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Question from a parent
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 8:26 pm
by JustinHorton
One of my Twitter mutuals sent me a message, knowing that I play chess: I don't really know enough to help him, but I am sure other people here can do better.
He writes:
I've been playing casually with my boy, who is now nine, for some years and he understands the rules. His school has now set up a chess club to enter a longer-running local league and he has started competing against other local schools every week. He would like to strengthen his game and I fear I'm reaching the limits of what I can teach. I'm not a strong player at all, I hadn't played for years before picking the game up again to play with the boy. Are there any good books or guides for children you know off the top of your head? He has a book called How To Beat Your Dad at Chess, which has been some help.
Can anybody advise?
Re: Question from a parent
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 8:44 pm
by Mick Norris
I'd suggest having a look at
Richard James
Re: Question from a parent
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 8:49 pm
by Wadih Khoury
It really, really, really depends on the junior and how advanced/beginner he is, how motivated he is, how much time he wants to spend on it.
Things to consider:
- Junior chess clubs
- Chesskids.com (doing the lessons there are very fun for children
- Chess.com or lichess to play games
- A coach (one to one or group lessons)
- Games like Magnus trainer (a phone app that has lots of games that are fantastic for beginners to build up some core skills)
- more academically, books like the Steps series (it is very dry and academic, so not any junior will be motivated to complete)
- playing in events like UKCC
- tactics, puzzles rush, puzzle survivals (and simliarly named) on chess.com, lichess.org or chesstempo.com
- if willing to invest, some books on chessable. I would not recommend opening books for a beginner, but tactics and endgame ones could be good
The key in my opinion is to keep it fun, keep their interest with games, competitions, goals until they get good enough and old enough to start deciding what they want to do.
Re: Question from a parent
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 9:13 pm
by JustinHorton
I think just to keep this simple we might just stick with books and guides if that's OK, I am hoping to narrow it down to some good choices
Re: Question from a parent
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 10:53 pm
by Roger Lancaster
Wadih is, of course, right in indicating there's no unique simpIe answer - for exampIe, most chiIdren these days seem to prefer Iearning from videos rather than books but a minority stiII prefer the written word. Having said that, if I had to reduce Wadih's Iist to a more manageabIe two items, I think I'd suggest ChessKid and Iichess.
Re: Question from a parent
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 11:47 pm
by David Shepherd
Winning chess tactics for juniors - Lou Hayes is reasonable as a puzzle book.
Re: Question from a parent
Posted: Thu May 19, 2022 9:00 am
by Alan Ruffle
Please view my book "The Chess Scene" on amazon.........or on the EC Forum Adverts or Book Reviews.
Cheers
Alan Ruffle