I am not a great player but I enjoy playing with my 6 year old son. What is an appropriate way to handicap myself to make the game more even and enjoyable for both of us? Any particular way that would help advance his development? He still seems to enjoy playing even though he loses but I am not sure how long his patience will last.
Thank you for your help.
My advice would be just don't play at your best until he starts beating you, and then slowly start putting more effort into trying to win.
you could play w a clock. you have 1 minute; he has whatever. you just have to remind him to play slow. he'll want to play as fast as you are. but i taught kids, and kids like to win, as maybe you've discovered. i was a relatively lax teacher, and when i made a mistake, id tell the kid - ok, your opponent has made a mistake.. can you find it? they immediately are into it.... also, you could play w just pawns, lined up as usual. the rule of this game is; first pawn to get to promotion status, you win. you could add en passant. then you could add pieces, and this is a great way to learn how pieces work, esp together. such as, two bishops, or two rooks. if you add just a king and rooks, voila! end game study!
um,,, if you do like some parents or teachers, and say stuff like 'i had to lose 10000 games before i learned how to win' or tell them about exactly the right move in a certain position ---------obsessively -------- i think that's a good way to bore them. i'm not saying you do that. i'm just saying i see it a fair amount.
"Blunder" a piece too when he blunders, so you're always more or less even
I don't think that having less time or less pieces is a good idea. Chess is more fun when you think you won in a fair way. Children won't notice that very quickly, until they're grown up
Play at your full strenght and beat him as long as you can. Explain what happens, advice him to take his time when calculating moves. When the day comes you get your first defeat without blundering anything then prepare yourself for becomming his victim…
But don't Play bad by purpose, When the time comes that your son becomes stronger than you, you would like to know if the spare points you still get are deserved or the result of your sons mercy. So don't teach him to play with less power than he got.
It is hard to purposely not play well. But it is a good idea and I can try. Maybe throwing in a blunder like a low level AI is a better idea. It would be interesting to see if he catches them. I do agree that starting with less pieces changes the nature of the game and might not be the best way to teach.
By observing his improvement it seems like it will be a while until he is at my level. If we keep playing daily as we have been I imagine it will be within a year or 2. I am not sure that he can keep interest that long if all he does is lose. There is a maturity issue as well as a skill issue when dealing with kids.
Thanks for all the advice and comments. Any more is welcome.