Thursday, July 17, 2008

Simply moving the pieces, is NOT playing chess?!

Just yesterday, my brother-in-law Victor and I were discussing the problem of how chess can be taught. Although we hashed out many of the problems and used metaphors from other sports - I decided that some of the major concepts should be high-lighted and the less major at least outlined. Many, many people in the world know how to move the pieces - yet so few are actually good at playing chess. So why is this?

Situation:
Two players before school hashing out a 5-min game when young Tristan, walking by to go to his classroom, stops to look. Tiger is an now advanced group student, but at this time he was just following in his older brothers footsteps.
Player A, on move after a series of exchanges has taken place, stops to consider her next move for 20 seconds or so...
Tristan, who can't contain himself, exclaims: "It's your turn, why aren't you moving!"

Knowing how to move the pieces doesn't realy mean you know HOW to play chess. An idea, good or bad, and the exchange of ideas with an opponent is the essence of chess.
-John MacArthur

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