Kids & Chess

[MeMeMe1966]

When we learned as a kid the adults played without their queen until we beat them consistently and then went into normal mode. It makes it challenging for the adults and keeps the kids interested because they always have a really good chance of winning.

[MarillionFan]

When we learned as a kid the adults played without their queen until we beat them consistently and then went into normal mode. It makes it challenging for the adults and keeps the kids interested because they always have a really good chance of winning.

Good idea. I'll try that later.

[quackhandle]

DO NOT DO THIS

Chess tournaments are sheer hell. I've taken my kids to endless football, netball, hockey, swimming tournaments and they have all been fine. The chess ones are awful.

• It takes an entire day for them to play their 6 matches (assuming they don't carry on to the finals).
• 99% of the other parents are ultra competetive and force their children to replay the matches with them to improve.
• A match can be over in 3 minutes or in half an hour so you can't even sneak off for a pint.
• You can't even watch them play.

MAYBE HE CAN MAKE UP HIS OWN MIND?



(the footy tournaments/leagues I used to coach in have been far worse than any of the chess ones I've attended.)

qh

[d000hg]

I played a lot of chess when I was late primary school age, so I guess 9-11. I definitely recall the all-day tournaments. They were always knock-outs and I nearly always got just on the edge of the sharp end, maybe 5 games played. There was always a little tuck shop and a lot of waiting around in-between rounds.
I've no idea how my parents put up with it in hindsight.

[BigRed]

Some-one I worked with took his daughter ice skating one half term because she was bored. Fast forward 2 years and he was driving her to train with her doubles partner three nights a week, 200 miles round trip and practice was after the rink closed to the public in the evening.

[MyUserName]

When I was a kid my father bought me a chess computer. It was awesome. I guess now you do it online? I find gameknot one of the better sites for it. A few people from this forum have popped on and we have had some games on there (tip, never play Old Greg for money at chess).

How about Go? It is easy to learn and due to the nature of the game you can easily handicap one player (by allowing the other to place more stones before the game starts). The difference is that it does not alter the game dynamic. Taking pieces off your board to give someone a chance at chess is fun but it does not teach them to play properly. Once the junior player has won 3 games you remove one of the handicap stones, if they lose 3 you add one on.

ItsYourTurn has Go as one of its games (along with Dark Chess which I love - yes I used to be top of the ladder, if you are asking).

[sasguru]

It's a good exercise to program a computer to play chess using minimax and alpha-beta pruning. Evaluating the static positions is quite good fun. And the sense of anticipiation when the fooking thing makes a move is something else. In practice the program I wrote (more than 30 years ago) played atrociously, but it taught me a fook load about programming.

[d000hg]

I loved BattleChess (was that what it was called?) where the pieces turned into monsters and slaughtered each other.

[northernladyuk]

I played a lot of chess when I was late primary school age, so I guess 9-11. I definitely recall the all-day tournaments. They were always knock-outs and I nearly always got just on the edge of the sharp end, maybe 5 games played. There was always a little tuck shop and a lot of waiting around in-between rounds.
I've no idea how my parents put up with it in hindsight.

I played a lot of chess in my childhood and still play a bit now. They are never knock-outs. Almost always Swiss.

[quackhandle]

I played a lot of chess in my childhood and still play a bit now. They are never knock-outs. Almost always Swiss.

The rapid play I did was 7 games in one day but yes, the Swiss is normally 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday (depending when/if you take a bye).

qh