Checking, scoring, helping

Setting up on the board

From Level 3 the children work on the board in some methods: in Thinking in pairs, Today you are my coach, Attacker and defender, The advice relay and The variation tree; for checking, also in The team cup and Motif detectives. One child sets up the position. The other compares it with the workbook or with the picture at the front: are all the pieces right? Whose move is it?

Use only small positions (at most six pieces, kings and pawns included). In Thinking in pairs, Attacker and defender, The advice relay and The variation tree time for setting up is already planned in.

Checking a solution

1. Say: “Pencils down. Your answer stays.”
2. Show the right move.
3. One child says what the opponent can best do. Another explains how it goes on.
4. Everyone compares. Anyone who was wrong corrects with the coloured pencil.

Children who cannot yet write securely draw arrows and explain aloud. Who you listen to more carefully is on the listening list (see Organisation).

Points in contests

Only the first answer counts, before the children consult – from Level 3 as text, in Level 1 and 2 as an arrow in the workbook. In The chess treasure hunt that is the team’s shared answer, before you show the solution. After the solution the other team at the table checks and ticks. You check now and then and decide at once if there is a dispute. That way the points are settled at the end of the lesson. Being faster does not earn an extra point.

A reason is right when it says what the move achieves – for example “attacks king and rook” or “the king can no longer get away”. A full sentence is not needed.

Helping without giving the solution away

1. Ask first: “What have you already seen?”
2. Give a small hint, for example about a piece or about a move by the opponent. Then wait.
3. If the child still cannot go on, show the first step. The child takes the next step themselves.