Dan and I taught two chess classes today, both free intro classes.  I love these beginning weeks when we can introduce new children to the game.

The key to teaching very young kids chess is to take your time with the basics of piece movement.  I start with the Rook.  When I first began teaching I experimented with the best order for introducing pieces to a new student.

It is tempting to start with the pawn, because it is the least powerful.  However there are so many parts to that little guy that it gets very confusing quickly.  I end with the pawn now.

After I go over the Rook, I make sure that they can move the piece around the board confidently before continuing on to the Bishop.  Once they have those two down I play a mini-game with them, allowing them to simply move both pieces around the board.

Today I had a class of nine 5 and 6 year olds.  Six of them were returning students and so we could pair them up.  Three were new to the game, so Dan took one and I took two.  They all three did very well.  At the end of the class they really wanted to continue lessons.  It will be fun to continue their chess education through the semester!