by Sean Marsh
Half of a school term has now flown by. To say it's been a busy one for Chess in Schools and Communities is a massive understatement.
Half of a school term has now flown by. To say it's been a busy one for Chess in Schools and Communities is a massive understatement.
It's been very interesting to see the different rates at which children absorb the new information. Some of my students have needed extra time to master the basics of the first few pieces (especially the Knight), while others have managed to to sail all the way through to delve into the mysterious nature of the King.Practice games involving armies of pawns against Rooks, Bishops, Knights and Queens have proved to be very successful teaching methods. Some students were disappointed to find out that the King, such a powerful piece in many respects, would lose a battle against just two pawns in most cases.
To assess the children's ability to work as a team, I introduced a few sessions of matches based on the 'capture the flag' exercises. This worked very well, with some children responding admirably to their chosen roles as captains and all of the responsibilities this entailed. The captains had to select their players, in turn, from the rest of the group and maintain a very high level of concentration and motivation to be a good example to the rest of their team.
Another idea I used to create a more competitive atmosphere was to have the winning players move up a board and the losers move down accordingly. The challenge was to end up on board one by the end of the session.
A little bit of a competitive edge will be useful when we start to introduce our new players to tournament and matches in 2011. I also think it is important to teach the players not only how to be good losers, but how to be polite winners too. 'When it comes to choosing a school team, I probably won't consider those who wave their arms about and tell their opponent they were rubbish', I tell them. Some will need extra work in this area! The concepts of 'Check' and 'Checkmate' will feature heavily in our sessions between now and Christmas. Stripped down to the basics, they are fascinating and unique ideas.
Some children have already been shouting 'checkmate!' whenever they capture a lowly pawn. Their chess journey is going to be longer than they originally thought…
Thursday 7 October 2010
