Kids learning chess need to do three things on a regular basis to derive the most benefit from the game.
Play lots and lots of chess
Follow a regular course of study
Solve puzzles and quizzes to reinforce their lessons
At the same time, anyone who has worked with kids over the past 20 years or so will tell you that there has been a decline in children's development
of cognitive skills, and in their ability to concentrate without being distracted. Recent surveys have confirmed that this is indeed the case.
The ultimate aim of chessKIDS academy is to combine lessons, games and quizzes, along with exercises designed
to test and develop children's cognitive skills, within a lively, colorful and humorous framework attractive to young kids.
The first stage of the development of the site was to create a chess school containing 64 lessons taking kids from learning the moves up to adult club/tournament standard.
Now we are complementing these lessons with a series of video games and puzzles in various formats giving kids the chance to put into practice what they have learnt.
We also have five computer programs, three of which we can also use to set up instructive positions, or positions where the computer gives odds.
One of the programs is also used to set up pawn race games to introduce beginners to the moves of the pieces. The other two enable you to set up positions yourself.
Once children have mastered the basics we also provide advice on the best websites where they can take on human opposition. At some point in the future
we hope there will be a site, or a section of a site, specifically for chessKIDS academy users to meet, play, learn and chat.
September 2005 saw the release of the first draft of the first stage of the complete CHESSKID project.
Now, in September 2006, you can see the complete chessKID framework, although there is still much that will be added over the coming months and years.
To see everything in action click here.
The first stage teaches the moves of chess one piece at a time, along with some very basic principles concerning the values of the pieces.
There is then an intermediate stage which takes each of the major cognitive skills required to understand chess at anything below
a very rudimentary level. Each of those skills is then tested and developed using, as appropriate, a combination of chess and non-chess games,
quizzes and exercises.
There are also some light-hearted personality tests designed to enable kids to explpore their feelings concerning aggression, competitiveness,
winning and losing, and to identify whether they have typical boy or girl characteristics, and whether they are predominately right-brained or left-brained.
These tests will also be of use to parents in deciding how to approach chess with their children.
The concept of using chess spefically to develop cognitive skills while ensuring that children are ready to cope
with abstract logic before introducing more advanced chess ideas is unique to chessKIDS academy.
The next stage is split into six sections dealing with openings, avoiding mistakes (another section unique to
chessKIDS academy), tactics, checkmates, strategy and endings.
Each of these sections incorporates the appropriate lessons from the school section of the website along with other coaching materials, exercises and quizzes.
Of particular interest here is another new feature, a series of tactics and checkmate quizzes. We hope
to update the site with new quizzes on a weekly basis.
Finally, we have introduced a new navigation system - a top-page menu on the major pages of the Kids' section enabling users to see everything that is available and to move
quickly and easily from one part of the site to another.
The next stage will involve revisiting the school lessons. We have major improvements lined up concerning scoring and move entry, and minor
improvements to graphics and navigation. We will probably replace two or three lessons completely and possibly modify some of the others.
This should take place during Autumn 2006.
At present the site is still completely free, although donations to cover hosting costs are always welcome.
We also encourage users to support us by buying your chess equipment, software and books at our online shop.
To ensure the long-term future of the website
it will at some point have to become more commercial, and it is possible that some parts of the site will only be accessible to registered users
who have paid a subscription.
An interactive learning experience such as we provide here at chessKIDS academy is all well and good, but you can't take it to bed with you.
So we are currently talking to several publishing house about CHESSKID! THE BOOK which we hope will be published in Autumn 2007.