Best-selling author and internationally renowned expert on children's chess Richard James
offers a very different approach to teaching your children chess.

For most younger children the best way to introduce chess is via MINICHESS: games, puzzles and quizzes based on subsets of the pieces and rules of 'big chess'. To find out more about minichess and how to use it to teach your children, visit our sister site.

While minichess offers a wide range of fun games for young children, we see 'big chess' as a game for older children and adults at which some young children can excel. While you can play 'big chess' for fun with your friends and family, once you play competitively it becomes a serious game where the fun comes from challenging yourself to learn difficult skills, seeing how good you can get, taking part in tournaments and making new friends who share your interest.

Starting with 'big chess' might be appropriate for older children (aged, say, 9 or over) or for younger children who have demonstrated talent in allied domains such as maths along with exceptional self-regulatory skills. If you prefer to dive straight into 'big chess', go ahead and download the introductory volume of our unique CHESS FOR HEROES course.

If you're not sure of the rules youself, start by downloading our free Beginners' Guide so that you can learn the game yourself and teach your children the rules of the game. You'll need a full size set and board with the coordinates indicated round the edges.

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