Image by anw.fr via Flickr

As a young girl growing up in rural Connecticut, it was hard to find many chess tournaments – certainly there were none for kids. My father had to drive a ways to find one and I was usually the only girl.

I remember the adult males being very supportive of me, allowing me into their fold. It was a very positive experience for me.  One would think there would be a lot of sexism in chess. Really there isn’t.

Today many girls play in scholastic chess tournaments around the country. As a chess coach, I can tell you that our classes have an equal number of boys and girls.

I have never seen any prejudice amongst our students. Why would there be?  It just doesn’t occur to them.

One of the plus points of chess is that you can sit down and play anyone, and you are on equal footing. Think about it. You both start with the same pieces, which have the same rules of movement.  It all comes down to who creates the winning position – who best uses their intelligence and imagination.

There are no gender, racial or economic barriers. Even age doesn’t matter. The color of your skin, your gender, your job, all don’t matter.

One of the things I always loved about playing in chess tournaments was that you’d find the room filled with people from all walks of life.  A doctor might play a stay-at-home mom, a teacher might be paired with a construction worker and a rocket scientist could play a high-school freshman.

Who wins? Really it boils down to who plays the better game, who makes fewer errors.  Bottom line, chess players respect a good game.

Giant chess sets are fun to play with. This picture comes from Brian Meeks, a new friend from Linkedin.  He’s a woodworker, photographer and writer, amongst other things.

My husband and I love to use a giant chess board with very young children. We don’t use the pieces, but make the children into the pieces, allowing them to walk the board.

We play games using the dark and light squares, hopping like a knight, etc.  The kids love it and really get how the pieces move.

Photo: Sent in from John Sy of the Philippines

We want our children to have the best advantages in life. We want them to find and select solutions that will benefit them and others for the long term. The chess board is an excellent training field to learn problem solving skills.

Some people wait for others around them to solve their problems. They lack the confidence and courage to implement their ideas, their solutions. As a result they become far too dependent on other people.

On the chess board, you are alone. No one is there, by your side, feeding you answers or solutions to the problems that you face. You either solve the problems put to you, or you lose.

Recently an eight-year-old student asked me, “Will this position ever come up in another game?” He wanted to know how he could use the lessons learned from one game, in future ones. It was a valid concern, for most likely that exact position would never resurface. So how does one learn and improve?

The answer is that even though that one position will never come up again, you could very well see similar patterns, segments from it again and again. Once you know how to handle these, the game becomes much easier. I began showing this eight-year-old boy common themes that he’d probably seen before and would see again.

He immediately recognized the patterns and became excited. Once I showed him the best responses, he realized that he could beat other players with this knowledge. At that moment he said, “You know if I practice some of these techniques at home, I bet I could win more!”

I have to tell you that this was one of the most exciting moments for me as a chess coach. He was embracing doing chess homework and could see the benefits it would bring.

Ideally your child can go over their games with someone who is more experienced, someone who can help them spot weaknesses and strengths in their play. However, if that is not an option, they will improve simply by playing (as long as they are playing people that challenge them).

Once one knows what works and doesn’t work, one can begin to build from that and solve more difficult problems on the chess board. It gets to a point where you can look at a position and say, “Ah, there are really only three moves to consider here.” Then when you look at the choices more carefully, one move will pop out as the obvious solution. This ability to analyze is priceless.

Ever since I was a child problem solving was fun for me. It was a game that sparked a challenge deep within me, one that I relished. I wish to share that joy with the next generation.

Image by alanlight via Flickr

By Laura Sherman and Bill Kilpatrick

Chess is taught by starting with the basics and building from there. It has to be done step by step. It is a big mistake to skip ahead too quickly with new strategies or techniques, when the more basic concepts are not well understood by a young chess player.

Teaching “checkmate” is a perfect example.

Coaches quickly learn it’s a big challenge to teach children the concept of checkmate.

We have found that many beginners have trouble checkmating their opponents despite having an overwhelming advantage of pieces on the chess board. So how do you teach this seemingly basic concept?

Break it down! Simplify it! Pull checkmate apart into little pieces that can be learned, one at a time.

The first step is to drill easier concepts with your students. How do you attack a piece? When is a piece in danger? How do you trap a piece? There are dozens of such exercises that are needed in order to fully prepare the student to understand and apply the concept of checkmate.

Once they have these components down, they must be able to recognize when the king is in check and understand that concept fully. Quiz them on the number of escape squares the king has. This usually requires a bit of drilling, but there will come a point where the student knows it, really knows it.

Being able to recognize when a student has a concept and is able to move on is also important. The last thing you want to do is rehash something over and over that they already understand. There’s a certain look that a student gets when they fully understand something. Watch for that look, that confident gleam in their eye.

Now they will have an easier time grasping checkmate. Show them many examples. Stick with exercises that are checkmate in one move, starting with extremely easy and basic positions. The more you drill these with your student the faster they will pick up the themes and be able to recognize recurring patterns.

Checkmate needs to be drilled regularly and often. The result will be that your students will take advantage of more opportunities on the board and you will have a strong foundation from which to move forward.

Parents often tell me that their children don’t like to lose. Well, that’s natural. I don’t like to lose either. I don’t know too many people who do. However, it is valuable to learn to handle losses with good manners.

We teach our students from the start that when you win or lose you should always shake your opponent’s hand and say “Good game!” Many games will be played and no one can expect to win every game.

I tell our students that good manners is important. It is part of being a chess player. We talk about the right way to handle a win, too.  Jumping up and saying, “I WON, YOU LOST!!  HA HA HA!” is not polite. Neither is bursting into tears and running away from the board, if you lose.

Kids get this. They laugh and nod in agreement.

Last week I was very pleased when a mother of one of our 5-year-old students called me. Her son had been home from school sick for the day and they had played chess.

That on its own was pretty cool!

Then she had told me that she always had trouble with her son when he lost at Candyland or some other game. But when they played chess, he was different. When he lost a piece, he actually said, “Good one, mom!” to her with a smile. She was astonished and very pleased.

I love hearing these stories back from parents!

Many children learn to play chess at home. You, the parent, teach them how to move their pieces, set up the board and begin play. Depending on your skill level these lessons may be very basic, but know they are invaluable.

You have started them down an exciting path. Inevitably they will venture off and play others in school or perhaps even take lessons. As this happens expect your child to come home one day and beat you. As they continue to learn and expand their knowledge those victories may become commonplace.

How you handle these losses will determine your child’s future in chess.

If you are upset, in any way, your child will probably give up playing chess, rather than risk hurting you again. Count on that. If you are elated and proud, you will give them one of the greatest wins of their life. Just try to stop your child now!

When your child is trouncing you consistently, that is the time to allow them to teach you something about the game. Yes, it may involve swallowing your pride a little, to allow your cute little nine-year-old child to show you the ropes of this ancient game, but you will actually be continuing their instruction in the best way possible.

When anyone is given the opportunity to teach someone else a skill, their ability improves in that area.

Teaching is a powerful way to learn.

Breaking down a subject so that someone else can grasp it involves a challenging process that brings about a greater understanding for the teacher. It is truly a way to master a subject.

Congratulations on having a brilliant chess champ in your family! Their victories on the board will translate into life wins, which will carry forward into adulthood. Remember your child’s victories are in fact yours.

Image by Zach Klein via Flickr

Ever sat there with your head in your hands wondering what went wrong in your business? Could it be that you just missed “the right move”?

When you play many games of chess you learn to look ahead into the future and plan several moves deep. You learn to predict outcomes. Yes, the over-the-board lessons do translate to life.

I learned to play chess when I was a little girl. I loved the game, but hated losing. I was usually the youngest person at any tournament or club event I entered and was often the only girl there. As a result other participants would gather around my table and watch my games, interested to see what I could do.

Because of the added attention I played every game to the best of my ability, treating each battle as if everything was on the line. I spent a lot of energy on each move, making sure it was the best possible move I could make in the time allotted.

And if I made a mistake in one game you’d better believe that I did everything I could to learn from that error, making sure I didn’t make it again.

I developed intricate plans and strategies, which had back-up plans in case I had missed something. Each move I made had more than one idea behind it, more than one tactic to ensure success and ultimately victory.

Now you might think with all this caution that I was a timid player. Not so! I was actually very aggressive and attacked my opponent’s king with gusto each game.

I wasn’t afraid to sacrifice a couple of pawns or even a piece to get a glorious attack. I learned which sacrifices worked and which did not lead to a win, but I enjoyed the living-on-the-edge type games the most.

When you become experienced at chess and you care about the outcome, you develop good habits in life. Today I love a challenge and will take on mammoth tasks, but will think through every step carefully.

I create back-up plans for my back-up plans and even some of those will have back-up plans. When it comes to business and marketing you can’t be shy.

Put yourself out there – live on the edge. And it isn’t that I never make mistakes, but when I do, you’d better believe that I learn from them!

Lori Lejeune is an artist in Atlanta who finds inspiration for her artwork in the game of chess. She’s created artwork professionally for more than 10 years and has collectors throughout the U.S. To see more original works by this artist, please visit her on the web: http://www.studiolejeune.net/chess.html

By Bill Kilpatrick and Laura Sherman

Most people instinctively know that learning to play chess can increase creativity and imagination in all areas of life. But many don’t know how or why it does.

Imagination starts with a creative idea. Imagination grows when creative ideas are acted upon. Few people realize how creative they really are.

We find this with every child we teach. They didn’t realize how smart they are!

Chess breeds confidence. It brings clarity of thought.

A young chess player has lots of ideas and they learn to see creative patterns and sequences of the many possibilities that exist on the board in front of them.

Every move allows a player to bring more and more of their plans, decisions and strategies to life on a chess board.

Children learn regardless of whether they win or lose a game. The combination of creative ideas and organized thought is unique to chess. When a child understands the game they quite naturally are drawn to it. They gather around. They each have ideas of their own.

They all come up with different types of plans.

It is very important to encourage imagination very early in life.

What does chess have to do with creative thinking? Everything!

Chess helps a child develop his or her imagination. After all we’re just looking at a board with 64 squares and a bunch of pieces that can move around in different ways until the players breathe life into their games.

As a person improves, each position on the board communicates more and more to the player. One starts recognizing familiar patterns and combinations, seeing how to build from them into new ideas. As these skills increase it becomes easier and easier to plan future attacks and predict outcomes.

The way to win a game of chess is to plan out a strategy and then follow it through until you have achieved your goal, anticipating and countering your opponent’s moves along the way. It all starts with your vision, your ability to imagine a goal.

Get good at this over the chessboard and you’ll be able to apply this to your life. Imagine what you want to achieve, regardless of how “impossible” it might be. Set your objective and take the necessary steps needed to make it happen. Barriers will pop up, but they won’t be a problem if you anticipate them and plan countermoves.

The possibilities are endless and are under your control. The worst thing you can do is push those dreams aside and do nothing to move them forward.

Chess drills players to routinely accomplish their goals, the ones they create that come from their imagination. Let’s teach our children early that it is good to dream and that those dreams can come true. If we do that we might just be looking at an unstoppable next generation!

My husband will be playing 10 children at the same time this Wednesday at Academie Da Vinci Charter School for the Arts in Dunedin, Florida at 3pm.

This event is called a Simultaneous.  They are a lot of fun and show that chess doesn’t have to be so serious and stuffy.

When we do this the kids often help each other, talk over moves, banter with Dan and just have a raucous time!

We are always happy to give these events for free for any school or organization.  Making chess cool and fun is one of our chief goals!