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Chess
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 | Chess
from the Mind Sports For Schools initiative |
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1 INTRODUCTION - 25 REASONS WHY SCHOOLCHILDREN SHOULD PLAY CHESS!
1.1 Chess is fun!
For more than one thousand years, millions of people in all cultures and walks of life have enjoyed playing Chess, the "game of kings," which probably originated in India.
1.2 Chess is a game for people of all ages.
Age is no barrier to learning chess. You can learn to play at any age. Youngsters can play adults on a level playing field.
1.3 Chess helps children perform better in school and raise their academic results.
Many studies have shown that children who take up chess improve their academic performance. They raise their levels in reading and maths.
1.4 Chess can help you to live a longer and healthier life.
Don't laugh! Recent studies show that people who play chess are significantly less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. It appears that playing chess stimulates important areas of the brain.
1.5 Chess improves concentration.
Some children have trouble sitting still or focusing on a task. To play chess well requires concentration which is why regular chess players often find they improve their powers and lengths of concentration.
1.6 Chess develops logical thinking, imagination and creativity.
There is a link between these three skills just as there is a link between music, mathematics, and chess, which are the only three fields of human activity that consistently produce child prodigies.
1.7 Chess encourages you to be inventive in the face of new situations.
There are more possible different chess games than there are atoms in the universe. This explains why a chess player is continually confronted with new situations on the board.
1.8 Chess teaches independence and personal responsibility.
In a chess game you must rely on yourself. There is no luck.
1.9 Chess teaches you to plan ahead and foresee consequences of your actions.
And you get immediate feedback! It does not take long for you to see whether or not a particular move has worked out well for you.
1.10 Chess inspires self-motivation.
It encourages you to search for the best move and the best plan.
1.11 Chess develops the scientific way of thinking.
While playing, you generate many possibilities in your mind. You test your chosen move by playing it.
1.12 Chess develops your calculating ability.
Although the best move in a chess game may often be found by following sound strategic principles, many situations on the chess board require you to look ahead and calculate different variations (sequences of moves). This is a different type of calculation to that used in arithmetic - it is the logical calculation of consequences for different actions.
1.13 Chess teaches research skills.
There are thousands of chess books, computer programs, and web pages available for the real enthusiast. Serious players learn how to find, organize, and use boundless amounts of information in the same way as researchers in other fields.
1.14 Chess develops self-confidence.
Achievement in chess gives you confidence to face other challenges.
1.15 Chess is inexpensive.
Although there are many, many books and computer programs to buy if you become a serious player, all you really need to play is a chess board and set.
1.16 Chess develops your memory.
This happens in two ways: [a] through your effort at the board to calculate and remember sequences of moves; and [b] by your study, away from the board, of moves and variations that you can find in chess books, magazines and on web sites. Incidentally, the number of books written about chess far exceeds that of all other sports and games combined.
1.17 Chess teaches people to take responsibility for their actions, as they should in real life.
This is because the outcome of a chess game depends on the players' decisions during the game.
1.18 Chess teaches us not to be impulsive, to consider the consequences of our actions.
1.19 Chess teaches us to review events and learn from them.
In chess the players will often analyse a game afterwards to replay the interesting moments and see what they can learn. This is sometimes called a post-mortem. Similarly, in life it is possible at the end of the day to review the day's events and see what could be learned from them. How did the day go? What things went well, what could have gone better, how were interactions with other people?
1.20 Chess teaches the disadvantage of materialism
In chess, material is important (i.e. which side has the more valuable pieces on the board), but in chess as in life there is danger in being too materialistic.
1.21 Chess teaches children to follow rules.
It teaches them that there are consequences for their actions and from that it reinforces lessons of responsibility.
1.22 Chess helps children to learn to win gracefully.
1.23 Chess helps children to learn to lose with good sportsmanship. (No-one wins every game.)
1.24 Playing chess in a school team teaches children to support their peers.
1.25 Chess enables children to gain in self-esteem as they improve their playing strength.
Chess produces pupils who are more ready to learn. Discipline problems amongst chess playing pupils are reduced, allowing teachers to spend a larger portion of the day on their subjects and less time lecturing students on behavioural issues. Primary school teachers who introduce chess to their classes often report needing to repeat lessons fewer times because their pupils are paying better attention.
2 HOW TO PLAY CHESS
Chess is the most widely written about game of all. There are countless books that teach how to play the game and more recently there have been many computer programs developed to play and teach chess. For pupils who know little or nothing about how the pieces move and the rules of the game we recommend learning from one of the many web sites that teach how to play chess. An excellent site for this purpose is www.chesswise.com, where the American Grandmaster Maurice Ashley, who is also one of the leading chess teachers in the USA, has a set of free lessons called "How to Play Chess".
After registration with the ChessWise site, you may print down these lessons. Once your pupils all know how the pieces move and the rules of the game you might follow the other links in the "Free Chess Lessons" box.
3 THE THREE "GOLDEN RULES" FOR BEGINNERS AND NOVICES
There are three very common types of mistake that are made frequently by all beginners and novices. Players at those levels who are able to eradicate all three of these will suddenly find that their ability has taken a big march forward. The three "Golden Rules" are:
3.1 Before you move a piece to a new square make sure that your opponent cannot capture it for nothing or for a lesser valued piece.
Carelessness can be a real killer at the chess board. Beginners are often so focussed on their own moves and so excited by their own ideas and plans, that they forget there is an opponent waiting to pounce on every one of their blunders. So before moving a piece to a new square check that new square - can any of the opponent's pieces move there and capture the piece you are planning to move? If so, can you make a recapture of at least the same value? Also look to see if your planned move will leave another of your pieces with insufficient defenders and therefore liable to immediate capture.
3.2 When your opponent makes a move look to see if it is a blunder.
Just as you can be careless, so can your opponent. Are you able to capture the piece your opponent has just moved, either for nothing or in return for a lesser valued piece of your own? Look at every one of your own pieces in turn and ask yourself - can I capture the last piece that my opponent moved?
Similarly, your opponent's last move might leave another of his pieces without any defenders or with insufficient defensive support. So look to see what pieces were defended by his last moved piece before it made that move - are any of those pieces now vulnerable to capture by one of your own pieces, either for nothing or in return for a lesser valued piece?
3.3 Does your opponent's last move threaten something?
Your opponent must have some reason for choosing his last move. Maybe it was not a good reason but maybe it was to threaten you in some way. Look at the piece your opponent has just moved and ask yourself this - "If I did not have my turn and that same piece were to move again right now, would it be able to capture one of my pieces for nothing or for a lesser valued piece? Or would it be able to move somewhere that checkmates me. Or has it uncovered an attack from a piece hiding behind it?"
4 A DOZEN HINTS FOR IMPROVING YOUR PLAY
Each of these twelve hints will help your pupils to advance from beginner or novice stage to the point where they show some understanding of the game.
4.1 Develop your pieces as quickly as possible.
Development is the process by which the pieces are brought out, ready for action. During the first few moves of the game it is usually a good idea to bring out both knights and both bishops. Of course it is necessary to move a pawn out of the way before a bishop can be developed from its original square. Normally it is better to develop knights before bishops - this is because a bishop usually has a wider choice of move than a knight so by developing the knights first you are keeping open the choice of where to develop your bishops. And it is generally better to develop your pieces towards the centre of the board - this is especially true of knights because "knights on the rim are dim"!
4.2 Don't expose the queen too early.
During the development process it is often best to leave the queen on its original square until both of your knights and both of your bishops have been developed. Even then the queen should not normally be moved to a square on which it can soon be exposed to attack by an opposing piece. This is because your opponent might be able to gain time for his development by advancing a piece that simultaneously attacks your queen.
4.3 Castle early.
The castling move confuses some beginners, partly because it involves moving two pieces as part of the same move and partly because it requires the king to move two squares instead of one square as is usual. It is easier for beginners to remember the castling move if they understand the reason why it was introduced into the game. The reason is that it speeds up the game by moving the king nearer to a corner, where it is safer than if it remained on a central file (column of squares), and at the same time it brings a rook into play. Before castling was possible it would take three or four moves to achieve both of these goals: move the king forward, move the rook to a central file, move the king backwards diagonally towards where the rook came from, and maybe also make another move to put the king nearer to the corner.
By castling early in the game you will normally get your king to safety before the main battle begins, whereas if your king remains on a central file it might well be vulnerable to an early attack.
4.4 Place your pieces so they are difficult to attack.
This is easy to understand. The fewer targets your opponent's pieces have, the safer will be your position.
4.5 Open up lines against the opponent's king.
The object of the game is to checkmate your opponent's king. To do this you will usually need to open up lines for your own pieces to attack the opposing king. Often there will be a pawn in the way between one of your rooks, one of your bishops or your queen and the opposing king - try to move that pawn out of the way so that your rook, bishop or queen has a clear view of the area near the opposing king.
4.6 Keep your own king sheltered.
The best shelter for your king is to have two or three pawns next to it, and some nearby support from at least one of your knights or bishops.
4.7 Control open lines.
An open line is one not obstructed by a pawn. As an experiment, count how many moves your rooks, bishops and queen can make in the starting position - zero. This is because they are all blocked by your own pawns. Now take your own pawns off the board - each of your rooks has 6 possible moves, each of your bishops has 7 and your queen has 13 moves. So aim to give your bishops, rooks and your queen some freedom of movement by putting them on open lines (specially important in the case of the rooks) or by opening up lines that hey are already on.
4.8 Exchange pieces when ahead in material and avoid exchanges when you are behind.
To understand the reason for this, imagine that you are two pawns ahead, i.e. you have two pawns more than your opponent while all the other piece types are evenly balanced. If you are able to exchange off everything else and leave yourself with a king and two pawns against a lone king you will nearly always have an easy win. But while there are many other pieces still on the board there are all sorts of things that could go wrong. The fewer pieces there are on the board the less chance you will have of making a mistake and throwing away your advantage.
Conversely, when you are behind in material you should generally try to avoid exchanging pieces because you want to create as many opportunities as possible for your opponent to make a mistake.
4.9 Exchange queens when you are under attack.
The queen is the most powerful piece on the board and therefore the one most useful in an attack. If you are under attack it will normally help you to relieve the pressure if you can exchange off your opponent's queen for your own.
Conversely, if you have a strong attack, try to avoid the exchange of queens.
4.10 Advance passed pawns as quickly as possible.
In the endgame, when many of the pieces have been exchanged off, one of the most important goals is to advance one or more of your pawns in an attempt to "promote" them into queens. (Remember - this happens when a pawn reaches the far side of the board.)
A "passed pawn" is one that does not have any opposing pawn directly in front of it or on an adjacent file and in front of it - in other words it is a pawn that can advance to the far side of the board unhindered by opposing pawns. (Of course, there could be other opposing pieces hindering its advance.)
If you have a passed pawn, in general you should try to advance it as quickly as possible. Sometimes the endgame can turn into a real race, with each player rushing ahead with a passed pawn of his own, in which case the one that promotes first often has the better chance of winning.
4.11 Keep your options open.
One of the most important features in a chess position is "mobility" - the number of moves your pieces can make. It is often possible to tell which side has the advantage by counting how many moves each side could make from the current position - if material is level the side with the wider choice of moves usually has the advantage. So keep your options open by giving your pieces as much freedom of movement as possible.
4.12 Improve the position of your worst placed piece.
This is a very useful idea when you cannot think of a good plan and cannot find a move that looks strong. Think about each of your fighting pieces in turn: the queen, rooks, bishops and knights. Which of them is the worst placed, doing the least good? Can its position be improved? If so, how?
And finally a piece of (unsporting) advice from the 15th Century
We do not suggest you do this yourself, but a 15th Century Spanish priest called Ruy Lopez recommended that a player should "Place the opponent with the sun in his eyes".
5 HOW TO TEACH CHESS
Once your pupils have been taught the moves and rules of chess the real task begins. How can you give them an understanding of the relative powers of the pieces and how the various piece types can work together?
Fortunately there is an easy and fun way to teach this methodically.
The first stage is to have your pupils play games against each other with only the kings and pawns on their starting squares, all other pieces are removed from the board. The winner is the first player to advance one of his own pawns to the far side of the board where it can be promoted into a queen. This game is an excellent way to teach the strengths and weaknesses of various pawn formations, and to enable your pupils to learn how the king can be used as an attacking piece in the endgame, when the king can attack the opponent's pawns and often pick some of them off. Encourage your pupils to advance the king quickly, to use it in collaboration with the pawns to create weaknesses in the opponent's pawn structure. This is very much a trial and error process but your pupils should soon pick up the idea.
We recommend that a pupil should play several games with just the kings and pawns, preferably 20 or more, before moving on to the next stage.
Next play several games with kings, rooks and pawns. This introduces castling. Again, the game is won by whichever player first promotes a pawn to a queen. If neither player can do this, the game is drawn.
The next stage is to play several games with kings, knights and pawns. This will teach the pupils how knights can jump around the board quite quickly, attacking the opposing pawns and sometimes forcing them to advance to vulnerable squares or to leave other pawns undefended. After several games with the kings, knights and pawns, your pupils should play with kings, bishops and pawns and then with kings, queens and pawns.
Once your pupils have been through all five stages they will be ready to try playing with the full set of pieces. Those who are particularly enthusiastic should be encouraged to download a free chess-playing program from the Internet, one that has beginner levels that will not discourage the pupils by playing too strong a game. One of the most important things about enjoying chess is that your opponent should not be very much stronger than you are, nor very much weaker.
6 HOW TO ORGANISE A CHESS TOURNAMENT
Go to the "How to Organise a Tournament" section on this site.
7 USEFUL CONTACTS AND LINKS
UK Schools Chess Challenge
The UK Schools Chess Challenge (www.ukchesschallenge.com) sponsored by British Land is an enormous tournament organised by International Chess Master Mike Basman (Tel: 07715 041320).
The UK Chess Challenge began in 1996 and was an immediate success, with 700 schools entering, involving approximately 23,000 children. By 2003 numbers competing had almost trebled to 66,000. The structure of the tournament is simple, allowing the most inexperienced players to compete in the early stages, yet testing the mettle of the finest at the end.
The tournament begins every Spring Term, and continues over four stages and eight months. In the first stage children compete week by week in schools all over the UK (currently the number of schools taking part is almost 2,000). Every child is able to win prizes, whether badges, gold spots, mascots, trophies and even baseball caps, so every child has something to play for.
English Primary Schools Chess Team Championships
Each team has five players. There are events for under-9s and under 11s. For details of this annual event contact: Tony Corfe (e-mail tony@msoworld.com) on 01707 659080.
British Chess Federation
www.bcf.org.uk
Tel: 01424 775222
Fax: 01424 775904
The British Chess Federation organises many events including the annual UK National School Chess Team Championships, which is for teams of five players and has sections for under-12s, under 14s and under-16s.
Chess Scotland
www.chessscotland.com
Tel: 0141 22106464
Welsh Chess Union
www.gilbertj36.freeserve.co.uk
Irish Chess Union
www.irishchessunion.com
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