Fun with Chess

After my daughter expressed an interest in playing chess, I began to play with her on an old set. She maintained the interest so I invested in a tournament style set - much larger pieces and a durable roll-up board/mat. She was excited to see that and kept wanting to play so I bought her a great entry level book (describing how pieces move and not much at all about deep strategy, very age appropriate with a chess playing dinosaur). We finished the book and have a routine of playing two games. During the first game I always win and during the second game she always wins. This lets her see me play her a little tough and also lets her have the enjoyment of winning. During the second game I point out simple blunders and sometimes play without my queen. After a couple of weeks of this I decided to begin teaching tactics so that she could begin to formulate strategies instead of moving pieces and reacting to the board. Everything went well and I am very pleased with the progression. More than anything, having the time to spend on this activity is a great joy for both of us. Any dreams of stardom fell apart tonight when she moved one of my pawns from its starting position back to my back file, replaced it with a queen for me, and told me I was in check. I smiled and waited for her to realize she forgot which pieces she was playing. We laughed and the moment brought back a memory from my first chess tournament. In high school we sometimes paired against younger players and I think I intimidated a much younger player a little bit. A few moves into the game he used his own piece to capture his own piece. Very funny. Then I realized my 6 year old made a mistake a teenager made, which helped me temper my expectations a little. We're having fun and she's probably already well above whatever the age-appropriate skill level is supposed to be. I'm not concerned with that at all, I just want to keep playing and having fun together with her.