How We Teach Chess

Aishwarya Srikanthan

www.saswathacademy.com | +91 9112 9112 36

Chess enables you to

Adjust and adapt Learn from mistakes

Analyze Learn from opponent
Be brave Learn the patterns
Be calm Lose with dignity
Be confident Make good choice
Be creative Manage a team
Be disciplined Manage time
Be flexible Never give up
Be logical Not get greedy
Be Patient Not ignore problems
Be prepared Play by rules
Calculate future Prioritize
Compare options Sacrifice
Compete See the big picture
Contemplate See the threats and opportunities
Enjoy Simplicity
Evaluate past Take initiative
Expect the outcome Take responsibility
Fight Take tough decision
Focus Think
Form a community Think Positive
Have a plan Try again and again
Have Commitment Use your strength
Improve memory Win with grace
Know your enemy Work hard

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Table of Contents
04 Foreword
05 How We Teach Chess
06 How Children Learn Chess With Us
08 Interesting facts about chess
09 Our Coaches are teachers first, Players next
10 Tournaments: Preparing children for any outcome
11 For kids: Common issues in learning Chess
12 Fun moments in Chess
15 100 Chess topics for classroom discussion
16 Meet the author
 Foreword

The New England Journal of Medicine found that brain-stretching activities like
Chess reduce the risk of developing dementia, there is the study by Robert
Ferguson of 4000 Venezuelan students that playing Chess significantly improved
IQ scores, another German study in which researchers showed playing Chess
exercises both sides of the brain. These are few of the many studies that prove the
positive effects of Chess. The conclusion being chess could play a significant role in
children's growth by improving their focus and concentration.

Scholastic Chess is about learning competitive Chess in a fun and interactive

manner with specific curriculum and tournament formats. We at Saswath
Academy, teach Chess in a child friendly format, help children gain confidence and
become passionate about Chess. There are two natural outcomes, one being, the
passion in children takes them to competitive playing. The other outcome is,
children become mentally strong and agile, use the knowledge in playing Chess to
other walks of life and succeed.

Our brains are programmed to adjust to the capacity of growth and pressure we
decide to give it. Chess is a demanding game when it comes to mind. We consider
Chess just like any other sport and teach children with all the rules and etiquettes
it requires. We sweeten the tough parts with our unique fun filled coaching format.
In a way, our academy is more of a gym for the brains.

In this eBook we explain our coaching methodology, some of the common

concerns of parents and kids while learning Chess.

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How We Teach Chess

A t Saswath Academy, we understand that chess is challenging for the brain. So, we
ensure that the child learns in a relaxed environment to absorb the viewpoints of chess.

We teach Chess starting from absolute beginner level to advanced levels for children of 5
years and above. Our teaching includes Chess using games, puzzles, practice workouts and
discussions. Our coaches are professional and friendly. We have structured our coaching as
a cycle of 8 content rich sessions, each session spanning 1 hour. We use Zoom
conferencing for online classes. The medium of coaching is English.

These 8 sessions can be taken as weekly 2 classes or 3 classes according to your

convenience. We have batch classes at convenient timeslots from Tuesday to Sunday
(Monday is holiday). If the child is totally new to Chess, we provide 1x1 classes for the first 3
sessions and then have them join other kids. Typically, it takes about 24 to 32 sessions for
an absolute beginner to reach intermediate levels.

Our coaching is structured such a way that even if a child attends few days of a batch in a
week, all the concepts are covered for them. The idea is different from the school
academics which is more like climbing a ladder, which requires all the children learn at
same level. However, our methodology is circular in nature, the 8 sessions are structured as
cycles, so the concepts are repeated within and new concepts are built on gradually. This
helps the children learn at their own pace.

Apart from coaching, we also provide access to our Chess club in ChessKid.com. This is a
babified platform for kids to learn Chess. In ChessKid.com, the child can use it to do
puzzles, games against other kids and bots. After every 8-class cycle, the coach will review
the children’s practice games in ChessKid.com and provide feedback on their
improvement. Parents can also see the progress in rating on the website.

Our club in ChessKid.com has 1000+ Kids. By playing games and tournaments the child
gets ratings and as they win more games the ratings increase. We run weekly practice
tournaments and monthly tournaments in our club.

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How Children Learn Chess With Us

A part from logical thinking and planning ahead, children also learn from the feedback
they get in playing chess. They can see their own thinking process in action and can start
to feel responsible for their own decisions. -Jonathan Levitt, British grandmaster

An important aspect of our coaching is batch classes. We believe team-based learning is

by far the best way to learn how to play chess well. Though admittedly, this fact is not so
apparent at first glance, because we intuitively feel that individual one-on-one coaching is
somehow superior, right? It works for piano and tennis lessons after all. Actually no, Chess
is very different from these other classes. 1x1 tutoring has its drawbacks. Luckily, there are so
many advantages to learning as part of a team.

Educationalists have long known that we learn much more effectively through active
group participation than we do only by being given information. Exploration is a powerful
motivator for learning; And group collaboration ensures that players of varying ability all
progress at their own pace.

Analysis of chess positions is best done in a group context. And what better way to put
insights uncovered through collaborative study to the test than to practice with other
group members. Dialogue with peers to solve problems leads to a more dynamic
understanding of principles, strengths and weaknesses—of a standard opening, for
example. Principles can be explored in depth through discussion and collective decision
making.

There is another feature of chess that differentiates it from other games. In chess, age is
irrelevant. Unlike other sports, a team of chess players can be of different ages, from 6 to 60
and beyond, so they can play and learn together. There is always something to learn from
others regardless of their age. This doesn't hold for other sports like tennis, for example.
The only skill a grandchild needs when playing three tennis sets against their grandfather
is how to dial the ambulance. This is because only the emergency services will be capable
of resetting the dislocated shoulder, bandaging the twisted ankle etc. that will inevitably
happen early in the first game.

For self-practice and playing with other kids, we use ChessKid.com platform. This is a well-
known and secure portal for children to learn chess. The portal also has a long list of
lessons that teach chess concepts with humorous cartoons. These lessons lighten up the
notions and help the child understand them better. You can use this portal on mobile
phones, tablets, or laptops. For those interested, we help get a Gold membership in
ChessKid.com, while basic membership is enough for most kids.

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 Interesting facts about chess

Oscar Shapiro became a chess master at the age of 74, and by contrast, the
youngest ever chess champion was Jordy Mont-Reynaud at the age of 10.
Age does not matter for Chess. A 6yr old can beat a 60yr old grandparent. There is
always something to learn from opponent regardless of their age.

Alan Turing developed the first computer program for playing chess was
developed in 1951.
However, no computer was powerful enough to process it, so Turing tested it by doing
the calculations himself and playing according to the results, taking several minutes
per move.

Robert Sapolsky, who studies stress in primates at Stanford University, says a

chess player can burn up to 6,000 calories a day while playing in a tournament.
That is three times what an average person consumes in a day.

Judith Polgar is a female chess player who defeated three world champions
Kasporov, Karpov and Spassky.
Chess world is dominated by men, but Judith Polgar proves nothing stops women
from being a champion.

Before the internet, chess players used to play with each other all over the world
by taking turns mailing postcards to their opponents describing the move they
had made-ChessKid.com
Even nowadays, chess requires a lot of patience and focus. But, this amount of passion
and determination for chess at that time is commendable. No?

You know about bullet chess? It is a chess game that is very fast, played in the
time of three minutes for both the players on the clock.--ChessKid.com
How concentration and focus-requiring that could be, can you imagine? But yes, with
the practice, all becomes easy.

Sadhwani, India's 65th Grandmaster, became a GM on Oct. 19, 2019, but only after
7,243 games
It takes thousands of attempts until one becomes good at chess. One needs not only
lot of practice but also continuous sustained effort to get good at Chess!

08 | HOW WE TEACH CHESS WWW.SASWATHACADEMY.COM

Our Coaches are teachers first,
Players next

IGrandmaster.
f learning from GMs were all that good, we'd all be trying to learn chess from a
Unfortunately, there aren't enough of these geniuses to go around
(1,700 GMs to 605 million players world-wide) and considering the eccentricity of
past GMs this might not be the wisest of choices. For a child learning chess, needs
a passionate teacher than a serious player as coach.

Take Cuban champion Jose Raul Capablanca, for example. Most GMs possess the skill of
mental visualization. But Capablanca was so skilled in this regard that he saw no need to
allow a chess set in his house. He could play the game in his mind rather than physically.
Several grandmasters almost drove themselves insane taking part in 'blindfold' chess
exhibitions. Alekhine once challenged 32 players simultaneously. Most competitive chess
players have these GMs as their ideals and work towards that.

So, perhaps having a coach that pushes himself to the edge of insanity isn't the best
person to teach chess for kids who are quite new to the game after all. We have nothing
against learning from GMs but it is only recommended when the kids have gained enough
practice and a rating of 1500 and above. The idea is knowledge can be transferred but skill
isn't. Skill requires nurturing and discipline.

Besides GMs, is learning Chess from computer any good? Up to a point. Chess is more
psychological and emotional most of the time. A computer is not a good teacher to help
master the emotions and make better decisions. Computer is not afraid of losing, it does
not even know what is losing. Winning or losing is just a calculation. Playing chess with
computer is equivalent to learning weightlifting from a forklift.

We believe our coaches should be a good teacher first who understands the student’s
mental makeup and helps them grow. We make sure the coaches are qualified by at least
a 1000 rating points more than the level of students they are teaching, At the same time,
we also ensure our coaches are child friendly, understanding and aware of child
psychology.

09 | HOW WE TEACH CHESS WWW.SASWATHACADEMY.COM

 Tournaments:
Preparing children for any
outcome (victory/loss)
Results show that just one year of chess tuition will improve a student’s
learning abilities, concentration, application, sense of logic, self-discipline,
respect, behavior, and the ability to take responsibility for his/her actions. -
Garry Kasparov, World Chess Champion

Just like every other sport, chess can either result in a victory or a defeat. When it
comes to children, it is significant to infuse the concept of coping with losses in
their minds. At Saswath Academy, we abide by a simple strategy that can help the
child in this scenario. We call this strategy as GBM - Guidance, Behavior &
Motivation.

Guidance:
An essential part of making the child learn to cope with defeat is guidance. We
conversate with the children and make them understand that loss is a lesson and
not a failure that they cannot overcome. And with more lessons; they can learn to
be better than they were.

Behavior:
The responses of people after a child faces defeat in any area of life; holds a
significant influence on their growth. We make sure that our behavior is positive
towards them. Our coaches also encourage the parents to let their children know
that their love for him/her is more than this when the child is going through such
time. We make them understand by our behavior and teaching methods that this
is another lesson in the journey of their life.

Motivation:
We do not let the child play the blame-game. We allow them to take the responsibility of
defeat without letting it get over their heads. And it all comes with the motivation to
improve the components they lacked before, so that, they can get it done the next time in
the best way.

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 For kids:
Common issues in learning Chess

Being the Wood pusher

Ahh, the wood pusher. If you’re not familiar with the term, here is the officially
definition in the world of chess: “To be called a wood-pusher is generally viewed as
an insult in the world of chess. It means that the player likely only knows how the
pieces move and has no strategy towards the game of chess at all.”

However, we don’t think it’s an insult at all, and you shouldn’t either...because if you
are in fact a wood pusher, at least you’ve already conquered one of the most
important parts of chess - learning how the pieces move! All too often, chess
players at all levels get concerned with being the supreme chess player. Being the
best. While being the best you can be is always a noble goal, we’d like to take a
minute to stress the importance of simply understanding the game, being a good
sport and having fun along the way.

Fearing high rated players

Any level of chess player will, at some point in their playing, come up against a
player who they perceive as being much better than them. That’s when the little
voices start in your head. “I’m not as good as them, I’ll never win.” “They are
impossible to beat.” “They’ve been playing so much longer than me.”

Here’s the secret to overcoming any doubts you may have in chess: practice more.
Try harder. At any given time, you can only do the best you can based on
experience. By playing more and practicing as often as you can, you’ll get better
with every move.

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 Sure, maybe it would feel good to play against someone who has never
played chess before, but it’s not helping you get better! It would be like
wanting to grow big muscles by going to the gym and lifting the pen and
pencils lying around. It won’t help!

Always try to do your best. Try harder and set yourself up with opponents
who bring the best out of you.

“I Know EVERYTHING!” mode

Ahhh, the ego of the chess player. When you think you know everything,
that’s the slippery slope of feeling amazing followed by feeling like you
just went to school and forgot to wear pants. When chess players start to
feel confident, many of us start to feel like we know everything. We feel
like we’re invincible and every other player should sit under our enormous
learning tree. We also feel like our tree is the best tree and it grows the
best fruit.

Guess what? Not so much. Even the greatest chess players will tell you
they don’t know everything. They are constantly learning and trying to
grow.Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’re so much better than
someone else, or that you know everything. That’s when you take your eye
off the game and start to become immersed in your own hype.
Focus. Try. Have fun!

“I Know NOTHING” mode

Even more difficult than the “I know everything” mode is the “I know
nothing” mode. Many players get stuck in the mud when they think they
know nothing. Maybe you’re just starting, and feel like every player knows
a better strategy than you.

Good! These are the moments to recognize that you need more practice.
So do just that!

12 | HOW WE TEACH CHESS WWW.SASWATHACADEMY.COM

 Sulking In Defeat
That moment when, after you thought you would have won easily...you
lost. Then you spend the entire rest of the day replaying the game over
and over in your head. “I should have done this,” or “Why didn’t I do that.”

Whatever the reason, there’s no reason to sulk in the wake of defeat. It’s
OK to lose! That simply means there is room for you to get better! By
sulking in defeat, you’re wasting time being sad about something that
you can’t control. It’s over...you lose - and that’s fine! Get on to the next
game. Practice more!

Hating Chess While Getting Good At It

Sometimes getting good at chess can feel like running on a treadmill...for
weeks without stopping. In chess, maybe your body isn’t sweaty and tired,
but your mind sure is. The game may come easy at first, but then comes
the drag. It takes a lot of focus, practice and consistency to become a
good chess player. You start to play so much and find it so difficult to
break through the next level of being better that you begin to hate the
game. Ugh.

Remember why you started playing in the first place, and especially
concentrate on how good it will feel to overcome the current day
obstacles. Don’t get stuck on the same treadmill - just keep running until
you’ve leveled up! It will happen. We’ve always found it helpful to
remember - no one ever became a better chess player by quitting.

No...More...Practice
A common problem amongst chess players is getting annoyed with
having to practice. Sometimes it feels like your brain is going to melt. It
feels like you want to go to sleep. Maybe you never even want to think
about chess again. The bigger problem: without practice you won’t get
better! As a matter of fact, you might even get rusty and get worse!

What separates the good from the great in almost anything is discipline.
By making practice fun and appreciating what you’re learning along the
way, coupled with the fact that you’re growing and getting better should
help you keep your eye on the prize. The goal is to always have fun, get
better and stay disciplined! You won’t be a woodpusher forever...even if
sometimes it feels like it.

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Fun moments in Chess

Timing Sense
While playing a 3-minute blitz game of Chess at the World Championships in 2019,
grandmaster Magnus Carlsen wasted 20 seconds of his time taking his suit coat off,
drinking water and organizing his pieces – and still won!.

One vs Thousand Players

In 1999, chess Grandmaster Garry Kasporov played the The World in a game of
chess that lasted 4 months. Over 50,000 people from more than 75 countries
participated in the game with moves being decided by majority vote. Garry ended
up winning on turn 62 when 51% of The World decided to resign!

Genius is not by birth, by Practice!

Psychologist Laszlo Polgar theorized that any child could become a genius in a
chosen field with early training. As an experiment, he trained his daughters in
Chess from the age of 4. All three went on to become Chess prodigies, and the
youngest Judit is considered the best female player in History.

Initial Encounter of Human with Computer

Gary Kasparov went head to head with the world's best chess computer, IBM's
Deep Blue, there were times when neither man nor machine stood out as
intellectually superior.
Deep Blue was on the verge of issuing blue smoke from its motherboard just
before the 44th move of game two because it couldn't settle on a desirable move,
so 'panicked' and played a failsafe. There were no curtains for the embarrassed
machine to hide behind for shame, so it just stayed put. Had Deep Blue had a face,
it would have been deep red.
Some suggest that Kasparov spotted this wrong move but decided that it must be
part of a coherent, superior intelligence on Deep Blue's part. Now it was his turn to
panic, and his resulting strategic change lost him the second game.

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100 Chess topics for classroom discussion
1. Active piece vs passive piece 51. Good and Bad bishop
2. Artificial castling 52. Good/Bad Bishops
3. Attackers and Defenders counting 53. Hanging Piece
4. Attacking the castled king 54. How the pieces move, Pawn Promotion
5. Avoid stalemate 55. Interference
6. Backrank weakness 56. Isolated pawns, Doubled pawns, Backward pawns
7. Battery attack 57. Make the pieces work together
8. Bishop and knight ending 58. Mate in Two
9. Bishop pair 59. Moving & Capturing
10. Board and Pieces - Introduction 60. Open files, Semi-open files
11. Bong cloud challenge 61. Opening Principle: Open the center pawns
12. Break castle with pawn storms 62. Opening Principle: Do not bring queen out early
13. Breaking the castle 63. Opening Principle: Do not move same piece twice
14. Capturing pieces, Winning material 64. Opening Principle: Do not block your own piece
15. Castling 65. Opponent move reasoning
16. Check & Checkmate 66. Opposite colored bishop
17. Checkmate with King and Pawn 67. Opposite side castling
18. CheckMate with King and Rook 68. Outposts
19. CheckMate with Queen 69. Overloaded pieces
20. CheckMate with Two rooks 70. Overloaded pieces
21. Chess Etiquettes – Touch move, Resigning 71. Passed pawns
22. Chess Notation 72. Pawn chains
23. Closed and open positions 73. Pawn race
24. Color weakness 74. Perpetual check
25. Connected Rooks 75. Phases of game
26. Counter threat 76. Piling up
27. Counter threats 77. Pin
28. Cross Check 78. Preventing opposition from castling
29. Decoy sacrifice 79. Removing the defender
30. Deflection 80. Removing the guard
31. Desparado 81. Rook and pawn ending
32. Developing pieces 82. Sacrifice
33. Discovered Attack 83. Saving from losing games
34. Discovered Check 84. Skewer
35. Double Attack or Fork 85. Smothered checkmate
36. Double Check 86. Solo chess
37. Draw & Stalemate 87. Space advantage
38. En passant 88. Supported pieces, Defended piece
39. End game – use your king 89. Tempo
40. Escape outlet for king 90. The Goal of Chess – Checkmate
41. F2/F7 Weaknesses 91. Trading pieces
42. Fast checkmates 92. Trading pieces & Simplification
43. Fianchetto Bishop 93. Trapping queen
44. Find checkmates 94. Triangulation
45. Finding attack 95. Under promotion
46. Finding right move under attack 96. Vulnerable king
47. Fried Liver tactic 97. Windmill attack
48. Gambits 98. XRay attack
49. Games with odds / Handicaps 99. Zugzwang
Meet the Author: Aishwarya Srikanthan
Aishwarya has a decade of experience in education
industry and very passionate about teaching children
and helping them learn life skills. She has been
successfully running Saswath Academy an institution
for helping children learn subjects other than the
regular academics. This eBook is for parents and little
learners joining Saswath Academy for learning Chess,
explaining how Saswath Academy is different in
coaching children.

www.saswathacademy.com | +91 9112 9112 36