Hooray, let’s play chess!

Abstract

According to the legal regulations on formal schooling, children start school at the age of 6, however, parents prefer enrollment to school at the age of 7. The majority of children who have reached the age of 6 are already, in a sense, “outliers” in kindergarten. They have a lot of knowledge, their interests are diverse, the use of computers and technical devices is part of their everyday life. The majority of children staying in kindergarten at the age of 6 are likely to have good cognitive skills but they tend to lag behind in terms of socialization, adaptation and persistence. They need games and challenges, which, in addition to being fashionable and “cool”, develop their whole personality and competencies, and are also suitable for the development of their less-developed abilities and skills and personalized differentiation. Among other things, visuality, age-appropriate explanation, and interactive activities have a major role, leading to independent thinking, a certain degree of cooperation with the partner as well as respect for one’s decisions.
One such activity is chess. It is one of the most well-known, most frequently-played board games in the world with many variations known in different cultures.
Most people, even those who are quite lay on the subject, know the basics, rules and steps of the game to some degree. However, in kindergarten, for a 5-6-(7)-year-old child, this knowledge needs to be conveyed in a playful, experiential way. In a way that immediate feedback is present in every small segment, the experience of success is also ensured, but in the meantime we must also teach children how to process and cope with possible failure.