Easy Chess Games for Kids

Dave — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 05:04:39 +0000

Chess is a great game to develop strategic thinking, but as a parent how can it be broken down into manageable chunks for a young child? Perhaps some easy chess games for kids would help out with the teaching process? If the child is of reading age then perhaps a book to teach chess might be useful, or perhaps for the parent too? There are of course many options and here is the computer chess online list of suggestions to try.

Free Online Chess for Kids

Use the online flash chess game here on this website. (Shameless plug!)

Flashchess3 gives a great game of chess for kids and plays on a nice 3d board. Left click with the mouse selects a piece to move (when it is your turn). The legal moves for a given piece are all highlighted so teaching the moves is straightforward and the computer is not too strong as to make it impossible to win. There are three difficulty levels to further match the ability of the player to the level of the game.

Click here for an easy chess game for kids.

Download the Crafty Chess GUI

This is an offline option and little bit more complicated. Some knowledge of software is required as the program will have to be downloaded and installed on your PC, but the results are worth it. The advantage here is that once the initial setup is completed your child will never outgrow the program. Not bad for a fee download.

How can I be so confident? Well, chess software beat the world’s best chess player at the time (Gary Kasparov) some years ago. Since that time chess programs have only got better.

The Crafty chess engine plays chess to a very high standard (Grandmaster) on maximum settings, but using this free interface it can be limited to a more reasonable level. After all, we did promise you “Easy Chess Games for Kids”, right?

First, download and install the Crafty GUI itself.

The interface can be downloaded from: http://valters-and.co.cc/crafty/gui.php

The Crafty book files are available from: http://valters-and.co.cc/crafty/files/crafty_23.2_book.zip

Unzip the GUI file into a folder of your choice and then download the Crafty book files and copy them into exactly the same folder as the folder Crafty was unzipped into. (Copy the book files over only, not the files still in the unzip folder.)

When you double click the Crafty.exe in the folder you chose the program will automatically find the book files if they have been placed in correct folder. At this point it might be worth making a desktop shortcut icon too.

If you run into any difficulties along the way please follow the instructions given on the main Crafty website which is at: Crafty Chess

All downloads are free.

Commercial Options

Free software is often excellent, but sometimes you want life to be simple. Commercial chess software installs automatically and offers a great user experience. A very popular piece of chess software is what we will consider next.

FRITZ CHESS 12

The Fritz Chess software has been around a long time. It offers a good user interface and can be set to play at almost any level. The interface offers all the usual refinements such as allowing moves to be taken back and so on. It can also assess your child’s playing strength once they reach a reasonable level. This is much more than a simple chess game for kids though, it is a full blown chess GUI and grandmaster strength chess engine.

Fritz 12 offers chess for kids and adults both. The user interface is quite straightforward and if you don’t like a particular element on screen it is easily removed.

Buy Fritz 12 from Amazon USA

Buy Fritz 12 from Amazon UK

Teaching Your Child to Play Chess

Over time your child will improve in their chess playing ability. There are a number of books available to speed this process along and probably the best modern book on this subject is: Chess for Children

It is a hardcover book with a reading age of 9-12. The books main character George is taught how to play chess by his pet alligator, Kirsty. Kirsty is the Grand Alligator of Chess, or so he says…

All in all a good, fun book to teach your child chess.

Computer Chess Online - Easy Chess Games for Kids

Learning to Play Chess Online Against Computer Opponents

Dave — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:29:09 +0000

Is it possible to learn to play chess online against computer opponents? Some players dislike the style with which computers play chess, but there is no doubting the tactical strength of their play. Players under 2000 Elo stand to learn a great deal by improving their tactical awareness and this is definitely an area in which a computer can help. The other significant area in which a computer can help players improve is in their level of concentration. Chess games between human players at low skill levels are often dominated by blunders that are easily avoided once a player learns to concentrate. Chess computers are relentless and can be set to play at a constant level – thereby punishing mistakes of a lax player and encouraging improvement in concentration.

Grand Masters Use Computer Chess Programs

Top level players use chess software to assist in their chess analysis. If this is a solution for world-class chess grand masters then surely there is a use for chess software to also improve the games of players of lower ability also? While world class players may use complex and expensive clusters of many computers to enhance the speed of their analysis these resources are unlikely to be available to an ordinary player. What is available though is a multitude of chess engines, many of which are free, that are arguably stronger than any human chess Grandmaster. Such instruction and guidance would cost a lot of money if it was provided by a human instructor, yet a computer program can offer this for free.

Memorising Openings by Rote is Unproductive

Many beginners make the mistake of trying to improve their game by attempting to memorise openings, arguing that they suffer a tactical disadvantage early in the game from which they never recover. Analysis by an unbiased source, such as a chess program, will expose this as a fallacy in the majority of cases. At low levels of chess skill a player will have reasonable results by merely adhering to sound opening development theory, rather than spending time learning a particular opening by rote. After all, if they are playing against opponents of similar level, their opponent is very unlikely to play many of the normal “book moves” anyway. Surely it is far better to develop sharp tactical awareness and good concentration skills that will serve you well in almost any position you may come across.

Over the coming weeks and months, it is my intention to show how computer chess engines, when used appropriately, can contribute to a rapid increase in playing strength for players below the level of an International Master (IM).

In the meantime, please feel free to play chess online against computer opponents right here at computer chess online.

Computer Chess Online - Learning to Play Chess Online Against Computer Opponents

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