Teaching young children chess, some remarks Karel van Delft, London Chess Conference

Questions  From which age children can learn chess?  How to teach them?

Scientific research and experiences  Not much scientific research available  Quality research often questionable: Gobet, Campitelli: ‘Educational benefits of chess instruction: A critical review’.  Possibilities to learn from best practices (observation, experiences)

Transfer  Chess is presumed to have a lot of benefits  Should be result of transfer of skills to other domains  Scientists: only transfer if chess skills are also part of other domain

Cognitive development Chess demands some stage of cognitive development  Information processing: memory, perception, analyzing, reasoning, visualisation, problem solving, decision making, planning  Taking perspective of opponent  Self-management: concentration, patience, perseverance, self-control

Prodigies and pattern recognition  Excellent performances young children on mathematics, chess, music  In common: pattern recognition and adults who coach/teach  Polgar: no nature, geniuses are nurtured

Start when interested  Start when kid shows interest  Kids have inborn curiosity, they want to discover  Motivated to learn if they find interest and can create something  Maria Montessori: Help me to do it my self  Vygotsky: Zone of proximal development  Bilalic: Intelligence not very important, motivation and training are  In The Netherlands only a few dozens of kids of six years old member of national federation

Playing Playing is an essential way of learning Functions: learning, problem solving, social skills, self-management

Learn from biographies Waitzkin and Polgar  Stimulate at early age  Stimulating environment  High but attainable goals, success experiences  Learning by playing  Stimulate selfconsciousness  Lot of variations in excercises  Empathy teachers  Kids pulling their own conclusions  Trust intrinsic motivation of kids

Didactics Didactics is the art of teaching Long list of aspects: learning goals, age, expectation level, feedback, empathy, group processes, role models, fantasy, frequency lessons, language etc, etc, etc.

Methods  Chess board with coloured pieces  Movies  Mini games  Play together and tell a story  App ‘Alterman Chess’  DVD Fritz and Chesster   

Sources Book ‘Schoolschaken’ (School Chess), sources (mainly English), chapter 2 n%20boek%20Schoolschaken.pdf