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baby chess

I'm a very poor player but I'd like to teach the basics to my son (at least as soon he'll be able to stay seated). At which age you've started play? Do you think there's a "standard" age to begin? Thanks.
I learned to play at 7, but never learned the rules of castling and en passant till later.
I learned to play at 4 but never played anything more than random queen moves until I learned how to play about a year ago. I am 19 now. The first person I played was my mom. She told me when I got playing chess again last year I beat her the first game we played :P

If I learned when I was young and took it seriously like I do now it would have been a gift I could not have asked for. The earlier the better I don't think there is an age too young. Teach him how the pieces move and the special rules en passant and castling as well. Also make sure when he starts out not to get into bad habits like moving too quickly.

e: make it fun not serious. Fun should always be the objective.
I bought to my daughter a big vinyl-chessboard and big plastic pieces ( so she wouldn't swallow them) when she was 2 and I left it next to her toys. From time to time, when I saw her playing/messing with it I was trying to teach her something.
Now she's 3 and already knows the name of all pieces and the initial setup. Learning the moves seems it's going to be not that easy, but at least I get her to not forget to press the clock after each random-move.
I think the most important thing at such an early stage is to have fun and maybe familiarize themselves with the game. Don't push him to play if he doesn't want to and if after explaining him something 3-4 times he still doesn't get to, change to another thing (or game). You don't want him to hate the game already :-)
Later if they are really interested in learning more you can join with them any chess club and over there, for sure, someone with more teaching-experience can train them.
Regards,
Mike
Mike - I'm impressed :-). Unfortunately my son didn't want to play chess when he was young.
well thanks everybody. I've no experience yet in teaching babies but I think chessanalyst is right, it should be first of all fun. something difficult with a strict game as chess.
never! I think that force a baby to be a champion in any game is a great way to ruin his life (or at least hate his parents, see agassi). he'll do what he wants.
My son learnt the set up and some of the moves but at 4-5 found the length of the game and the goals hard to grasp (in contrast to checkers/draughts which was no problem). But I haven't pushed it for the same reasons as above - no point in putting him off!
Studying 7 hours a day since 2 years old will be enough for him to become world champion when he gets around 20. So make that little baby work hard now! Don't give him a break!

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