Our first chess class on Oct 11 went great! Thanks to all the kids who attended - 40 of you! Thanks also to the parents who volunteered to help for the 2nd class and beyond.
In the first class, we went over sportsmanship (maybe the most important thing of all!), the board, all the pieces, how they move, their point values, and then focused first on the PAWN, playing both Pawn wars and Pawn Mower. You can play both games at home! For Pawn Wars, just set up the pawns (you can also add the King for extra fun). Using regular moves and captures, who can advance their pawn to the end before the other player? For Pawn Mower, one player (White) sets up all their Pawns, and the other player (Black) sets up only the Rook (you can also use a Queen). White moves first, and tries to promote one pawn.
Here is a great overview of things we will learn in the first 2 days of chess.
https://www.chesskid.com/learn-how-to-play-chess.html
CHESSKID.COM or CHESS.COM are great starting places for kids - both offer free play, and for a subscription fee, offer video lessons and a lot of resources for the more advanced players.
Parents - please ask your children to be quiet and respectful to other students during class. We had a few situations where kids were not as quiet as they could have been. A good chess player is quiet and sportsmanlike. Thank you!