14-08-2012, 12:56 PM
Noughts and Crosses
As pointed out in a link Heather posted a little while ago there is little point teaching chess to juniors not yet mature enough to understand noughts and crosses.
School chess clubs should still start them young. Playing noughts and crosses on a 3 by three board which when mastered will teach them them about the value of the centre and forced draws but not yet introduce zugzwang.
Pupils then progress to a 5 x 5 board and finally onto an 8 by 8 board - still playing noughts and crosses
Then they move onto chess but carry forward a new rule that if a player can make a move that results in all squares on file being occupied with pieces He wins.
That will curtail Italian game opening which can only be a good thing. And when they move on to play as adults and play under the standard chess rules and discover the opening move 1 d4 then there will be a natural aversion to 1d4 d5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Bf4 because 3... Bf5 used to win instantly for black.
As pointed out in a link Heather posted a little while ago there is little point teaching chess to juniors not yet mature enough to understand noughts and crosses.
School chess clubs should still start them young. Playing noughts and crosses on a 3 by three board which when mastered will teach them them about the value of the centre and forced draws but not yet introduce zugzwang.
Pupils then progress to a 5 x 5 board and finally onto an 8 by 8 board - still playing noughts and crosses
Then they move onto chess but carry forward a new rule that if a player can make a move that results in all squares on file being occupied with pieces He wins.
That will curtail Italian game opening which can only be a good thing. And when they move on to play as adults and play under the standard chess rules and discover the opening move 1 d4 then there will be a natural aversion to 1d4 d5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Bf4 because 3... Bf5 used to win instantly for black.