The Definitive Guide on Choosing a Chess Coach for Kids Online

Is your child showing interest in playing chess? Maybe you should consider getting a personal chess coach online. While it is possible for talented kids to learn it on their own, there’s no substitute for having a professional trainer guide and help them develop skills in strategizing and planning. Having someone who can evaluate their games and create custom training plans can make all the difference in your child’s success. So, how do you choose the best online school or chess coach for your kid online?

1. Find a reliable online chess school that has been around for years

With the availability of online chess schools today, how do you pick one? The key factor to consider is reputation. You need to find the most credible and highly recommended school or teacher out of all the options. Take into account the testimonials, feedback, and success stories of their students. In general, chess schools that have been around longer, have better teachers and a more structured curriculum that is proven effective.

2. Explore the learning platform

Chess trainers provide online lessons in different ways. Those from recognized online chess schools use their own learning platform where your child can communicate and take lessons from an instructor. Not all learning platforms are the same. Some will let you register free while others require payment. Some also have lectures, tournaments and group courses that kids can take part in.

3. Get to know their coaches

Like any parent, you want your kid to learn from the best chess players and coaches in the world. That's why you need to review the credentials of the coach before enrolling your kid in an online program. Many parents look for experience and recognition in a coach—and both are important. However, aside from these, you should also ask about the chess instructor’s teaching style. You want someone who is patient and is good with beginners.

Chess 101 – Chess Setup and Rules

To learn chess, you need to know and understand its rules and how to set up the board and its pieces. Part of the lesson is identifying how certain pieces should move and where they can go. There may be a lot of references to help you get started, but we have listed down the essential things you must know about chess setup and rules to make it easier for you:

• Know the goal of chess – The ultimate objective of the game is the checkmate, which happens when you are able to trap the King of your opponent. Checkmate comes from ‘Shah Mat,’ a Persian phrase that literally means, ‘the King is ambushed.’

• Basic setup – The chessboard has eight columns and rows, totaling 64 alternating color squares. A unique pair of number and a letter corresponds to each square. Vertical files are identified as A to H, from the left of White (queenside) to the right. Horizontal ranks are numbered one to eight, starting from the area nearest to White’s side. Every square is identified by a file letter and a rank number. Basic chess setup and rules call for the white Queen to be on a white square, and the black Queen must be on a black square.
  
• Remember: White moves first – One of the most important things to remember in chess setup and rules is whoever takes the White side between you and your opponent starts the game. You will be taking turns, alternately moving a piece at a time. Movement is necessary, so you cannot pass.

• What happens if there are no moves left? - If it is your opponent’s turn to move and they are not in check, but they do not have legal moves anymore, that is a ‘Stalemate,’ which means that the game has ended in a draw.

• Every piece is allowed to move in a certain way – You may move a piece to another square or capture a piece of your opponent and replace it on its position. En passant, however, is an exception. A piece is unable to move through or over any other piece, except for the Knight.
  

Mastering the chess setup and rules calls for frequent practice and proper instruction from a qualified instructor. So, consider playing chess online and study with help from a chess instructor.

Finding the Best Chess Teacher to Learn Chess Strategies

Chess is certainly fun, but it can be hard to learn. It is a ‘mind game’ that requires you to make smart and strategic movements in order to win against your opponent or at least prevent a quick downfall. Have you considered hiring chess teachers to learn the right techniques?

It’s much easier to learn chess strategies when you have people around you who also play the game. But this is often not enough. Casual players often don’t have the skills to teach others; at most, you can only learn the basic movements of each piece and the game’s rules and regulations from them. If you’re serious about getting better at chess, it’s time to find a chess teacher.

Chess classes can be expensive and troublesome since it is mostly conducted in a classroom setting where you must leave your house. But fortunately, there are now a lot of websites where you can learn chess online.

When looking for classes, look for a site that is ranked as a leading online chess school. Make sure that they offer live sessions from real time chess teachers. These classes should be tailored to fit each students’ needs.

Be sure to join a class that is beginner friendly and caters to your age group. Also, if you are a person with special needs, look for an online chess school that has teachers who specialize in your needs. Most importantly, enroll in a class that is taught by a reputable online chess teacher who has many successful students in the field of chess.

Chess is not only a fun game-it has also been proven to be a great way to increase one’s IQ. It is also a perfect activity to teach your children as it can help them focus. Chess can be social, too, as it lets you meet new people and make new acquaintances.

How Effective is Chess Learning Software?

The world today is immensely different from three decades ago. From a world that has never heard about computers to one where computers can be worn and brought everywhere, technology has gone a long way in changing the way people process and exchange information, communicate, and do things in general—even the most basic chores. The rise of the computer age enhanced by the connectedness that the world wide web and the internet bring has given way to a brand-new world run by digital tools. A chess learning software is one such fruit of the information and digital age. The question remains, just how effective are these man-made tools in providing the training and learning that students need to get better in the game?

There are all kinds of chess learning software that float around the market, some offered for free online. Websites that provide chess learning resources are also widespread, providing chess enthusiasts and those who are serious about improving their skills with all kinds of tools and programs designed to help them succeed at their training goals. If you enjoy online modules and the gamification of learning, you will find chess learning software programs to be extremely beneficial in your quest to enhance your chess skills.

Chess tactics websites, for instance, are widely available online. If you are interested in enhancing your tactical skills, these are great places to practice as they provide a wide range of tools and practice modules that you can use to sharpen your skills. Opening trees are also quite popular with chess players, as well as chess engines that are designed to analyze games and help you work through common mistakes that you are committing throughout the course of your own matches or perhaps learn from other people’s mistakes. These, along with actual chess learning software programs that offer chess lessons are great tools for enhancing your skills and knowledge in/of chess.

Know the Chess Set Up and Rules of the Chess

While chess can be an intimidating concept, chess setup and rules are actually quite simple and easy to understand, if you only take time to really learn the basics. The first thing you should understand is that chess is a game played between two opposing sides, the black and the white side, each taking alternate turns, moving a piece at a time in order to capture the enemy’s king. The player on the white side moves first. This is one of the first and most important chess setup and rules you should remember as you learn to play the game.

Moving on to the chess pieces, you will notice that each side is given a total of 16 chess materials of different types, each of which moves in a particular way. A piece isn’t allowed to land on a chess square that is occupied by a friendly or same colored piece. If your piece lands on one that is taken by an enemy piece, the material is captured and removed from the board. Pieces are not permitted to jump over another, except for the knight, which is also the only piece that can move in different directions and not just in a straight line.

The bishops can move for any number of diagonal squares, while the rooks can move horizontally or vertically. The queen, which is considered the most powerful piece, can move in a straight line either diagonally, vertically, or horizontally.  Pawns can only move one square at a time, except during its first move, in which case it can move two squares forward. It can never move backward and can only capture pieces by moving diagonally toward the next square forward.

Chess setup and rules at the start of the game requires each player having a light-colored square in their bottom right-hand corner. Starting from the bottom left and the bottom right squares, put your rooks, continuing inward with your knights and bishops on either side. The queen should always go on the square of its own color (white on light, black on dark) and the king should stand on the remaining square between the queen and the bishop. The second row in front of the larger pieces is reserved for all your pawns.

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Points to Remember When Choosing a Chess Mentor for Your Chess Classes

Learning chess takes no more than understanding its basic rules and principles, learning its intricacies requires so much more than your dad telling you what each piece can do or how each piece is supposed to move around the chess board. When you want to get serious about a chess career, you need a chess mentor who can walk with you through your journey and teach you the ropes as you climb up your skill level. Perhaps you are finding no improvement despite hours spent in self-study or maybe you are in need of an experienced advisor who can help you understand more advanced concepts and develop a stronger repertoire of tactics and strategies. Here are some things you should remember when hiring a chess mentor:

• Experience is important. This said, experience doesn’t automatically make a grand master a good teacher. A successful chess master career doesn’t necessarily mean success in teaching. Choose a chess mentor who has an experience and a good track record in coaching other players. This means they are effective in imparting knowledge to their mentees. Teaching skills also improve with experience as they get to meet and work with aspirants of different skill sets and skill levels. 

• Find a chess mentor who brings attention on your needs. A good coach knows how to assess your skills and prescribe programs or trainings you could take to address your weaknesses and further enhance your strong points.

• Know your potential mentor’s expertise. Some coaches specialize in specific areas of the game. If you need to improve on a specific thing, such as openings or the middle game, you may also choose a mentor who has a good repertoire of strategies and tactics that you can learn to address your needs. 

• Is your potential coach an active chess player? Active chess players are also a great choice for a mentor as they are people who haven’t lost contact with their competitive side and is up-to-date with trends, novelties, tournaments, and other things of interest in the realm of chess.

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Learn Chess Openings in Several Ways

How to learn chess openings is a question many beginner players ask during their early career, and for good reason—chess openings dictate the tone of the game. Dominating the start of any chess match is always good as it provides you the advantage of strong positionings and enables you to be in a good place to start attacks on your opponent’s king. Learning chess openings can be equally challenging and rewarding and it often results in improved games and higher win ratings. 

A lot of people stick to one or two opening variations, making it difficult for them to switch to playing another tactic. This said, asking yourself how to learn chess openings time and again will help you expand your repertoire and give you a deeper understanding of valuable pawn structures as well as middle and end games. Here are ways to help you learn new chess openings:

• Develop a mental list of tactical themes and strategic ideas. Opening games revolve around tactical and strategic themes that follow certain sets of principles and structures. When you study new openings, make a mental mote of common pawn breaks, piece movements and maneuvers, as well as tactical shots. This way, you will be able to recognize similar patterns and ideas in your own games. This will also cause you to actively look for such patterns as you practice or as you go through actual games. Familiarizing yourself with tactical motifs and common strategies is a great way to learn new opening strategies.

• Play training games and actively learn from them. It’s been said that to improve in chess, you need to play as much as you can. This is also true when trying to learn new openings. Playing training games geared towards improving your opening strategy is also a smart way to hone your skills and way of thinking, as well as studying classical games played by grandmasters.

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