Originally posted by ChessMomThis text, from the Viva-media website, would seem to suggest that the Fritz engine is part of the package.
My second quibble is that after checkmate is reached, it doesn't leave the screen up so you can sit there and study it to figure out how it happened--it pauses a few moments while the winning king's square lights up, and then it takes you directly back to the tournament stand.
So if he's going to want to analyze his games, I suggest that you get him s ...[text shortened]... on chess notation procedures right away, because once it's checkmate, the game is gone forever.
"Powered by the World's #1 Highest Rated Chess Software
Suitable for players of all levels
Free 1 year full access to the internet chess server Playchess.com with product registration! An added value of $19.99!"
The Fritz interface autosaves all games played against Fritz (at any level) into a default database. I take it fom your comments that this feature is absent from "Learn to Play with Fritz and Chesster." Are there no database functions?
Teach him like you would any other person. Tell him the rules governing the men and play of the game and let him play a game while you make sure he plays legal moves. Later you can teach him about the deeper concepts of the game as he is experienced enough too understand it.
Originally posted by AThousandYoungYes, this was a bit of advice I ran across when I was just starting. The concept of "checkmate", where you lose just *before* your king is actually captured, can be quite confusing. So sometimes if you "play through"--that is, go ahead and capture the king--that makes it easier to visualize the concept. Then after a while you just back it up a step and say, "It's checkmate at the step just *before* the king would be captured..."
I'd avoid teaching mates. They are too complex and kind of boring for a kid to learn. Just let him take stuff. If he takes the King keep playing. Whoever runs out of material loses.
Originally posted by WulebgrNot unless it's really, really well-hidden. And I've pretty much explored it from one end to the other in the year I've had it.
The Fritz interface autosaves all games played against Fritz (at any level) into a default database. I take it fom your comments that this feature is absent from "Learn to Play with Fritz and Chesster." Are there no database functions?
And there's quite definitely no Save Game function, either.
My guess (also based on the graphics and the way the game is put together, the way it looks and plays, etc.) is that Learn To Play is geared exclusively towards teaching really little kids, like younger than age 8 or 10, the absolute rock-bottom basics of chess, and they figure that by the time Kiddo is ready for databases and analysis, he'll be ready to play Black, and will want the board to stay put after checkmate so he can look at it, and will just generally "not need Chesster" anymore.
It's also possible that they thought it might be too intimidating, all that "depth analysis" and stuff. Chess already suffers from a "geeks only" image, and maybe they thought having things like "interfaces" and "databases" would only contribute to that. Obviously the makers want to present chess as "a fun and cool game that anyone can play", not as "only for eggheads".
Fritz and Chesster costs a decent amount less than a fully functional version of Fritz. I feel the choice to keep them very seperate things was deliberate. Fritz can be challenging to understand at first and exposing an 8 year old just learning would probably be a bad thing.
I think if you want to continue to get better at chess after finishing with Chesster Fritz 8 is the way to go.
Originally posted by XanthosNZI'm not sure what you mean by a "fully functional" version of Fritz. I have both Fritz 8 and Fritz Grandmaster Challenge, and my understanding was that they both basically "are" Fritz. Is this not true?
Fritz and Chesster costs a decent amount less than a fully functional version of Fritz. I feel the choice to keep them very seperate things was deliberate. Fritz can be challenging to understand at first and exposing an 8 year old just learning would probably be a bad thing.
Also, neither of them set me back more than $20, and actually as I sit here and think about it, I remember that I found Fritz GM Challenge as shrink-wrapped-jewel-case on the OfficeMax remainder-rack for $9.99.
But I agree that both games would be a bit overwhelming for a little kid who is just learning to play chess, "TMI" basically, unless it's one of those kids who are immediate chess whizzes, who would be bored and irritated by moving little teeny Fritz and Bianca cartoon characters around a chessboard, playing against a King Kaleidoscope wearing beach togs.
Originally posted by ChessMomYes they are.
I'm not sure what you mean by a "fully functional" version of Fritz. I have both Fritz 8 and Fritz Grandmaster Challenge, and my understanding was that they both basically "are" Fritz. Is this not true?
"Fritz" describes two basic elements--an engine, and the graphic user interface (GUI). The GUI provides the environment for access to the playing and analysis features of the engine, access to online play at playchess.com, and access to the database.
The Fritz GUI is shared with Junior, Shredder, Hiarcs, and Tiger. If you look at the box of any of these products, you'll see the Fritz logo.
The engine is the program that does the move calculation. There are many available versions, the most recent being Fritz 8 Championship Edition. It is the the engine that played against Garry Kasparov in the X3D Man vs. Machine championship.
Junior, Shredder, Hiarcs, Tiger, and Fritz each has its own distinct style of play, each plays at strong Grandmaster strength, and several are available in a Deep x, or multiprocesser version. The interface offers several ways to handicap these engines so they will play a weaker game.
When you buy Fritz 8, you get the GUI, the engine, an opening book designed for the engine, a database of ~ 1/2 million high quality games, and generally several other engines--Fritz 5.32, some version of Crafty, and Comet. You can download other engines that will run in the Fritz GUI from the chessbase website, as well as other sites around the web. Since 2001, when ChessBase issued an upgrade to Fritz 7 that supports the UCI protocol (Universal Chess Interface), it has become possible to add a rapidly growing number of additional engines--more than 100 different UCI playing engines are currently available for free.
Some of these engines are weak enough that an average player can win against them at full strength, but the majority play at expert level, or above.
My daughter is 5 and is learning at school. They taught her first to play 8 pawn v 8 pawns and the winner was the first to get a pawn to the end of the board. Then they introduce the rooks and then the queen. The bish was then added and finally the knight. She can move all thepieces and play p t0 k 4, get her knights and bishops out and then castle. Gradually she is learning. She really enjoys it!!
Mates are too complex at the moment. She plays once a week and we play at the weekend for half an hour,
I think this pace has been ideal for her.
Originally posted by cantspellI use this pawn game with elementary school kids with success. Occasionally, I'm even able to get a 6 or 7 yo to understand en passant, but this rule takes time.
My daughter is 5 and is learning at school. They taught her first to play 8 pawn v 8 pawns and the winner was the first to get a pawn to the end of the board. Then they introduce the rooks and then the queen. The bish was then added and finally the knight. She can move all thepieces and play p t0 k 4, get her knights and bishops out and then castle. Gradua ...[text shortened]... week and we play at the weekend for half an hour,
I think this pace has been ideal for her.
The only problem I've had with the pawn game was with one special needs student who thought he had won a regular game when his pawn reached the eighth rank. Now I'm more careful to stress that the pawn game is only a learning tool.
My boy is nearly 6. I started teaching him when he was 4. My approach was to teach him how the pieces move, then start to play and correct him where he goes wrong. It's a gradual process. At first when he learned how a pawn can be promoted he'd begin pushing any random pawn down the board until it was captured, then he'd try it with the next one. He ignored my suggestion that maybe that wasn't the best idea, but eventually he caught on. Now he's learning from the begining onwards. When we play I guide him towards developing pieces, controlling the centre etc., but the attention span thing kicks in and he usually loses interest in the early middle game. We simply agree to a draw. He doesn't feel bad and each time he gets a small lesson in something. He knows its important to protect his King. He knows about check, but he has no concept of checkmate. I think it will be easier for him to grasp, though, now that he knows that you are forced by rule to respond to check and it's illegal to put yourself into it. It's a small step now to teach him that if you can't get out of it that's the end.
He's starting to play other kids now in our newly forming club (hey, check out our website at www.geocities.com/feocc_chess and tell me what you think) and I hope the competitive aspects will drive him to stay interested until the end of the game. Little by little he's catching on. Now I've started on my 3yo daughter!
-Joe
Originally posted by SkorjA practice I adapted from others who recommended it is to let the kid turn the board around, changing sides, a certain number of times. Sometimes, as when checkmate can be quickly forced, I'll turn the board around for the child and have him or her checkmate me. They learn the patterns this way, and don't feel quite as helpless, nor that you are throwing the game to give them a chance.
My boy is nearly 6. I started teaching him when he was 4. My approach was to teach him how the pieces move, then start to play and correct him where he goes wrong. It's a gradual process. At first when he learned how a pawn can be promoted he'd begin pushing any random pawn down the board until it was captured, then he'd try it with the next one. He ignored ...[text shortened]... f the game. Little by little he's catching on. Now I've started on my 3yo daughter!
-Joe
As a player improves, you can limit the number of turn arounds.
I've got three , two of which wanted to learn chess . I found the hardest obstical was the short attention span and lack of immediate results . There have been several good suggestions on this thread that all involve starting with chess scaled down to characteristics of one piece at a time . I played on 5x5 and 6x6 boards with just rooks , or just bishops . Then I'd involve a few pawns . Then piece combinations like knights and bishops / rooks and bishops / etc . As soon as they show any signs of getting tired of it - just put it away . If you force them to stick it out , it is immediately equated with homework . I Tom Sawyer'ed them into wanting to play the standard chess with telling them how boring it is , and how they wouldn't like it . But after we'd just had so much fun with "rook and bishop wars " , they'd plead with me to show them real chess .
It also will vary greatly from child to child . What worked with my son bored my daughter . And be prepared for the disappointment of them not liking it and wanting to continue with it .
Good luck , you get a medal for being so involved and attempting it !
Séamus saw me play when he was a tiny kid (three or so) and gallumphed about with his "horsey" making whinnying noises. Then when he was six he decided he wanted to play, because draughts was boring. So I taught him the knight move first, as it was his favourite piece. Then, with sound effects, I taught him bishop ("the bishop can fly down diagonals. It's like he has a bow and arrow - " then I posed, as though holding a bow and arrow at a diagonal. Then went "wheee!" as I let the bishop fly.) Explained why they always had to stay on the same colour. Then introduced the rook, which he thought of as a train going choo choo along the tracks. Then the queen.
Introduce moves one at a time and make it fun!
Originally posted by flexmoreI havent read everyones posts so if this has been suggested sorry :-)
How should i do it?
He is interested ... he sees me play and wants to learn .... but i don't know where to start.
should i set them up as at the start of a game? - then he has to learn how all the pieces move at once.
should i just let him have all the pieces and i only have a king?
should we both have just pawns and no pieces?
??????
I know that a lot of the romantic age masters learnt chess from newspaper problems. Some of them didnt even know chess was a game till there teens. Maybe you should just set some simple chess puzzles for the kid to work through and he will get to grips of the game. Puzzles will also help teach him the more complex side of chess which just playing games probably wont.