user164: My daughter is 4 years old, and she plays checkers very well for her age. She asked me if she can learn how to play chess too. So I am interested in what is the best age to start teaching her. Is it too early to do this?  Does anyone have any experience?

user10127: My daughter started at her Montessori at 3.5. She is 5 now and is happy playing someone on the board by herself (and I coach her from time to time). We have chess play-dates with other 5/6 year olds where they do chess for an hour followed by physical play for 1-3 hours. I teach kids chess as a hobby and I know I once started a very active 3 year old boy and he lost interest very fast. It does vary from child t child but I think 4 would be a safe age based on my experience, provided you let them win some every now and then:)

user1030: When I learned chess as a kid we started with pawns only with all white pawns on 2. row and all black pawns at 8. row). The pawn moved as in a normal game of chess and the winner was the one who first brought a pawn to queen promotion (though no queen was brought into play the game just ended here).
Next step was to bring in the knights. The setup was: Black knights on b8 and g8 and now only 4 white pawns at c2,d2,e2 and f2. The goal for white was again to get a pawn to queen promotion and the goal for black to capture all white pawns before the reach queen promotion.
In the next steps the black knights was replaced with 

the bishops at c8 and f8   
the rocks at a8 and h8
queen at d8

all these variants had same goal and white pawn setup as with the knights.
I think these games gives a good insight into the movement and the strength of the pieces and how the work together - you can of course make your own variations with more or less pieces also.

user-1: I believe that the best age is to start at 4 or 5. This is because this age is when children have a long enough attention span and can learn seriously.
First, start off with a game where there are only pawns. Slowly teach the child the rules, and then start a game, where the child loses. Do this again, but don't let the child be discouraged by losses. Then, play easy and lose a game on purpose. Repeat these steps until the child plays reasonably well. Continue on until mastery.
Repeat processes for knights, bishops, rooks, and queens. Then, start combining these pieces with the pawns individually.
Once this is done, start off again with two knights and 8 pawns. Then, keep adding pieces until the 'normal' chess setup is reached.
From this point, I recommend the Chesskid courses as suitable.

user26399: The best age is probably any time she shows interest. As a child, if I was interested in something, I'd only be interested in it for a month max (if no one had formally introduced me to it) before I moved on. If your daughter shows interest, then feed that interest, otherwise she might move on (and have lost a great opportunity).

user26727: I was a very self-serious kid, who really wanted to learn the game. My elementary school had an after-school program where I got to play with my peers and learn from "Older kids" (probably teenagers). I was eager to study and learn and figure out what the pieces meant, but other kids my age were less engaged.
Case in-point, in one of our casual tournaments we held I won third place because one kid did some illegal moves, and one kid thought that you could flick pieces at other pieces and if they got knocked over they got removed bowling-style. The kid was probably six or seven, but just wasn't interested.
Something which kept the game kind of fun was chess variants; once the kid learns the rules set up puzzles and games. See if they can win with only certain pieces or certain positions. This type of learning reinforces rules and (if they are the puzzle-solving type) gives them more immediate feedback for what they are learning.
You can teach someone chess very young if you introduce them to it one rule at a time, and through a way which is engaging (not just 32 pieces on the board standard variant chess day in and day out). Other people have suggested some good softwares for this, but much of that can be done over-the-board. Judging by the earlier responses on this post: they are well on their way to learning. Just thought I would add that in my experience, age matters less than maturity and intention.

user4399: The minimum is 3 years old at most: Misha Osipov (3 yo) vs Anatoly Karpov (2016).
(not sure terminology here...did i just describe the infimum aka greatest lower bound? idk lol)

user2001: In my opinion, it is possible to teach children chess from as early as two years old. It all depends on what results you expect to see and at what age. The goal of a chess game is to win by defeating your opponent's army. The concept of winning and defeating an opponent is not trivial and the understanding of this concept comes at different ages for different people. Explaining the rules of the game (how the pieces move) can be done at any age. Yet explaining the concept and driving force is a bit more complex.
In general, the earlier you begin learning chess, the better you become at chess. At the same time, you need passion to drive your learning forward. So becoming a good chess player is a combination of passion and practice. While teaching the rules will be simple, becoming passionate about chess is a much more complex process. Certainly, the odds of becoming interested in chess are greater if the child already has some understanding for logical thinking, cause and effect, basic mathematical knowledge and perhaps experience in other games (e.g. checkers). Having this in mind, perhaps the age of 6-8 is more ideal.
My advice would be to keep a full sized chess board at home and play with family and friends at home on a regular basis. If you have chess as part of your daily life, an interest for learning it will be sparked sooner or later. Learning by example is powerful and usually works well in practice. If chess becomes associated with positive emotions and moments, then the chances of becoming interested in chess should be pretty high.

user2472: In some countries, chess is a part of school subjects. According to research, students who started to play chess got a higher IQ. 
Chesskids.com is a wonderful chess site dedicated to kids.

user3872: It depends on the person. I use to teach chess to children and some very young kids could not learn chess while others could. Because of this, I am impressed by the people above who learned how to play chess at two. 

user3844: As young as possible, but start them with a simpler board: A King and a few pawns. When ready, add a Rook. Slowly work the pieces in, so they can grasp each piece's role in time.
A full board is pretty overwhelming to any beginner.

user4445: As with anything, its most important to make the game a positive experience. 
I also recommend taking her to a chess club where she might be able to play people around her age (though not necessarily at her level), if she does get hooked I really recommend getting a tutor of some sort and having her play competitively (obviously you should not force this on her, but you should let her try it at least once).
It really is best to start playing young not only because of the developmental factors (neuro-plasticity etc etc) but also because you will never have as much time as you do when you are a child, to enjoy chess (unless you play professionally). 

user2143: I learned to play around two and beat my mom in my first game. I never became particularly good at chess - maxing out around 1800 as a late teenager after a couple years of serious play. From my own experience I'd recommend against using success as a toddler as a predictor of future playing ability.

user-1: As early as he or she can. But do not force it upon the child. Just show the path.  The child if interested (s)he will pick it up soon or a bit later in their life.

user105: My son is five years old, and he is an expert at making stuff with Legos like blocks and had learned preschool stuff before most of the other kids his age (in my locality). He also speaks/converses in 3 languages quite well. With this, I assumed he would be good at chess. 
Two months ago I introduced him to chess, explained the rules, and within 2 days and 7-8 games, he managed to learn all the rules (I withheld en passant and castling). By game 15 he was moving all pieces correctly. Initially he had a problem understanding why the rook, which is smaller (shorter) than a bishop, was not to be exchanged with it. 
Also, he would be very careless in keeping pieces, especially knight and queen, where it would be at the risk of being taken. I tried training him with only few pieces on the board and showing how not to keep the pieces where it can be taken. Unsurprisingly he was very good at identifying the threats. I guess it is because there are only 3-4 pieces on board, and that makes it simpler to observe. 
Its been quite a lot of games since then, almost 40-50, but he still does not keep supporting pieces when keeping/moving them in the front under threat. I notice that he is sometimes, or most of the time, interested in just moving his pieces, and does not pay attention to the opponent’s move.  He told me a few days ago that, and said “How come you are always winning?!”
He has actually not learned yet how to do addition and subtraction in school, and maybe that is why he does not understand losing 2 pieces in exchange for 3 is not good!
I am almost concluding here that maybe he should have grasped the concept of profit/loss by understanding addition and subtraction before I taught him chess, now I have reduced the frequency of play, maybe none or 2 in a week. 
I think I will stop it completely and reintroduce it when he has learned addition/subtraction well and/or he is around 7 or 8 years old.
As with Garik’s tip, maybe I will teach him checkers!

user921: I taught my younger sister at 4. Partly because she was extremely good at adult-type jigsaw puzzles, I was sure her pattern recognition capabilities were up to it, and her ability to be still and concentrate for a reasonable amount of time. I would look for that sort of sign of readiness.

user17: If your daughter "plays checkers very well and asks you if she can learn to play chess also," she's ready. Some people are ready at age 4, others aren't ready at age 40. It all depends on the person. It's best if you let THEM tell you (as your daughter has) when they're ready.
Jose Raoul Capablanca learned to play chess at age four, and became world champion.

user757: My daughter just turned 4 and she knows how every piece moves, which is great IMO, but it is frustrating at times because I wish I could teach her more things at once.  However, I do not force her, it is actually the other way around  There is not a single day that she does not ask me something about the pieces or anything related to the game.
She knows what is a rank and a file but she doesn't quite understand what is diagonal, she is starting to locate coordinates on the board but that's about it.
I bought her a plastic chess set with figurines instead of the classic Staunton pieces, that way the queen actually looks like one, and so does the king and the rest of the pieces, believe me, that for a kid at that age it helps a lot, she can now set up the board and pretend to play with her 2 yr old sister, until the imaginary fight between the two sides gets real.

user142: I've heard of high level chess players starting at a young age. One such story is Yelena Dembo. She played her first rated tournament at 3 years 9 months: http://yelenadembo.com/about-me
But there are plenty of high level players that start later, so I wouldn't consider early play a requirement to reach that level. Not that that is necessarily your goal, ha!
I think the two key pieces are 1. interest and 2. attention span. If 1 is there but not 2, you should definitely start with some mini games, as recommended in another answer.
I sincerely hope I can instill an interest in mine when she's a bit older--partly selfishly as I'd like to have someone to play with, and it would be great if we could go to tournaments together. But I also believe that chess is a good developmental tool that teaches critical decision making, attention, sportsmanship, pattern recognition, among many other things, I'm sure. I've purchased the rather new "Chess is Child's Play" book, which I haven't looked at much so far--it has exercises for 2-4 years old, and instructions for teaching 4+.
My 16-month-old can't even lift my triple-weighted chess set yet (it's all in one bag--probably weighs about 5 lbs). She very much likes to take the pieces out (to give them to me) and I show her how they set up on the board. Then she likes to pick them up and give them to me to put them back in the bag (we do this a couple times a day--she goes over and points at the chess set when she wants to play with it). She likes the knights, especially. Little horses! If only there were a set with ducks as pawns, or something. I think that would be a hit.

user126: Whenever she wants to learn. And let her choose the pace. 

user295: You can teach your daughter how to play the game at any age, especially if she is curious. I remember asking my father to teach me around the age of 4, and while I was not very good at the game, I was at least able to understand how the pieces moved. It became my favorite game to play as a child, and I would constantly challenge my father to games, and even win some (I'm certain he let me win). If your daughter is asking, you should teach her.

user70: Any age, IMO. My father taught me to play at about 6.
Oh, and lead by example - take your kid to your local USCF chess club and become a member.   Play, show good sportsmanship, etc etc.
Chess is empowering for kids; as long as they are polite they can kick the crap out of adults and people reward them for it, lol.

user109: Depending on several factors, the age to start teaching a child to play chess can vary.
The mere fact that she asked you how she can play chess is a good sign that she is interested in learning.  Interest is one of the key factors because we don't want to force-feed them the game.  If I had to pick an age, I would say 4 is a good age, but it depends also on maturity.  I would also say not to expect too much and let her have fun. A great place to start is https://www.chesskid.com
My 2 (almost 3 year old) stumbled upon Chessmaster by accident.  He was more intrigued by the movie type intro to the game rather than the actual game itself, nevertheless, he remained interested and knows all the names of the pieces, but that is about it.  He knows that it is a game, but if I tell him something like "Take the knight", he will take a pawn on some square and go all the way across the board and take it, lol, so based on my own experience, 3 seems to be too young in most cases.  I have really yet to see 4, but when my kid reaches 4, I guess I will find out, but based upon his reaction now, I think he would have a good grasp of the rules by age 4, maybe earlier.  As for now, I just let him have fun.

164: <p>My daughter is 4 years old, and she plays <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_draughts">checkers</a> very well for her age. She asked me if she can learn how to play chess too. So I am interested in what is the best age to start teaching her. Is it too early to do this?  Does anyone have any experience?</p>
 10127: <p>My daughter started at her Montessori at 3.5. She is 5 now and is happy playing someone on the board by herself (and I coach her from time to time). We have chess play-dates with other 5/6 year olds where they do chess for an hour followed by physical play for 1-3 hours. I teach kids chess as a hobby and I know I once started a very active 3 year old boy and he lost interest very fast. It does vary from child t child but I think 4 would be a safe age based on my experience, provided you let them win some every now and then:)</p>
 1030: <p>When I learned chess as a kid we started with pawns only with all white pawns on 2. row and all black pawns at 8. row). The pawn moved as in a normal game of chess and the winner was the one who first brought a pawn to queen promotion (though no queen was brought into play the game just ended here).</p>

<p>Next step was to bring in the knights. The setup was: Black knights on b8 and g8 and now only 4 white pawns at c2,d2,e2 and f2. The goal for white was again to get a pawn to queen promotion and the goal for black to capture all white pawns before the reach queen promotion.</p>

<p>In the next steps the black knights was replaced with </p>

<ol>
<li><p>the bishops at c8 and f8   </p></li>
<li><p>the rocks at a8 and h8</p></li>
<li><p>queen at d8</p></li>
</ol>

<p>all these variants had same goal and white pawn setup as with the knights.</p>

<p>I think these games gives a good insight into the movement and the strength of the pieces and how the work together - you can of course make your own variations with more or less pieces also.</p>
 -1: <p>I believe that the best age is to start at 4 or 5. This is because this age is when children have a long enough attention span and can learn seriously.</p>
<p>First, start off with a game where there are only pawns. Slowly teach the child the rules, and then start a game, where the child loses. Do this again, but don't let the child be discouraged by losses. Then, play easy and lose a game on purpose. Repeat these steps until the child plays reasonably well. Continue on until mastery.</p>
<p>Repeat processes for knights, bishops, rooks, and queens. Then, start combining these pieces with the pawns individually.</p>
<p>Once this is done, start off again with two knights and 8 pawns. Then, keep adding pieces until the 'normal' chess setup is reached.</p>
<p>From this point, I recommend the Chesskid courses as suitable.</p>
 26399: <p>The best age is probably any time she shows interest. As a child, if I was interested in something, I'd only be interested in it for a month max (if no one had formally introduced me to it) before I moved on. If your daughter shows interest, then feed that interest, otherwise she might move on (and have lost a great opportunity).</p>
 26727: <p>I was a very self-serious kid, who really wanted to learn the game. My elementary school had an after-school program where I got to play with my peers and learn from &quot;Older kids&quot; (probably teenagers). I was eager to study and learn and figure out what the pieces meant, but other kids my age were less engaged.</p>
<p>Case in-point, in one of our casual tournaments we held I won third place because one kid did some illegal moves, and one kid thought that you could flick pieces at other pieces and if they got knocked over they got removed bowling-style. The kid was probably six or seven, but just wasn't interested.</p>
<p>Something which kept the game kind of fun was chess variants; once the kid learns the rules set up puzzles and games. See if they can win with only certain pieces or certain positions. This type of learning reinforces rules and (if they are the puzzle-solving type) gives them more immediate feedback for what they are learning.</p>
<p>You can teach someone chess very young if you introduce them to it one rule at a time, and through a way which is engaging (not just 32 pieces on the board standard variant chess day in and day out). Other people have suggested some good softwares for this, but much of that can be done over-the-board. Judging by the earlier responses on this post: they are well on their way to learning. Just thought I would add that in my experience, age matters less than maturity and intention.</p>
 4399: <p>The minimum is 3 years old at most: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhrvwHrceRg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Misha Osipov (3 yo) vs Anatoly Karpov (2016)</a>.</p>
<p>(not sure terminology here...did i just describe the infimum aka greatest lower bound? idk lol)</p>
 2001: <p>In my opinion, it is possible to teach children chess from as early as two years old. It all depends on what results you expect to see and at what age. The goal of a chess game is to win by defeating your opponent's army. The concept of winning and defeating an opponent is not trivial and the understanding of this concept comes at different ages for different people. Explaining the rules of the game (how the pieces move) can be done at any age. Yet explaining the concept and driving force is a bit more complex.</p>

<p>In general, the earlier you begin learning chess, the better you become at chess. At the same time, you need passion to drive your learning forward. So becoming a good chess player is a combination of passion and practice. While teaching the rules will be simple, becoming passionate about chess is a much more complex process. Certainly, the odds of becoming interested in chess are greater if the child already has some understanding for logical thinking, cause and effect, basic mathematical knowledge and perhaps experience in other games (e.g. checkers). Having this in mind, perhaps the age of 6-8 is more ideal.</p>

<p>My advice would be to keep a full sized chess board at home and play with family and friends at home on a regular basis. If you have chess as part of your daily life, an interest for learning it will be sparked sooner or later. Learning by example is powerful and usually works well in practice. If chess becomes associated with positive emotions and moments, then the chances of becoming interested in chess should be pretty high.</p>
 2472: <p>In some countries, chess is a part of school subjects. According to research, students who started to play chess got a higher IQ. </p>

<p>Chesskids.com is a wonderful chess site dedicated to kids.</p>
 3872: <p>It depends on the person. I use to teach chess to children and some very young kids could not learn chess while others could. Because of this, I am impressed by the people above who learned how to play chess at two. </p>
 3844: <p>As young as possible, but start them with a simpler board: A King and a few pawns. When ready, add a Rook. Slowly work the pieces in, so they can grasp each piece's role in time.</p>

<p>A full board is pretty overwhelming to any beginner.</p>
 4445: <p>As with anything, its most important to make the game a <strong>positive</strong> experience. </p>

<p>I also recommend taking her to a chess club where she might be able to play people around her age (though not necessarily at her level), if she does get hooked I really recommend getting a tutor of some sort and having her play competitively (obviously you should not force this on her, but you should let her try it at least once).</p>

<p>It really is best to start playing young not only because of the developmental factors (neuro-plasticity etc etc) but also because you will never have as much <strong>time</strong> as you do when you are a child, to enjoy chess (unless you play professionally). </p>
 2143: <p>I learned to play around two and beat my mom in my first game. I never became particularly good at chess - maxing out around 1800 as a late teenager after a couple years of serious play. From my own experience I'd recommend against using success as a toddler as a predictor of future playing ability.</p>
 -1: <p>As early as <code>he</code> or <code>she</code> can. But do not force it upon the child. Just show the path.  The child if interested (s)he will pick it up soon or a bit later in their life.</p>
 105: <p>My son is five years old, and he is an expert at making stuff with Legos like blocks and had learned preschool stuff before most of the other kids his age (in my locality). He also speaks/converses in 3 languages quite well. With this, I assumed he would be good at chess. </p>

<p>Two months ago I introduced him to chess, explained the rules, and within 2 days and 7-8 games, he managed to learn all the rules (I withheld en passant and castling). By game 15 he was moving all pieces correctly. Initially he had a problem understanding why the rook, which is smaller (shorter) than a bishop, was not to be exchanged with it. </p>

<p>Also, he would be very careless in keeping pieces, especially knight and queen, where it would be at the risk of being taken. I tried training him with only few pieces on the board and showing how not to keep the pieces where it can be taken. Unsurprisingly he was very good at identifying the threats. I guess it is because there are only 3-4 pieces on board, and that makes it simpler to observe. </p>

<p>Its been quite a lot of games since then, almost 40-50, but he still does not keep supporting pieces when keeping/moving them in the front under threat. I notice that he is sometimes, or most of the time, interested in just moving his pieces, and does not pay attention to the opponent’s move.  He told me a few days ago that, and said “How come you are always winning?!”</p>

<p>He has actually not learned yet how to do addition and subtraction in school, and maybe that is why he does not understand losing 2 pieces in exchange for 3 is not good!</p>

<p>I am almost concluding here that maybe he should have grasped the concept of profit/loss by understanding addition and subtraction before I taught him chess, now I have reduced the frequency of play, maybe none or 2 in a week. </p>

<p>I think I will stop it completely and reintroduce it when he has learned addition/subtraction well and/or he is around 7 or 8 years old.</p>

<p>As with Garik’s tip, maybe I will teach him checkers!</p>
 921: <p>I taught my younger sister at 4. Partly because she was extremely good at adult-type jigsaw puzzles, I was sure her pattern recognition capabilities were up to it, and her ability to be still and concentrate for a reasonable amount of time. I would look for that sort of sign of readiness.</p>
 17: <p>If your daughter "plays checkers very well and asks you if she can learn to play chess also," she's ready. Some people are ready at age 4, others aren't ready at age 40. It all depends on the person. It's best if you let THEM tell you (as your daughter has) when they're ready.</p>

<p>Jose Raoul Capablanca learned to play chess at age four, and became world champion.</p>
 757: <p>My daughter just turned 4 and she knows how every piece moves, which is great IMO, but it is frustrating at times because I wish I could teach her more things at once.  However, I do not force her, it is actually the other way around  There is not a single day that she does not ask me something about the pieces or anything related to the game.</p>

<p>She knows what is a rank and a file but she doesn't quite understand what is diagonal, she is starting to locate coordinates on the board but that's about it.</p>

<p>I bought her a plastic chess set with figurines instead of the classic Staunton pieces, that way the queen actually looks like one, and so does the king and the rest of the pieces, believe me, that for a kid at that age it helps a lot, she can now set up the board and pretend to play with her 2 yr old sister, until the imaginary fight between the two sides gets real.</p>
 142: <p>I've heard of high level chess players starting at a young age. One such story is Yelena Dembo. She played her first rated tournament at 3 years 9 months: <a href="http://yelenadembo.com/about-me">http://yelenadembo.com/about-me</a></p>

<p>But there are plenty of high level players that start later, so I wouldn't consider early play a requirement to reach that level. Not that that is necessarily your goal, ha!</p>

<p>I think the two key pieces are 1. interest and 2. attention span. If 1 is there but not 2, you should definitely start with some mini games, as recommended in another answer.</p>

<p>I sincerely hope I can instill an interest in mine when she's a bit older--partly selfishly as I'd like to have someone to play with, and it would be great if we could go to tournaments together. But I also believe that chess is a good developmental tool that teaches critical decision making, attention, sportsmanship, pattern recognition, among many other things, I'm sure. I've purchased the rather new "Chess is Child's Play" book, which I haven't looked at much so far--it has exercises for 2-4 years old, and instructions for teaching 4+.</p>

<p>My 16-month-old can't even lift my triple-weighted chess set yet (it's all in one bag--probably weighs about 5 lbs). She very much likes to take the pieces out (to give them to me) and I show her how they set up on the board. Then she likes to pick them up and give them to me to put them back in the bag (we do this a couple times a day--she goes over and points at the chess set when she wants to play with it). She likes the knights, especially. Little horses! If only there were a set with ducks as pawns, or something. I think that would be a hit.</p>
 126: <p>Whenever she wants to learn. And let her choose the pace. </p>
 295: <p>You can teach your daughter how to play the game at any age, especially if she is curious. I remember asking my father to teach me around the age of 4, and while I was not very good at the game, I was at least able to understand how the pieces moved. It became my favorite game to play as a child, and I would constantly challenge my father to games, and even win some (I'm certain he let me win). If your daughter is asking, you should teach her.</p>
 70: <p>Any age, IMO. My father taught me to play at about 6.</p>

<p>Oh, and lead by example - take your kid to your local USCF chess club and become a member.   Play, show good sportsmanship, etc etc.</p>

<p>Chess is empowering for kids; as long as they are polite they can <strong>kick the crap out of adults and people reward them for it</strong>, lol.</p>
 109: <p>Depending on several factors, the age to start teaching a child to play chess can vary.</p>
<p>The mere fact that she asked you how she can play chess is a good sign that she is interested in learning.  Interest is one of the key factors because we don't want to force-feed them the game.  If I had to pick an age, I would say 4 is a good age, but it depends also on maturity.  I would also say not to expect too much and let her have fun. A great place to start is <a href="https://www.chesskid.com" rel="noreferrer">https://www.chesskid.com</a></p>
<p>My 2 (almost 3 year old) stumbled upon <code>Chessmaster</code> by accident.  He was more intrigued by the movie type intro to the game rather than the actual game itself, nevertheless, he remained interested and knows all the names of the pieces, but that is about it.  He knows that it is a game, but if I tell him something like &quot;Take the knight&quot;, he will take a pawn on some square and go all the way across the board and take it, lol, so based on my own experience, 3 seems to be too young in most cases.  I have really yet to see 4, but when my kid reaches 4, I guess I will find out, but based upon his reaction now, I think he would have a good grasp of the rules by age 4, maybe earlier.  As for now, I just let him have fun.</p>
