What's the best age to learn chess?
No one really knows. Perhaps the earlier, the better. Maybe there is no
difference at a very young age (for example, age 4) and a young age (for
example, 10). And who did the chess masters learn the game of chess from?
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Alekhine learned at the age of 7 from
his older brother. His mother also played chess and he learned chess from
his relatives.
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Anand learned the game of chess at
age 6, taught by his mother.
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Adolf Anderssen learned at the age of
9 from his father.
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Blackburne was 19 years old before he
learned chess. He learned the game from a chess book he had purchased.
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Humphrey Bogart learned chess at 13
and was later a chess hustler.
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Boleslavsky learned at age 9 at the
House of Pioneers in the USSR.
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Botvinnik learned at the age of 12,
probably from his family.
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de la Bourdonnais learned at 19 while
in college.
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Walter Browne learned the game at age
8 somewhere in Brooklyn.
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Capablanca claimed he learned chess
at the age of 4 by watching his father play chess against friends.
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Ray Charles learned at age 35 in a
hospital to fight drug addiction.
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Irving Chernev learned at the age of
12 from his father.
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Mikhail Chigorin learned at the age
of 16 from a school teacher in Russia.
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Arnold Denker learned at the age of
12 from his oldest brother.
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Jan Donner learned at the age of 14,
taught by his friends.
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Max Euwe learned at the age of 9 from
his parents.
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Larry Evans learned at age 12 from
his brothers and his father.
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Reuben Fine learned chess at the age
of 8 from his cousin.
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Bobby Fischer learned at the age of 8
from his older sister.
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Nona Gaprindashvili learned at the
age of 5 from her 5 older brothers.
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Gligoric learned about age 12 from a
boarder in his parents home.
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Heubner learned at the age of 5 from
his father.
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Igor Ivanov learned at age 5 from his
mother.
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John Jarecki learned at the age of 6
from his father (a medical doctor).
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Mona Karff learned at age 9 from her
father.
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Karpov learned chess at the age of 4
at the Pioneers Palace.
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Kasparov learned at age 5 from his
father, who later died in a car crash.
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Paul Keres learned at the age of 4,
probably from his parents.
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George Koltanoski learned chess at
the age of 14 from his father, a diamond cutter.
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Bent Larsen learned at age 6,
probably from his family.
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Edward Lasker learned at age 6 from
his father.
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Emanuel Lasker learned at age 11 from
his older brother.
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Bill Lombardy learned at age 9 from a
neighbor.
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Frank Marshall learned chess at age
10 from his father.
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Mecking learned at age 6, probably
from his family.
-
Vera Menchik learned at age 9 from
her father.
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Paul Morphy learned at age 8 from his
father.
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Nakamura learned how to play chess at
the age of 7.
-
Nimzovich learned chess at the age of
8.
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Victor Palciuskas learned at age 5
from his uncle.
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Louis Paulsen learned at age 5 from
his father.
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Petrosian learned chess from his
parent at age 8. His parents died a few years later during World War II.
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Philidor learned at age 10 from his
musician friends.
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Pillsbury learned at age 15.
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Susan Polgar learned chess at the age
of 4 from her parents.
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Stuart Rachels learned at age 8 from
an older brother.
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Reshevesky was playing chess at 4 and
giving simuls at age 5.
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Rossolimo learned chess at age 7 from
his mother.
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Diane Savereide learned chess at age
17 from her brother. A few years later she was the top woman chess player in
the U.S.
-
Gabriel Schwartzman says he learned
chess at the age of 2.
-
Seirawan learned chess in Seattle at
the age of 12.
-
Smyslov learned chess at the age of 6
from his father and from the chess books in his father's library.
-
Soltis learned chess at age 9.
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Spassky learned chess at the age of
5.
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Steinitz learned chess at the age of
12 from friends.
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Sultan Khan learned modern chess at
age 21. Prior to that, he learned Indian chess at a much younger age.
-
Mikhail Tal learned at the age of 8
by watching patients play chess at the hospital his father worked at.
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Tarrasch learned chess at the age of
15 from a chess book.
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George Thomas learned chess at the
age of 13 from his mother, a top British Ladies' Champion.
-
Topalov learned at age 9.
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Norman Whitaker learned at age 14
from his father.
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Michael Wilder learned at the age of
6 from his father.
As for me, I learned chess from my
father at the age of 15. I played chess in high school, but did not
the chess notation and chess books until I joined a chess club when I was
18. I've been learning every day for the past 35 years ever since.
