Pre-lesson #1: The King

I used to spend the first few chess club sessions each year teaching and reviewing the moves of each chess piece. I am not going to do it this year, though. It seems that more and more kids are coming to chess club knowing how the pieces move. I prefer to jump right into teaching deeper concepts so I'm going to try it this year. I would be remiss if I didn't do anything for the newest of chess player and families, though, so I'm creating "pre-lessons" that I will post on the chess webpage. I created word documents of these lessons years ago but I am going to make video versions to post on YouTube. I encourage the newest players and families to review these lessons at home to help their understanding of how the pieces move.

I begin with the king. It's my opinion that the king is the easiest piece in chess to learn how to move. The king can only move one square in any direction at a time.

Set up a chess board with no pieces on it except for the kings. The kings are placed on the "e" squares at the edge of the board; the white king on "e1” and the black king on "e8". Take turns moving the king one square at a time in any direction. The kings are never allowed to be side-by-side.

Although this particular game is not very exciting, it helps the children understand one of the basic rules of chess; players take turns. It also teaches that players are allowed only one move during a their turn. They also learn the basics of how the king moves and that kings are not allowed to be side-by-side.

Here's a link to the word document and the video.