Dangerous Dogma...

One of the most difficult thing for an aspiring player to do while climbing the ladder of mental strength is to shed the old skins of youthful openings, primitive attacks and rote thinking that while establishing the foundation for their strengths at the same time keeps them on a leash.

The early occasions of shedding dogmatic beliefs occur when the knights don't seem to be doing enough on their magic squares on the 3rd ranks... everyone else seems to be moving their f-pawns... stronger players are not castling and getting away with it (i.e. in the French and Sicilian)... queens are coming out early... the bishops and knights aren't the same value anymore.

Everything comes into question once the fundamentals have been established and the students have to question for themselves everything in a position to find the right move, plan, tactic or strategy.

Before the December, Columbia Grammar Friday tournament (the next one is January 8th, 2010) several 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders warming up before playing began a theoretical opening argument ...

"You're supposed to play that move later!"

"No, you're not supposed to play that move at all"

"Wait, I'll show you the move you're supposed to play..."

Suddenly, they were interrupted by Grandmaster Joel Benjamin.

"Hold on a second there... you guys aren't 'supposed' to be playing anything. You should be thinking for yourselves!

Chess is an endless expression of mental coordination and critical thinking, not the rote spewing of openings and variations from books or classroom opinion. The rote learning can be internalized not memorized. Lessons learned are not what should be played, but rather a small part of the player's plans in the greater enjoyment of their game.

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