Many families reach out to Chess Chevra, saying, “I heard about Chess Chevra from so and so whose son has been taking classes. My son wants to join, too, but he does not know how to play yet. How can he learn the rules?”
I would recommend the following:
After an overview of the pieces, how they move, check, and checkmate, I would suggest playing several times until the child is familiar enough with the rules to play a full game.
This 13-minute video gives a fun introduction to how the pieces move: chesskid.com/videos/the-magic-of-chess. To strengthen understanding, chesskid.com/lessons has high-quality instructional chess videos designed for kids. There are quizzes after each lesson to test your knowledge. If you advance through the first 14 lessons (up through “Special Pawns”), you will come out with a strong grasp of all rules of chess.
It typically takes two or three 30-minute lessons before a child has a firm enough understanding of all the rules to play a full game, comfortably.
Once your child feels comfortable with the rules, we can then assess his level and place him in the appropriate group where he will grow the most!
