For Christmas I received a beautiful chess set. My 2 year old discovered the pieces inside the drawer yesterday… He claims he “Likes chess”" when I told him what it was. He liked the 2 horses a mommy horse, and a daddy one.
My dilemma… I cant wait for my children to learn to play chess… Ill finally have someone to play with 
since my husband doesnt play… but I dont know at what age to teach or how to introduce it… has anyone had any experience?
Also my set is really nice, I am sure part of the reason for my sons interest, because he has seen me before playing with our old set and had taken no interest… I dont want to sound mean but part of me has a 2 year old instinct in me to say THATS MINE… any tips.
I think we learnt to play chess at about five years old, but its been a while so I am not sure. If you wanted to see if a two year old can learn to play chess then I’d work first on teaching them how one piece moves (maybe start with the bishop) and see if they get that right and then move on to another piece and see if he can get that right and then with them both together if he moves both pieces the correct way. If not stop and try again in a few months time.
Once he’s moving all the pieces correctly (the knight should be the last one taught) then you can just play at moving and capturing (don’t even teach the point of the game yet)
Once he knows how to capture other pieces and has seen his own pieces taken and has learnt not to throw a tantrum when his pieces are taken away then you could teach him about check mate - by then I’d imagine that he’d be a lot older than three, but you never know.
To be honest writing this I think it might be better to see if your child could play Ludo or Snakes and Ladders first as they involve counting and turn taking which is also important for chess. Still if you don’t mind your child playing with the set then it’d be fun for him to play with it every once in a while (is it a breakable set?)
I don’t even know how to play chess :nowink: :huh:
My 2 and 4 year olds watch older ones playing and have learnt some moves. Look up this just for fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIaW0jCNKMc
What a cute video!
He will learn so much just by watching you play!
Thank you so much for the responses… I will tryintroducing the names first and snakes and ladders…
The set i dont think is breakable… but then again a 2 year has been known to be able to find a way to do anything
kind regards to all that responded… I hear montessori teaches some children at 3 but the montesorri my son goes to doesnt… but they have heard of a place in toronto that teaches chess sucessfully by 5… so if anyone knows of that method please share.
I came across a site that has teaching resources for teaching children chess. I will try to remember where I saw it but you might find something if you google it.