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Teaching chess to an 8 yr old


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My at the time five yr old loved no stress chess. You can play it the regular way, or to determine where you move and what you move (this is the no stress way) players take turns pulling a card from the deck that tells what piece to move and where.

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Both of my kids learned at school, so I never really had to teach them how the pieces move and all of that. When they were ready to think about strategies, we would play and I would talk through my strategy with them as we played. "I'm going to move my bishop here, so that you don't move your queen over here." That seemed to help them begin to formulate their own thoughts and ideas.

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42 minutes ago, Doc Reeves said:

Crush her brutally until she can compete. 

My dad did it to me and I hated it, but just a few years ago I thanked him for this strategy because it made me who I am today... then I killed him...

9/10 should have added '...checkmate' at end for full points.  Maybe a CSI sunglasses coming down gif

Edited by gyroprotagonist
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Not sure this will help but if you have an older computer and can locate a copy of the old lego chess program it is fun for them to learn the game.  my son started using it when he was in kindergarden and loved it.  the game would crash some on windows xp.  still he had fun and learned to play.  then started playing some for 2 years at an elementary school chess club before we moved.  the new school didn't have it for the past 3 years so he hasn't played much.

i looked to see if it was on steam but it isn't.  it was originally sold in 1998 and isn't sold by lego anymore.  there are some copies on ebay and maybe some other re-sellers.  the only reason I had a copy is my much older brother had his kids back in the 90's and he gave me his old software that largely doesn't work on newer computers.  some you could get to work by copying the whole cd on to the hard drive but still hit or miss.  

good luck.  

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5 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

My at the time five yr old loved no stress chess. You can play it the regular way, or to determine where you move and what you move (this is the no stress way) players take turns pulling a card from the deck that tells what piece to move and where.

My six year old also really learned a lot from No Stress chess.  He would sit there and play vs. himself with the cards.  He's since joined the chess club at his elementary school.  I sat down and played with him the other day and was surprised at his skill level.

Edited by Bevo in VA
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5 hours ago, Doc Reeves said:

Crush her brutally until she can compete. 

My dad did it to me and I hated it, but just a few years ago I thanked him for this strategy because it made me who I am today... then I killed him...

My name is Sue! How do you do! Now you’re gonna die!

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Crush her brutally until she can compete. 
My dad did it to me and I hated it, but just a few years ago I thanked him for this strategy because it made me who I am today... then I killed him...

My best friend did something similar with his son and madden. Said he didn’t want us to take it easy on him because he wouldn’t learn how to play. Lol.
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When I was in 6th grade a couple of the math teachers would play chess at lunch and some of us would watch and ask to be taught how to play. They sent us to the library to get books on it and we did and started playing amongst ourselves. It wasn't long before the teachers stopped playing and started watching us. I like learning from the book because I could learn at my pace and could learn simple and then more advanced strategies and quick-win tricks to catch the unwary. Look for a good book for her intelligence level and let her start figuring some things out. Then be prepared to be taken down.

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this thread got me to find chess.com.  signed up for the free account and have had a lot of fun playing.  I suck pretty bad but through the last month and playing about 100 or so games of the 10 minute blitz variety I am just over 50% wins and fluctuating between 740 and 780 currently. 

you certainly learn to "take the loss, pussy" in that format a lot.  quick games and some very good players.  also some dumb decisions by decent players due to the time constraints.  very fun and you can just go play for about an hour and get some games in.(i like the daily tactics tests as well)

will probably sign my kid up for it at some point.

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There is probably somebody or organization at her school that meets once a week.  You could join chess.com and they have tutorials and analysis of games if you pay some small fee.  I go there and play for fun and honestly haven't made any effort to improve via looking up strategies or paying for the site itself.  The thing about chess that I always thought was cool was that you needed to think about what the likely moves of your enemy and how you will adjust.  You are forced to consider multiple options each move and multiple counter moves.

What I do NOT like about chess is slow pace of play.  I play what are fast games for me and my opponent, so you have to think quickly.  I find the mental stimulation enjoyable but am not obsesseed with winning enough to try to improve at all...

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