This article, written by the manager of Wholesale Chess, was first published in The Link Homeschool Publications (Copyright, 2009). Reprinted by permission.
You see the benefits of chess and want to teach them to a child. You don’t have to be afraid of not knowing what to do or how to play. There are plenty of resources to help you.
“Remember that you are passing on a wonderful gift to them,” Mrs. Graham, manager of Wholesale Chess said. “Learn or renew your skills right along with them. Make sure you use care, patience and respect while teaching. Also, try to be interesting! Use humor, funny voices, cartwheels — whatever it takes to make your chess students pay attention and have a good time.”
Mrs. Graham suggests each child have their own chess set. It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive. Most students use a roll-up vinyl board, plastic chess pieces, either weighted or not, and an inexpensive chess bag for chess pieces to be carried in.
“Wholesale Chess has a very basic chess curriculum that we recommend to work with beginners,” she said. Only move to the next step when you know your child has a real understanding of what you have already taught.
- How the pieces move and how to setup the board
- How to capture pieces
- Check and checkmate
- More advanced rules of castling, en passant, and pawn promotion
- The values of the pieces and making good captures and trades
- Developing your pieces and controlling the center
- Using multiple pieces to attack and defend
- Basic tactics – forks and pins
- Basic strategies – controlling squares, diagonals, and files
- Basic opening principles – control key squares, activate your pieces, get your king to safety
To be a good chess parent, teacher or chess coach you must be sure to get plenty of feedback from the student, Mrs. Graham said. “Make sure you know how your children feel about chess. If they are feeling burned out, then pressuring them may just turn them off more. If they are hungry for chess and you are not feeding that, they may become frustrated.
“If you have a child who enjoys learning and playing chess, you should encourage that as much as is healthy,” she said. “Chess has great social and intellectual benefits that can affect other aspects of life, but remember that chess is a part of life, not the purpose of life. I suggest chess parents watch or read Searching for Bobby Fischer with their child. “It is a great story. We also recommend the book, Survival Guide for Chess Parents.
“Another important thing, perhaps the most important, is to always make sure that your child knows how much you love them regardless of whether they are winning or losing their chess games,” she added. “Never show disappointment at their performance — they are most likely frustrated enough on their own!”
“Chess will certainly grow in the future,” she said. “Players will have to be more accurate in play, as chess computers and training becomes more and more available. But most of us hope that the essence and fun of the game doesn’t change at all!”
WSC Note: Our Book Category has a selection of books designed for parents or chess coaches to use as well as books for children who are beginnnig to play chess to read.
Okay, admit it. You procrastinated–or worse, you forgot someone! Now you wonder what to do about that last minute chess gift.
Wholesale Chess Gift Cards are the best answer. They will be delivered to your email before Christmas so you can print them out so no one will know you were late with their gift. They can be used for any chess set, chess clock, chess computer, chess board, or chess pieces on our site. They can even be used for chess software or chess books. The possibilities are almost endless.
Best of all—our $25 gift card is on sale! Thursday only you can get a $25 gift card for just $20. Go to our Chess Gift Card section and choose the $25 card, or a gift in any other amount. We will make sure it is sent to you by midnight Thursday night. (Gift Cards will NOT go out after 10 am Mountain Time on Friday.) Happy Holidays!
Today’s Chess Deal of the Day is our 5″ Magnetic Travel Wood Chess Set
with Fitted Insert. It ideal for travel, or to keep in a desk at work. Today only you can save 60%. You can also take advantage of our expedited shipping specials…we pay half! If you order today, you can still get it by Christmas.
Yes, it’s true, like Christmas, our chess Deals of the Day will be gone at the end of this week. 
Today you can still take advantage and get our Deluxe Walnut Folding Wood Chess Board with 2″ Squares at a super discount—50% off retail. It can handle a set of wood chess pieces with a king base of up to 1 ¾ inches. This beautiful folding chess board is made by Rechapados Ferrer, the leading chess board manufacturer in the world.
If you have fancied a nice Mousepad Chess Board this Deal of the Day is for you.
Our 22 inch Large Mousepad Chess Board is on sale today for 50% off. These are a little larger than our regular mousepad boards and will accommodate our Première Plastic Chess Pieces if you lucked-out and picked up a set of those chess pieces
when they were on sale earlier in the month. You can get one–or one in each color if you like. No restrictions on quantity. Enjoy!
The Heavy Tournament Chess Set Combo is one of our most popular tournament chess set combinations. It comes with Heavy Tournament Weighted Pieces, a Quality Vinyl Rollup Chess Board and a Carryall Tournament Bag. The bag not only holds the board and pieces, but has room for a chess clock and a score book or other chess supplies. It is a favorite chess set combo with both tournament players and students. For this Deal of the Day you are not limited. You can order one as a gift, or several for your club.
Need that chess set fast for Christmas? Wholesale Chess is paying half of your Expedited UPS shipping charges for the next few days in order to assure your chess gifts get there in time for Christmas. Expedited shipping includes 3 Day Select, Second Day Air and Next Day Air.
Although it is definitely more expensive to use expedited shipping, a chess clock, chess computer, or even most of our folding wood chess sets are reasonable to ship fast with Wholesale Chess paying half the shipping charges.
But don’t delay any longer. It only will get more expensive as the Christmas week goes on. (Click here to see more about when to ship.) After you have selected your chess set, or other chess gift, go to the shopping cart page and enter your zip code to bring up the shipping charges. You will then find the estimated date of arrival and the discounted shipping costs.
And don’t forget, Chess Gift Cards are easy, fast (they come by email), and 
your chess friends can get just what they want!
It’s getting close! But if you still need a great chess gift for a chess player who likes to take chess on the road, this 12″ Magnetic Travel Wood Chess Set with Fitted Insert is the gift you’ve been looking for. The wood chess pieces really are magnetic and adhere nicely to the special wood travel chess board when playing. They fit inside when not in play.
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