4 junior chess videos

I’ve been teaching children to play in my junior chess clubs for many years and during this time I’ve made a few videos.  Some have been made about me to either promote chess as an activity or to highlight the benefits of chess that children gain when they are learning to play. Here are some of the recent videos that you might want to see to give you an idea of what I’m trying to achieve.

This video below, is a recent one in which I talk about my experiences teaching home-schooled children at the class on Monday mornings in Lewisham – which is closed until further notice due to the pandemic.

I sometimes arrange a few chessmen on the board in a random way so that a new child to the club can learn how the Knight moves and captures. They have to look aroung the board and every time they move the Knight, they must capture a chessman in a certain pattern until they are all the men are removed from the board, This helps with planning and calculation and the following video shows how this young lad achieved the task with just a little help from me.

 

 

When it’s time to learn about a new part of the game I ask my students to read about the new topic before they try the moves on the board. This helps them understand the theory behind the move and they also gain a deeper understanding of why the technique is relevant to what they need to learn. Reading about check and checkmate here, this student is finding out what it means when you attack the King.

 

 

Just a quick snapshot of the popular Pawn game.  This is a mini-game of chess where only the Pawns are used.  Beginners are introduced to this game in their first lesson so they can know what the Pawn can do and what it can’t do. They are also told and shown how the Pawn moves and captures and how to win the game by getting only one Pawn to the other side of the board first, or by capturing all their opponents Pawns. And as I don’t always win when I play this game, I’ve learnt to concentrate more. Theses little guys are tricky you know!