TEACHING BASICS
Chess is such a wonderful thing to learn… and teach! If you are starting a chess club or beginning to work with a child or student then bless you! You are passing on a wonderful gift to them. Make sure you use care, patience and respect while teaching. Additionally, try to be interesting! Use humor, funny voices, cartwheels – whatever it takes to make your students pay attention and have a good time. Below is a very basic chess curriculum recommended by Wholesale Chess that you can use to work with beginners. You can find materials for your lesson preparation in the Winning Chess series of books found in our bookstore!
BASIC BEGINNER CHESS CURRICULUM OUTLINE
1. How the pieces move and how to setup the board
2. How to capture pieces (its ok to capture the King before you learn checkmate!)
3. Check and checkmate
4. More advanced rules of castling, en passant, and pawn promotion
5. The values of the pieces and making good captures and trades
6. Developing your pieces and controlling the center
7. Using multiple pieces to attack and defend
8. Basic tactics – forks and pins
9. Basic strategies – controlling squares, diagonals, and files
10. Basic opening principles – control key squares, activate your pieces, get your king to safety