10:59 PM
Check and Mate!
I followed up on a link in Alfred Wallace's post on BEST OF BOARDGAMES recently, about teaching your kids how to play chess. It's a pretty good little piece, mostly promoting methods in this book:
I liked this little bit here:
I just checkmated my six year-old son. I tell you this because:
* my family was not appropriately congratulatory.
* pumping my fist in the air while chanting "Check-mate! Check-mate!" didn't go over so well.
* until a few weeks ago, I had no idea how to play chess.
Never mind for a moment that I just beat a kindergartener. He's good.
Likewise, I am getting Gar interested in chess these days. He's quite good.. almost ferocious about trying to get a win. He's been greatly assisted by the Chess Club at his school, which is run by the George Mason University CHESS CLUB. Yes, the same university recently in the Final Four. I love these kids-- they charge a nominal fee to bring over a bunch of chess sets, clocks, a giant chess set (pictured below) for big-concept lessons, and a human chess board. I only wish the project (which ended last week) had gone on a little longer.
Since the Chess Club is over for the season, I intend to play a lot of games with Gar this Summer. He's an enthusiastic (if not careful) player that may wish to progress to the Virgina Scholastic Chess Association at some point.
