Home School Chess Ages 8 - 12

Beginner I and Beginner II classes
 Rules of the game: how pawns/pieces move & capture; what is attack, castle, 'en passant', pawn promotion; check; checkmate; notation – I.e. The “abc’s” of chess.
 Basic strategy:
a. checkmate -or the goal of the game
b. development of pieces (more squares means stronger pieces)
c. stalemate
d. capturing the opponent’s pieces
e. piece value (absolute, and relative)
 Check Mate Concepts (The common‘how to's”)
a) mate with queen & king against king
b) mate with 2 rooks, or 1 rook 1 queen (Ladder mate)
c) mate with 1 rook and king against king
d) mate traps in the beginning of the game (scholar’s, fool’s, Legal’s)
e) mate traps in the middle game (Batteries, plus Smother, anastasia, Arabian, etc.)
 Basic End-Of-Game principles
a) King becomes strong at end-of the game
b) Pawn & King against King (opposition, flanking)
c) Simple end-game positions for practice

Advanced Beginner (at least two semesters of chess) / Intermediate classes
 Brief review of chess rules: capture; castle, 'en passant', pawn promotion; check; checkmate; stalemate (all from beginner class)
 Basic tactics I (tactical devices to gain material for purpose of later strategic victory)
a. Pin
b. Double attack (i.e. fork)
c. Discover threat/check/attack (also double check!)
d. Skewer
 Basic tactics II (simple combinations)
a. Piece values (relative to each other, position)
b. Unique piece combinations (i.e. Bishop, rook, etc.)
c. Deflections, Decoys, “In-Between moves,”
Overloads
 End-Of-Game (continue)
a. Rule of the square of the pawn
b. Zugzwang (possible in middlegame, probable in most endgames)
c. Tempi (Triangulation as a means of losing tempi at end to force Zugzwang)
 Chess Tournaments