Blog Archives - Chess Parents FAQs

How to learn playing chess, knowledge or experience?

3/10/2016

When parents send their kids to my Steps classes, they often say something like: my child has already known how to play, s/he doesn't need Step 1 class, or my child knows tactics, can you teach him some more advanced concepts? They consider chess as a knowledge body, as long as their children know the knowledge, they should move on the next one.

In fact, knowledge-wise, there are not many in chess. You only have 10 to 20 basic tactics, no matter how deeply you want to categorize them. But we spend years on tactics before we move on to discuss any opening in depth. Yes, your child knows what double attack is, but can s/he notice it on the board? can s/he utilize it even before it shows up on the board? can s/he plan for it?

We practice these skills again and again in classroom, and in homework. We hone in our searching strategies, hoping we could spot them more reliably. They are all experience, not knowledge.

From my point of view, chess is 10% of knowledge, and 90% of experience. To improve and increase our experience, we have to work on tactics problems, play games, and play tournaments. Any knowledge is useful only when they are used.

What is most American chess classes missing?

3/9/2016

Most American kids take chess classes at after school chess clubs, or local chess clubs or chess academies, once a week. They are separated by some arbitrarily assigned beginner, intermediate and advanced classes, or more fancy names: pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, and king. The instructors are hoping to hold them for a year or two. There is no long term or systematic approach. They just grab a few games and puzzles, and teach. The students may not get any homework, or just one page of homework.

Most of them will be driven to scholastic tournaments, getting medals and trophies, then everyone is happy. But most of them will be stuck there, and drop out in the end, because they are not improving. Their results are kind of random. Thousands of young kids have been stuck under 1000 after 3 or 4 years of tournaments, which basically mean that they fail to graduate from elementary school.

I consider 1000 as elementary school, 1500 as middle school and 1800 as high school. Everyone should be able to reach 1500, with some hard work!

What the American chess education lacks is a systematic approach, and the Steps Method is the answer. It's not a system for super star, But it's something concrete and repeatable. After 4-year education, assisted with some tournament play, the students should be able to reach 1500.

How to motivate my son or daughter to learn chess?

3/8/2016

I didn't teach my daughter chess. She started late, and learned her moves from her club and Chinese school. I only took over when she needed training, and helped her move from 680 to 1400 in a year. So I didn't have the initial teaching experience from my daughter's learning.

For my son, I began teaching him before he turned 5. We started with Step Stone, which is the book before Step 1. He didn't show much interest, so we just continued on and off. We also began to play the whole game, but he rarely finished any.

One day I started with a book, which was used when my daughter was young. We worked on the one move checkmate problems, and he liked them. We also played a game, and he lost. He lost interest right away. But the next day, we continued.

I soon realized that the field was not leveled when we played games, so I took out my queen. I gave him hints here and there. When I spot a checkmate, I would switch with him, and let him execute the checkmate. He would be very happy to do that, and didn't care that the previous moves were actually his. Once in a while I would checkmate him, and he would cry. The first time he cried was true sadness. But I hope one day he would stop crying.

Nowadays, we play one game every night, and work on 5 problems. It becomes a habit.

No speech is required to motivate your kids. Playing with him/her everyday is the key. Even if you send your child to me to learn chess, I still wish you could play with him/her everyday. Once a week is definitely not enough. It's everyday's job.

If you need one move checkmate problems, you can check out our book on the right.

Why did Princeton Chess Academy choose the Steps Method as its core curriculum?

3/8/2016

When I began to teach chess a couple of years ago, I searched for proper material to teach. I checked the Susan Polgar's free curriculum. The 62-page pdf file filled with some key points, but with no exercise. I checked the chesskid.com curriculum, same problem, no exercise. I bought the Kasparov Chess Foundation Teaching Chess Step by Step, again, very few simple exercises. I was very disappointed. This means no matter which curriculum I use, I have to find my own exercises for my students.

Then one day I hit upon the Steps Method set on USCF Sales site, Step 1 to 5, manuals and workbooks. I was immediately hooked. This is the books I am looking for, and the large amount of exercises are appropriate homework for my students.

For each Step, there is the Workbook, extra Workbook, and plus Workbook. Each contains 500+ problems, which means to pass each Step, a student has to finish about 1500 problems. There are 5 Steps, so total 7500 problems. If a student can finish all of them, plus some game playing experience, definitely s/he can reach 1500 or above. It's a very concrete plan. There is no need to scrap up other material. After s/he reach 1500, s/he is good enough to pick opening repertoire, study positional thinking, and do end game training.

Learning chess is a long term process, taking a couple of years to reach 1500. With a good game plan, we will reach there.

What tactics books should my child use?

3/7/2016

Susan Polgar's books can be used as introduction. Both are easy reading.

Chess Tactics for Champions: A step-by-step guide to using tactics and combinations the Polgar way
A World Champion's Guide to Chess: Step-by-step instructions for winning chess the Polgar way

If s/he doesn't know tactics, s/he can also use

Learning Chess Step 2 Workbook (500 problems)

If s/he know tactics well, and wants to improve, use two classics:

1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations
1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate

If s/he wants to see tactics in real amateur games, use

Tactics Times (1000+ problems)
Tactics Times 2 (1000+ problems)

I have other books also recommended at: http://www.completechesscourse.com/books.html

And the following 3 software should be mentioned:

Chess Tactics for Beginners 2.0 (1000+ problems)
Chess Tactics for Intermediate Player (1000+ problems)
CT*Art (1000+ problems)

All software are available at my online store: http://www.completechesscourse.com/ministore.html#!/Suggested-by-Coach-Andy/c/13271858/offset=0&sort=normal
(Chess Tactics for Intermediate Player and CT*Art are available in the same package: Training Package for Intermediate Players)

What is Steps Method?

3/3/2016

According to the website: http://www.stappenmethode.nl/en/

The Step-by-step method has been developed by Rob Brunia and Cor van Wijgerden to teach children how to play chess. It has been successfully adopted by many chess clubs and schools in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Slowly but steadily the method is gaining popularity throughout the world.

The whole course consists of six manuals, specifically for chess teachers or trainers (the first steps are also suitable for parents), and 20 workbooks (3/4 for each step) which can be used by the students themselves.

Here are the summaries of all steps.

Step 1: rules of chess, how pieces move, introduce attack and defend, check, checkmate
Step 1 plus: advanced attack and defend, board vision, exchange, mate patterns, draw, passed pawn

Goal of Step 1 and plus: play a game from the beginning to the end confidently without any illegal move

Step 2: opening principles, basic tactics including: double attack, pin, eliminate defense, discovery attack, mate in two, and defend against mate
Step 2 plus: simple pawn endings, mating net, how to defend, stale mate, route planner

Goal of Step 2 and plus: know most basic tactics, start playing in chess tournaments

Step 3: deep diving on the tactics learned in step 2, defend against double attack, attack pinned piece, X-ray, mini plan, introduce positional thinking
Step 3 plus: key squares, pawn endings, opening revisit, development and tempo, intermediate move

Goal of Step 3 and plus: skillfully utilize the tactics to win games, become intermediate players (above 800, may reach 1200 or higher)

Step 4: opening advantage, interfering, luring, blocking, think ahead, weak pawns, attack the king
Step 4 plus: seventh rank, end game strategies, trapping

Goal of Step 4 and plus: be able to analyze a position, plan for attack or defense, become advanced players (above 1500)

Step 5 and plus: advanced topics
Step 6: self study material, for expert players only.

Princeton Chess Academy is using Steps Method as our core curriculum. We are teaching Steps classes in classroom, online live class, and online course.

What do we record in our training log?

3/2/2016

We keep our log in one page for each month. You want to jot down as much information as possible. There is no need for absolute accuracy. What we want to achieve is: when we look back, we can clearly tell what we have done and done well, and what we have not done. The key is persistence, not accuracy.

We record the following items:

the number of tactic problems your child has solved/worked on
the minutes of chess video s/he has watched
the number of blitz games s/he has played
the number of long games s/he has played
the number of tournament games
the lessons s/he has taken
the vision training s/he has done, for how long
how much total time s/he has spent

You can add other items to distinguish venues. For example for chess games, I usually had Yahoo chess, ICC, ChessMaster, In-person blitz, Chess Club, etc. How to distinguish them is up to you, as long as you can pinpoint problems and re-enforce what is working.

You can also add opening study, endgame study, master game analysis, and etc.

Not everything has to be done everyday, for example, vision training is suggested to be done once in a while.

Keep it one page per month. This is critical for you to persist. It should take you 5 minutes everyday.

Why is training log important?

3/1/2016

No measurement, no improvement!

When parents ask me why their children can't make progress, I always ask how many chess tactics problems their children are solving everyday, how many games their children play online, how many tournaments their children have been playing, etc. They would pull some numbers out of their head and confirm me that their children have played. My followup question is: everyday? Then comes the hesitation, and some answer a few days, twice a week, or one day a week.

They have no log to back them up, so they can't tell exactly how many problems their children have solved, and how many games they have played. They only have some fuzzy ideas that their children have played. That's very bad fuzzy ideas. Chess, like math, requires exercises everyday! If they don't have a log, they never know how many their children have done, and what need to work on.

When the child is under 10, it's most possible that the parents will shoulder the task. They have to jot down the number of problems, the number of games, the number of tournaments, the number of videos, the number of hours, and etc. When they have numbers, they can tell how fast their children is moving. Sometimes their children might move in the appropriate speed, then no worry. Sometimes their children are moving slower, then spend more time on chess.

For example, if they have a chess puzzle book that contains 1000 problems, assuming they think 10 problems a day is a proper speed, which means their child should finish the book in about three months. If they record the number everyday, then they know when s/he moves faster, when s/he moves slower, and when s/he skips a day or two. At the end of 3 months, they can tell if s/he is on target.

It's so critical to maintain a training log, even for adult chess players. We can't play the numbers by our ears.