2024.12.15 - Chess Steps, Stepping Stones 1

Saturday December 15th, 2024
Saskatchewan, Canada

Yesterday we started what may become a family chess club and began working through "Chess Steps" together. The first endeavour is "Stepping Stones 1" for the kids and also for the adults; this is worthwhile because my older (and thus more competitive) kids seem to get dissatisfied if mom and dad are working on something that they may perceive as 'better' or 'more advanced'. Also those of us who think we know how to play probably overestimate our ability, thus rebuilding from the ground up will hopefully prove to be meritorious. The kids are aged six through thirteen, and of course mom and dad are much older.

So far everyone really enjoys chess (as far as we each know the game) and is eager to learn more. I am especially impressed with the sense of accomplishment my six year old has even after only doing the first eight pages. I limited our time to one hour on Friday, and the kids unanimously asked me repeatedly to do another session on Saturday, so we did a short one today.

One of the things I learned as a camp counsellor many years ago was to end games before the kids lost interest, and then they were always eager to play again when the game was announced again; it does seem that the same principle also applies when teaching chess steps.