This is a great opportunity to teach the game of chess, if you don’t know where to start, this is a simple stepping stone.
The King vs King is usually the first game we play with new kids. This game is a very good example of how beneficial teaching the game is for the children and also of how rewarding it is to teach it.
The game is as basic as it gets, each player has his king only and has to capture the enemy’s king. Kings move in every direction one step at a time and they capture the pieces where they land.
So, who will win? For any adult this is a no-brainer, the game will always be a draw, since none of the Kings may approach the other one and therefore they would be wandering forever over the board. This what in game theory they call a solved game.
However, this ‘no-brainer’ process is anything but that, and it is obvious when you let kids play, because they can play this for hours.
This is when the magic happens and you can see how children start to develop on their own reasoning individually, at their own pace and spontaneously. Where there was nothing, now there is an structure, a concept, and idea.
There are three main steps you can clearly notice when the kids start to play this game:
- First, kids learn about consequences, initially their actions are random, they just move the king and wait to see what happens, but gradually they realize that among the 3 to 8 options they have in every move, some will be winning and some will be losing. After a while kids stop doing losing (illegal) moves.
- Secondly, when the kid has learnt no to do losing moves, i.e. not getting within range of the opponent’s king, he starts to wonder if his opponent has reached this stage. This is very important, since the kid realizes that reasoning is individual, he develops self consciousness and awareness. If he is winning constantly, he is aware that he knows something his opponent doesn’t and vice-versa.
- Finally, usually when all the kids have gone through the first two steps, the kids start to recognize the pattern. The kids will notice that there is no end to the game, and suddenly they are introduced to concepts such us endlessness and how the same set of circumstances will generate always the same results.
This process can take up a full lesson, even longer depending on the age of the kids, and it is always a pleasure to witness, it is like watching fireworks or popcorn popping gradually while kids learn on their own while they are having fun playing, and this is just day 1.
After we learnt about the King and his limitations, we will learn about his travelling efficiency, following the breadcrumbs in the 2nd lesson.
Kilimanjaro Chess 