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Playing with a five-years-old gave me an idea for the kid mode

Hello,

so the other day I played chess with my five-years-old nephew for the first time. I tried both a physical board and the lichess android app.

One thing that was nice with the app is that I did not quite have to teach the kid the rules of the games. By default the app shows the possible moves once you tap a piece. So he could figure out what he could do and what he could not.

There was one issue though : when he was in check he had very little clue about what was happening. All there is on the app is a small "check" message. He could not really pay attention to that.

So one thing that would be cool would be an option to have checks and checkmates be more visually noticeable. For instance the King blinking or something. Something visually fun anyway, since this is supposed to be attractive for kids.

Basically I'm pretty sure it's possible to design a mode so that it's possible for a kid to entirely guess the rules of the game without the help of an adult.
Please don't make the king blink. The blinking colon is irritating enough. However, I would support something like that if the blinking could be turned on or off in the settings. New people could switch it on to help them learn the rules, and then it can be turned off so people who don't need it don't get irrated.
Yes of course it would only be an option. It would only be useful for children or very early beginners.
What about a chess tutorial instead, teaching all the rules, from piece movement to en passant to stalemates? To be honest, if the kid was any age above 5, picking up chess would be very easy -- the rules are extremely simple. But I suppose a tutorial wouldn't hurt.
What if the squares the king and any checking pieces are on were highlighted red? This should be toggle-able separately from the piece destinations though since this could annoy some people.
My nephew really is five years old (he'll be 6 in october).

The thing is, I'm pretty sure a tutorial would have bored him. He seemed very happy to be able to play straight away. He pressed randomly on the pieces but the good thing about an electronic board is that you can't play illegal moves.

Sure, I had to explain him a bit while he was trying to play, but overall the machine made most of the job of teaching him the rules and after a few games he ended up being able to move the pawns correctly and the king (he was not much interested in moving other pieces unless he had to).
Forgot to mention the Queen, which he also enjoyed playing.
Hellball, you over-estimate the ability of young children.

My 5 year old sister enjoys playing. We've done over the board a few times, but she only really understands the concept of taking pieces and how pawns move and take. I will try the app as she seems to enjoy chess and likes playing it.

The rules are simple to us, but to a child they are abstract and arbitrary (Why does the pawn take diagonally? Why can the knight jump, but not the Rook? etc) I attempted to get her to think 2 moves ahead (ie, if you move here, you could take this piece next move) and she struggles with that.

Chess requires thinking that most people do not attain until the age of about 8 or 9, and even then that is perhaps too late to become very gifted in the game.

My sister is lucky in that, if I can train her to the level where I am currently at, she will be in the top 100 women in the UK.

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