Breaking the rules
March 14, 2010
Image by andreasnilsson1976 via Flickr
There are not many official rules in chess. Once you learn how the pieces move and how you win the game, there are very few other isolated rules to learn.
There are a number of rules-of-thumb, though. These are principles to follow most of the time. They cover where to place your pieces at the beginning of the game, when to trade one piece for another, etc.
Once you understand these concepts and have gained some experience with chess, you can begin to play around with breaking these rules.
Dan and I taught a new student online last Friday. The lesson had been a birthday present for a 12-year-old boy. He was fairly new to the game.
The thing that impressed me the most, was his willingness to try new things, take a few risks, think outside-the-box. Even though he knew that a bishop was worth more than a pawn, he was willing to experiment with sacrificing it to gain an attack against my king.
Although that sacrifice did not work in that case, if he continues to try out new ideas, he will be successful. It helps to go over these ideas with a coach, who can teach a student more about how to implement those concepts.
It is important for a beginner to have good stable principles when they first learn chess. It helps them navigate through all the potential confusions. However, at some point, it is the right thing to allow them to play around with breaking the rules.
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First: I’m really not very good at chess, though I enjoy it.
But.
I’d like to think it’s a lot like learning to write; you should have a pretty good mastery of the language before you start breaking its rules.
My kids are notorious for massaging the language and, when questioned, say they understand they “broke a rule” but that they did it on purpose.
What I tend to tell them is that if their audience (teacher) doesn’t know they know they’re taking liberties it just looks wrong.
As an instructor, isn’t it difficult to tell when the kids are actually experimenting as opposed to just not getting the precepts?
comment by Tony Russo — March 15, 2010 @ 4:36 am
Tony, that is a very astute comment. Yes, it is important that a student know the rules first and really be pretty fluent in them, before they start playing with them too much. I don’t teach about the exceptions until they come up naturally and the student is ready for it. However, in this case with the lesson last Friday, the boy was naturally coming up with the idea. I wouldn’t want to tell him, “No, that’s not right because the bishop is worth less than the pawn, so don’t do that.” because the principle was correct. He’s on the right track with his thinking.
It’s just a bit more advanced. When you understand the value of pieces and then can see the value of a position, you can weigh them accordingly.
It is important when teaching to see when a student can grasp a concept quickly and help them move along that path, at their speed.
One of the beautiful things about chess is that it teaches you to think outside the box. You learn to solve the problem in creative ways. This lesson definitely translates to life!
comment by Your Chess Coach — March 15, 2010 @ 7:43 am
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