Friday, July 10, 2020

Five Pawn Chess for Young Children Learning Chess

5 Pawn Chess for Children


https://eclecticpencil.wordpress.com/chess-5-pawns-for-young-children/

5 Pawn Chess

5 Pawn chess begins with a lighter side major piece moving: our sides are called Honey and Chocolate at our house as grandparents. Note the bishop options and the one file option for each rook.

No castling and no en passant.

Pawn reaching the 8th rank becomes a Prince or Princess able to move as does the King or as did the Queen in Arabian chess before the French rendered the Queen all-powerful.

Having an extra set of pieces permits using inverted rooks as Prince or Princess should the need arise.

Our preference is for a nine-rank board with the darker-side having an extra rank to balance the lighter-side having the first move.

No mention is made of moving pawns first. Blocked pawn issues are simpler in first and eighth files. Each bishop has a different option.

Opening knight move is encouraged. Prior to play, a knight is placed in centre of empty board: movement is taught as 2-step: one diagonal on same colour square; one more move to change colour. Demonstrate in edge file and in corner. Remove knight. Place blcked pawns, then major pieces and lastly, the 3 wall pawns of King, Queen and King's Bishop.

Sides are picked with a sixth pawn in each hand to avoid confusion about removal or placement on board.

For sensitive child, capture is presented as "wait to play in next game" and Queen does not return even if available for an 8th rank pawn.

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