| Feb-13-06 |
| Bobak Zahmat: Which topics will be discussed at your forum <Caissanist>? |
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Feb-19-06
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| Caissanist: Hi Bobak. Third! No real agenda yet, but thanks for asking. I use other people's forums mostly to reply to old postings of theirs, and I opened my forum mostly for that purpose. |
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Feb-19-06
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| Caissanist: On second thought, if anyone has any suggestions about how best to interest my five year-old son in chess, I'd love to hear about that. He likes fiddling around with the "Learn to Play Chess with Fritz and Chesster" computer game, but he hasn't actually learned the rules yet. I'm trying not to push him. |
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| Feb-21-06 |
| Bobak Zahmat: <Caissanist: On second thought, if anyone has any suggestions about how best to interest my five year-old son in chess, I'd love to hear about that. He likes fiddling around with the "Learn to Play Chess with Fritz and Chesster" computer game, but he hasn't actually learned the rules yet. I'm trying not to push him> Firstly it is important you don't push it too much, because he is just a kid. Secondly, you should take your time. It is very important ofcourse to know the differences between the pieces, you could start with the values of the pieces. |
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| Feb-21-06 |
| Bobak Zahmat: Afterwards taking small steps at a time you could discuss the piece movements, how to take each others pieces and how to PROTECT pieces. I've found myself that PROTECTING pieces is very important at the beginning of learning chess. |
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| Feb-21-06 |
| Bobak Zahmat: If you have achieved the above, you could learn him the basic mates etc. The simplist way to learn a kid playing chess, is I guess to let him solve puzzles, you should start with easy level, and increase after seeing improvements. I hope I've been helpfull. |
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Feb-22-06
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| Caissanist: Thanks a lot Bobak. I think you're right about the puzzles, since he gets VERY angry and then cries whenever he loses (at chess or anything else). |
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| Feb-23-06 |
| Bobak Zahmat: <Caissanist> Playing a whole kid from the beginning is very hard for a kid. That isn't the right way to handle. From solving puzzles kids get excited about chess, and want harder puzzles. Their chess skills grow expentioneel. |
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| Aug-01-06 |
| Reorder: I'm curious, it's been over 5 months since this conversation began. How is it going with your child's chess skills? I want my grandchildren to pursue art, however they best can, but want them to do it in a way that enriches their lives. So, when I'm around them, I try to make art fun and loose. I try to help them discover their own skills. They are learning techniques, but how they apply those techniques will be with their own personal flair. I'd imagine it would be much the same with chess. If he learns a love of the game, learns that he can still be an individual, he may become a very smooth, great player. Anyway, if you happen to see this, I hope you'll post about what your child is doing with chess at present. Janet |
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| Aug-02-06 |
| Octavia: I'm trying to use my forum for teaching chess at a basic level. The most important thing is to allow beginners to win! |
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| Aug-02-06 |
| Reorder: Oh, that's a great idea! I agree, let them taste victory. Once they taste it, they'll crave it, and work to learn more and more. Great approach! Janet |
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Aug-02-06
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| Caissanist: Janet, Octavia - Thanks for the interest, and the kind words. My son and I basically haven't played since my last update, I'm trying not to push him and anyway it's summertime, he needs to get outside and play. It so happens, though, that in the past few days he has started to show interest again, so we'll probably try a game this week. Eric Schiller has the excellent suggestion that you play the first few games without pawns or knights, we'll probably go for that. |
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Aug-21-06
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| tpstar: <Caissanist> You might find some good examples for your Game Collection: What's the Worst Move? here = Game Collection: Anonymous Blunderers Club |
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Aug-26-06
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| TheAlchemist: White to move, 21?
Vincent Rose vs Gabriel Battaglini, 2000 |
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Aug-27-06
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| Caissanist: Thanks for the suggestions, I'll have a look at the games. |
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Sep-11-06
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| Caissanist: I guess what I'm trying to do with my collection is something a bit different from the above. What I'm looking for are games where one player plays not just a bad move but the absolute worst move possible. Most of the time this probably means a helpmate, or something close to it. |
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Sep-12-06
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| Caissanist: My son and I played our first complete game on Sunday, and it was great! At first I was surprised by how much more knowledgeable he seemed compared to the last time we tried to play. But then I remembered that we had checked out "Learn to Play Chess with Fritz and Chesster" from the library several times. I'd shown that computer game to him a few times and he seemed mildly interested, but he didn't really take to it until the last week or two, and the last time he played it in particular he had seemed much more focused and involved than before. One oddity was that he understood perfectly how knights moved, but thought that they should capture anything they jumped over (kind of like checkers, which he already plays very well). But that was one of the few things I had to correct more than once--he got the initial double-pawn move and the sideways pawn capture, though he's still puzzled by castling. He really bore down and concentrated this time, which was fun to watch, except when I took one of his pieces and he had to try really hard not to cry. I didn't try to win of course--mostly, I just copied his moves, and when I taught him about pawn promotion at the end he was able mate me with two queens and a rook. I was also able to introduce him to the concept of one-move threats ("you move the rook here, that way you'll be able to take my pawn next move")--at first he didn't see the point, but after he took several of my pieces by doing that he got the idea. There's still a big wonderful world out there to explore, though, and chess is just one of many things on his to-do list--today he wants to go to the park and learn to ride his bike with only one training wheel. Maybe we'll play another game this weekend. |
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| Sep-13-06 |
| JDK: <Caissanist> Sounds like he is starting to enjoy it. I guess it is all about slowly learning and building up the difficulty..and of course getting him in the right mood when you play a game. For the summer months, garden chess maybe a good idea as he will get to walk around the board with the pieces and feel part of the game. |
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| Sep-22-06 |
| Reorder: how fun! What a good parent you are.
That was cute that he tries not to cry when you take one of his pieces. I fully agree, let him be a kid and play what and when he wants to. If he's going to get into chess bigtime, he will. If not, he will find whatever his gift is and run with it. Janet |
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Nov-20-06
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| RonB52734: I encourage my kids to play chess but never force them to. There are so many other things kids can be interested in. My parents tried to make me take piano lessons -- today, decades later, I still mangle chopsticks. They tried to make me play the trumpet -- today, I might be able to imitate a water buffalo being water-boarded. They bought me a guitar and ignored it and I got pretty damned good at it. To be "Bobby Fischer" or the like, nowadays, requires an enormous, single-minded commitment. As much as I'd like my kids to be "good" at chess, I'd much rather that they enjoy it, win or lose. So I agree with the light touch. |
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Jul-30-08
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| messachess: <Caissanist:...how best to interest my five year-old son in chess...> I'm a bachelor, but I have some very smart friends in matters of human relations; (check out this link: http://www.openingmind.com/) One of the most interesting things that I ever heard from them is that if you want a kid to grow up well, praise everything he/she does.--no personal experince from me with that, but it sounds awfully interesting. So, I would say, if your 5 year old looks like he's gravitating towards being a rock-and-roll drummer some day, get him a drum set (and plug your ears, I guess; I don't know how people handle that.) Hopefully, in your case, it's chess. |
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Dec-20-08
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| Caissanist: I haven't tried pushing my son toward chess for a couple of years now--he's just not enthusiastic about playing someone so obviously better, even though I'm careful not to win. His school is offering chess classes now from an outfit called "U.S. Chess Mates", based in Fremont (here in the Bay Area). If anyone who happens to see this knows anything about them, I would love to hear it, thanks. |
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Nov-08-09
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| Karpova: No, nobody mentioned this to me before. Thank you very much! I'll have a look at it! |
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a real life chess murder mystery
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