GrizzleBazzle wrote on 01/02/11 at 17:19:31:


I like the ChessKids site by English chess teacher Richard James a lot. Some similarities to the Exeter stuff, but there are two nice, structured courses in pd format, targeted to children: Schools Lessons (2 Volumes) and Move TWO. They are free to download though a donation is encouraged. (I was also lucky to find James' nice published book "Move ONE" for absolute beginners used, but a lot of the same material is in the Schools Lessons).

See http://www.chesskids.com
and http://www.chesskids.com/library04.shtml

I'm also a recent convert to the Dutch "Steps Method" (http://www.stappenmethode.nl/) for teaching beginners. It will inevitably cost a bit of money, but the DGT Chess Trainer CD is a great taster with steps 1-3 and Fritz 9 in a cheap bundle (with some hype about Chess 960 which can easily be ignored).

Dan Heisman gives much sound advice for beginners and improvers in his books, but also in free articles on www.chesscafe.com. Probably most useful for those who intend to play in tournaments.

With those sources (plus the Exeter site) any beginner should be on a good path. The next steps would be practice lots of tactics (even that can be done for free on the internet on sites like Chess Tempo and Chess Tactics Server) and learn some basic openings, probably.

kylemeister wrote on 01/02/11 at 17:31:18:


Yes, at least for the moment, books are ruled out. As I mentioned above, none of the books I own are appropriate for a beginner, and he doesn’t yet want to put any money into it while he’s assessing both his son’s and his own interest. I considered pointing him to a library, but at the moment, I think all he wants is rules and a few general ideas, like basic mates, etc.

So books (e.g. John Nunn's "Learn Chess") are ruled out?