This week is the opening week for chess club. The first lesson will be "The Matrix" (four-move checkmate). In the past, I spent the first few weeks of chess club teaching players how to move the pieces but more and more children come to chess club knowing how to move them.
I am not a fan of the matrix. I don't teach it to help kids learn an easy way to win. I teach it so that kids can learn how to defend against it. I've had too many players in my club lose to this trap to ignore it.
There are some benefits to teaching the matrix. It teaches the idea of quick development, attack, weak squares, and checkmate. It also helps children feel successful, especially when they come to me during the week and say something like "I beat my parent with the matrix last night!"
The basic idea in the matrix is to move the e pawn up two squares, which opens lanes for the bishop and queen. Moving the bishop to c4 and the queen to h5 and delivering checkmate by moving the queen to f7.
The MadWash Chess website contains a PDF and video about the matrix.
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