There are some very talented young players around, and when you work with some of them you can be truly amazed at how quickly they pick up some tough concepts. A lot of it is trial and error, but by playing through similar types of positions, again and again, kids can improve heaps in this area of the game, and their pattern recognition generally.
Just to make all the adults feel good, here were a few endgames I was looking at with a 5 year old student. These are the ones he was struggling with.
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| White to play and win |
I like this puzzle, and it wrapped up a part of the session we were working on quite nicely.
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| White to play and win |
This one took some prompting in the end, but again, it reinforced some important endgame principles.
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| White to play and draw |
The concept of drawing is difficult for a 5 year old who only thinks in terms of winning, rather than 'not losing'. However, the same sort of principles apply, just in reverse. It's also good to make a student look through the eyes of their opponent.
My next post will have the solutions (I won't say tomorrow, as the last time I did that I never posted the next day).
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