Basic Rook Checkmates

I spent a good 3 hours of chess lessons with my sons Freedom and Miguel. I was surprised at the two for recognizing and matching the chess diagrams from the book Simple Checkmates by A.J. Gillam. Our impromptu session started when Freedom complained that I never play chess with them. I said you have to learn how to play it before I play with them and next thing I knew we were setting up pieces on the board.

We started with the basic King and Queen checkmates until we reached the basic rook checkmates. Here are some of the diagrams I remember since I was more of an observer than a lecturer specially when they were collaborating on the following steps I gave them:

1st         Look at the diagram
2nd       Get the pieces asked by the diagram
3rd        Set-up the position
4th        Answer the question "Is it checkmate or not?"

From a special needs teacher with so much interest in the learning process and how humans grasp ideas, I knew I had to "learn" my kids jargon to learning which can be very different for the two of them. I also had to make sure that our goal as a group was more of bonding moments than chess moments.

Since I knew exactly what they already know and what they can learn at the moment, I figured the first few pages of A.J. Gillam's book is the right kind of chess for the right kind of learners.

Basic Rook Checkmates

In between we would exchange stories about BenTen, their favorite cartoon program. If there's excitement I am feeling over this development, it must be coming from the fact that if they really get hooked on this, we will be spending a lot of  time together for the next 20 years or so and be making beautiful memories we will cherish for the rest of our lives.

Fatherhood is the most important job a man can ever have!