From the start of the game there is another type of odds not mentioned, moves. The weaker player can start with 4 or 8 moves, for example, but without crossing the middle of the board. Material odds can be combined with moves. For example, pawn (on f7) and three moves. Odds can be used in a set position. Especially useful for a beginner is the end of the game. Queen and king against king. This makes the point that there are positions in which the beginner cannot lose to the greatest player in the world, human or not. Simple endings require the learning of piece coordination. If appropriate odds are found to make the two players nearly equal, the weaker of the two, if improving at all, has the chance to become too strong for those odds. If the stronger player wins most games at queen odds, it takes only some improvement for the weaker player to learn to win almost all the games, especially without a clock. This may take many sessions for some. The touch move rule should be used as soon as the learner clearly remembers all the rules and shows the possibility of improving.
Chess Handicap system
My teaching experience is fairly limited, but I usually start with K+Q vs. K on the theory that if you can't win that endgame there really isn't much you're going to be able to accomplish at the chessboard. Silman's Complete Endgame Course starts out with "overkill" mates: K+2Q vs. K, K+Q+R vs. K, K+2R vs. K which also seems very reasonable.
I think it's really important to give a beginner all sorts of opportunities to succeed, to keep things fun and avoid frustration. This is especially important with children. I think it's a really good idea to set up unbalanced positions with educational potential, take the losing side, and let the student play it repeatedly until they get the lesson. There was an interesting vignette in Silman's The Amateur's Mind where he did this with some of his students and noted how much better they were playing the position after the second or third time through. That's how human beings learn and acquire skills -- by trying things repeatedly and correcting the things that don't work out so well.
I've also used a variation on the moves as odds idea GreenLaser suggested. I'll set up this position and let the beginner have at me while making suggestions:
As we play, I'll make some general suggestions about how to pry open the Black position, etc. They do indeed seem to play the position better after a few tries...
L8erz...
=wild=
I reccomend time odds.
I use it against my brother, I give him 5 minutes, and I play with 1 or 2. It's funny.
the 2nd thing I would reccommend as I also do it with my brother, is to play without the blunders(explaining why it's a blunder), or make tactical mistakes and wait to see if he/she will see it.
Thanks again and now I've got lots of good ways to keep her interested. She's at the point where she's starting to see how the pieces fit together and some basic strategies. She's always saying, "Don't tell me." and then gets frustrated because she says I'm making her feel very inferior.
I think what I'm going to do is a combination of ideas by locking some intial pieces in place so that they can not move unless to take a piece. This should help keep some of the pieces on the board to keep consistency with the game and still make her think about movement and tactics. Hopefully this will let her keep control, make it challenging for me, and keep the 'chess lectures' to a minimum.
Loomis> 2) Aplly opening princples. This is a set of generically sound but ultimately hollow guidelines. "Develop all your pieces" "Knights before bishops" "don't make too many pawn moves." They convey very little in the way of chess understanding. What is my goal? My goal is a good middlegame position. My goal is to have a plan when I leave the opening.
I have to disagree about opening principles being hollow.
"Develop all your pieces." is hollow advice for a novice because they may not know what it means to develop a piece. That's why I say it like this, "You develop a piece by moving it off the back rank and towards your opponent. Develop all your pieces before moving any piece twice."
"Don't make too many pawn moves." - This isn't completely hollow, but there's room for improvement. Nunn's version is a bit more concrete: "A good rule of thumb is no more than 3 pawn moves in the first 8 moves." (There's still room for improvement--which pawns, how far to move them, and why?)
Now, have a glance at a couple sample games (names hidden):
Look at how White opens. His game would improve if he followed opening principles. My nephew was fond of attacking with only 2 pieces developed (a waste of time) until I introduced him to the idea of developing all his pieces... and now he plays a little better.
These are simple examples, but they demonstrate there is chess knowledge in those words. In the Strategy of 'My System' series the rules are fleshed out a bit more and many examples are given which I believe result in them containing even more chess knowledge.
Loomis> The opening position is not a good p osition to teach people chess from. It's too balanced, neither side can make a plan from the opening position.
After 1-3 moves the position begins to take form. After "1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d6" tommyg wrote:
"This move by black is even rarer apparantly and for good reason! Black's dark squared bishop is now hemmed in and if white plays Bg5 (as he does in this game), white generally seems to have better chances. More basic chess openings give the best and main line as: 2...e6 3. Bg5 c5 (which prevents white from playing d5 at least for the moment). I did find a few games where black went onto win with 2...d6, but in all of those white did NOT play 3. Bg5. One interesting opening from Karner-Tal, 1985 is as follows:"
I replied:
"I think the downside to ...d6 is not that it hems in the bishop. I mean, the bishop can still go to ...Bg7 and ...d6 is a key move in the King's Indian Defense. The downside is that it's too commital. It reveals that Black is playing a KID and not a Gruenfeld. It reveals g6 is coming later, while g6 would not reveal whether d6 was coming later. That's why I think ...g6 is the most commonly played move in this position."
And this was only two moves into the position! Of course, if you do your thinking in advance, during a game you can just plop down opening book moves.
Loomis> "Might it be much healthier to teach middlegame princples first and teach that the purpose of the opening is to get to a good middle game position as fast as possible?"
Sure, learning middlegame first would work. I hesitate about the word "healthier" though because I don't see why it would be superior to learning endgames first or learning basic opening principles first. Certainly, all phases of the game interact with each other and inform each other. The Ruy Lopez / Exchange Variation can't be fully understood without grasping White's endgame advantage and Black's middlegame advantage. :)