Understanding Chess: Lesson and Learning Process

In years of making connection, as a chess instructor I personally have frequent encounter with perplexing reactions from people when I say; "I teach chess for a living". Most people I met will give either 'what?!' or 'how' (to teach) in chess reaction.

"I mean, I know people teach sports like badminton, tennis, swimming.. etc but chess, this is something new to me", as the conversation goes on. One thing can be reasoned certainly from the confused reactions of the people is that chess is not prominently known as a thing yet to the majority in the local scene.

For other countries however, playing chess is a common mainstream skillset and some have even made it a compulsory learning in the education setting. After all, there are many reasons to believe how chess will have positive impact on primary school children.

This is perhaps the most (intriguing) frequently asked question I have been getting every time I make sort of new social connection.

Well, generally just like any other skillsets, chess teaching or learning involves both theory and practical. Theoretical knowledge plays a very crucial part in developing one's mastery over the game. It basically covers opening knowledge, tactics, positional understanding, strategy (long-term plan), and endgame technique. Practical on the other hand, just as it sounds, is how certain player perform in a real game situation (with time control) and apply the theoretical elements.

How do you teach?

At its core, learning chess begins with understanding the fundamental rules and objectives. This involves familiarizing yourself with the chessboard, the pieces, and how they move. The initial lessons typically cover:

• Chessboard Layout: Learning the arrangement of squares and the notation system.

• Piece Movements: Understanding how each piece moves and captures.

• Basic Rules: Knowing special moves like castling, en passant, and pawn promotion.

Once the basics are in place, the focus shifts to developing strategic understanding. This stage involves:

• Opening Principles: Learning common opening strategies and why they are effective.

• Tactical Skills: Practicing tactics like pins, forks, and skewers. These are short-term maneuvers that can lead to immediate advantages.

• Endgame Techniques: Mastering endgame principles helps in converting an advantage into a win. This includes learning how to checkmate with limited pieces and understanding key endgame positions.

Once the players develop much higher level of competence, the lesson may then emphasize on study of masters' games, key openings, exchange sacrifice, advanced endgame drill etc.

Endgame in this instance may refer to rook endgames, king opposition and bishop pair to name a few. Note that every instructor has his/her own training and coaching routine that may help a certain player differently.

Personally, I will spend more time to train on students' technique on endgame finishing as well as tactic and pattern recognition. Do expect the progress to be slower at this stage as there are vast positions to look into and the level of playing is much more solid.

Practical Play

What really matters the most in the end however, is the ability of a player to gain rating and that comes from the practical play. The theoretical lesson and study can only help so far for a player to understand some chess play better. It is however still up to the practical ability of a player to reflect how much he/she can gain from the theoretical study.

More often than not, a good instructor will focus to drill on practical playing when the student is preparing for an upcoming tournament. Most of the time we will refer these lessons as preparation classes.

In fact, playing in chess tournament does require a lot of preparations if a player aims to do well and it is indeed a cultural norm at the highest level. Even the current world number 1 and former world champion, Magnus Carlsen had a whole team formed just for preparation prior to his world chess championship match.