How to get There from Here - 2007/10/16 01:50Greetings!
My two boys just played in their first Scolastic tournament this weekend, and it's clear that simply knowing the rules and basic tactics isn't enough. Those other kids study!
I just wish I knew WHAT they were studying.
We have Chessmaster 9000, but I'm not sure how to make best use of all the teaching features. I'm afraid most of the features provide information that we just don't know how to benefit from yet.
So... how to we get "there" from "here"?
What's the next step in learning, and where do we get the information? I need a syllabus or something!
How to get There from Here - 2007/10/16 04:33Hi Chessmom.
Seems like only yesterday my two boys were starting out in scholastic chess. Now they are into heavy metal
I would recommend they study tactics. If there is a good chess teacher in your area that has classes, and has experience teaching kids, they will get more mileage and wins out of that (IMHO) than anything else.
By tactics I mean, pins, forks, skewers, mate-in-ones, mate-in-twos, and preventing the simple mates (fools mate and shepherd's mate). That really gets their minds going in the right direction.
There are some books geared towards kids but I haven't really reviewed or examined them, perhaps someone else has?
How to get There from Here - 2007/10/16 17:21Thanks for the replies!
I discovered that in their school's chess club, we've only learned the first half of what Chessmaster 9000 considers "beginner" material.
I told my 10 yo that and his eyes popped. He thought he knew it all and the other players were just lucky.
I worked through the second half of the beginner material (pawn structure, etc.) just now, but I'm a long way from being able to use it well. I'll have them do it today after school.
I'll also look for books on tactics. I'm hopeing for something that builds skills step by step. I'll have to spend some quality time in the book store I guess.
How to get There from Here - 2007/10/17 04:25Dame: yes heavy metal = heavy pieces (rooks and queen)
As I recall Chessmaster has good tutorials, some narrated by Josh Waitzkin, but I don't remember if they were geared toward kids or adults? At any rate I would not worry yet about pawn structure until they have been playing for a while. Again this is my opinion. Stick with tactics, discovered attacks, pins, big back-rank exchanges, forks of course (Q B P Kn), the common checkmate patterns, these are the things I saw the better kids doing all the time in scholastic chess.
How to get There from Here - 2007/10/23 11:07Two excellent tactics books that are easy to obtain are "303 Tricky Chess Tactics" and "303 More Tricky Chess Tactics", by Wilson and Albertson.
Another good book is "Sharpen Your Tactics", by Lein, et. al. It contains about 1200 puzzles graded by difficulty.
How to get There from Here - 2007/10/26 23:41Mam,Try the book by,Irving Chernev, "Logical Chess move by move" I got one at Books A Million store Ironwagon ---------
Ironwagon
How to get There from Here - 2007/10/27 19:00Nice to meet you Dame! I started playing Chess when I was 32, I'm a hobby player. Your in Isreal? What kind of work do you do? I've done all sorts of jobs,music,songwriting, country field and M.O.R. singer,truck driver,painter, Insurance salesman and the list goes on and on. Hope to hear back from you! David Handle Ironwagon ---------
Ironwagon
How to get There from Here - 2007/10/28 22:51Great song ! Dame, me and my wife wen't to see that movie when it came out. Have you ever seen the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" or "Buffalo Girls" with Angelica Huston and Melanie Griffith? Great stories and movies. Jessica Tandy starred in the first pic. I wen't to Germany when I was in the service back in the early 60's. The only place I've been to overseas. Is it cold in Isreal this month? Lets play a game of chess sometime. Gotta run, take care,Ironwagon ---------
Ironwagon
How to get There from Here - 2007/10/29 13:42Ironwagon it is getting a 'tad' bit cooler in the evenings here now, but in daytime warm as ever, only without that terrible humidity in the air. Looking forward to rain though. A LOT OF RAIN
I will rent the movies you mentioned. I haven't seen them, but they sounds nice to me. I like that genre. Thank you for recommending
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I hope you will like the forum.
heavy metal and chess go together wonderfully I think, no? 
