not a chess coach. But I suggest going to a site run by Australian FM Bill Jordan . He has an electronic book called "chess concepts" that is good. If you google BILL jORDAN chess chess you will get his website.

 

[4] I am not sure what books ot recommend. Frankly, there are a lot of masters whose books I wouldn't recommend; to teach novices/learners chess is a specialised art and not every chess master is capable of doing it. Chess Made Easy by Purdy is one good book. Purdy was an Australian chess master and won the first correspondence world championship.

[Javier]

Here's the link to FM Bill Jordan's website, which includes several programs:

 

Link to Bill Jordan's site.

[mudchess]

It is good that Javier is prepared to put in links to other chess coaches' sites!

 

It was never my intention to demean this site.

 

Bill has coached me a few times. My ELO is pretty low in over the board chess [ about 1000] and he helped me a lot.

 

I regret to say that a lot of the books that I found useful are out of print:

 

John Love "Positional ideas in chess". This is wonderful for any novice. He goes through teh absolute basics of positional chess: centralisation, pawn structures, half open files etc. There is a quiz at the end of each stem game too.

 

John Love "tactical ideas in chess". Smae as above but with tactics.

 

If somebody knows absolutely nothing about tactics or positional play then the above two books are really good. In both books Love means what the title suggests: ideas. Theses are not cobbled together "do 50 exercises" and look up the answers fodder. He takes some classic games such as Nimzowitsch using his doubled pawn complex.

 

For a follow up book I would recommend anything by Gerald Abrahams. His approach to positional chess is a bit more abstract. He considers the board to be a forest and the pawns mark out the "terrain" of what the pieces can do.

 

What I WOULD NOT recommend for any novice is to get too immersed in opening "theory". Try to understand some general ideas and then the opening stuff can come later.

[Javier]

It is good that Javier is prepared to put in links to other chess coaches' sites!

Actually, I'm not, but this was part of the conversation.

 

It was never my intention to demean this site.

 

That never crossed my mind, I thought your post was polite.

I'm pretty sure that people who come here have read about the free beginners' ebook which they can download here, "Learn chess or call me an idiot!!", and the free quizzes and free on-line support already, so I don't expect people not to talk about other books!

 

Cheers.

[mudchess]