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.
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.