How to get my child interested in chess
Most parents asking this question want the same thing: a child who genuinely enjoys chess, not one who tolerates it because you signed them up. The honest answer is that interest can't really be forced — but it can be invited. This piece walks through what actually works with children aged 5 to 10, what backfires, and what to do if your child still isn't interested.
How do I get my child interested in chess?
You don't, really — you invite them. Children under 10 develop interest in things they see people around them enjoying, not things they're pushed into. The most reliable way to spark chess interest is to play yourself where they can see it, keep it low-pressure, and let them come to you. Pushing tends to backfire. Waiting works better than pushing.
What actually works
A few things reliably help children aged 5 to 10 develop genuine interest in chess:
- Play yourself, where they can see you. Children imitate what their parents do. If they see you playing chess on your phone, against a friend, or against them, they start to think of it as something people they respect actually enjoy. This works better than any structured attempt to teach them.
- Family games. Once your child knows how the pieces move (even loosely), play very short, casual games together at the kitchen table. Keep them under 10 minutes. Play badly on purpose so they win sometimes. The goal isn't to teach — it's to make chess feel like something the family does together.
- A physical board they can touch. For younger children especially, a real chess set beats an app for building the initial interest. Setting up the pieces, knocking them over, learning the shapes — this all counts. Apps are useful later, but a physical board makes the game feel real.
- ChessKid or similar apps, on their terms. Once your child has some interest, ChessKid is genuinely good at deepening it. Puzzles, rewards, and gentle progression give children the feeling of getting better, which is often what tips casual interest into real engagement. Introduce it as something they can explore, not something they have to do.
- Chess in stories and media. Chess appears in plenty of children's books, animated shows, and short YouTube videos aimed at kids. Chess-themed content can plant curiosity in a way that direct teaching can't. GothamChess and a handful of other family-friendly chess channels work well for slightly older children.
- Let them lose sometimes — but not always. Losing every game turns children off chess quickly. But winning every game also isn't ideal — they need to lose enough to learn that losing is okay. In our experience, most children develop real interest when they're winning about 60-70% of their early games and understand why they're winning.
The theme running through all of this: children develop interest when chess feels enjoyable, low-stakes, and something they choose. The role of the parent is to create the conditions, not to enforce the outcome.
The reliable ways to spark chess interest in children aged 5 to 10 are playing yourself where they can see it, casual family games, a physical board to play with, apps like ChessKid once curiosity is there, chess in books and children's videos, and letting them win most but not all of their early games.
What backfires
Pushing rarely works and often makes things worse. A few specific things to avoid:
- Making it a lesson before they want it to be. Trying to formally explain how the knight moves to a five-year-old who hasn't asked will usually land badly. Formal teaching without existing interest is what turns curiosity into resistance.
- Comparing to other children. "Your cousin plays chess, why don't you want to?" — comparisons of this kind almost always reduce interest rather than increase it. Children are perceptive about being nudged toward things they haven't chosen.
- "You're going to love this." Enthusiasm from the parent can be counter-productive when it feels like sales talk. Children can tell when they're being sold something, and they resist it. Better to say almost nothing and let the game speak for itself.
- Playing to win against a young child. Beating a six-year-old at chess isn't teaching, it's discouragement. Children who lose every game to a parent stop wanting to play. This is different from letting them win every game — it means calibrating the difficulty so they win most of the time and gradually see themselves getting better.
- Turning it into a chore. "You have to do chess before you can watch TV" or "we're doing chess for 20 minutes now" transforms chess into a duty. Once a child files chess under things I have to do, sparking real interest becomes much harder.
- Over-explaining early on. When your child first shows curiosity, the temptation is to explain openings, tactics, and strategy. Resist it. The joy of early chess for children is figuring out what happens if they move a piece here or there. Explanations belong later, once interest is established.
The common thread: anything that turns chess from something the child does by choice into something the parent wants them to do tends to backfire.
The main things that backfire are formal teaching before the child asks for it, comparing to other children, over-enthusiastic parent framing, playing to win against a young child, making chess a required activity, and over-explaining early on. All of these turn chess from a choice into an obligation.
What if they've tried and still aren't interested?
Sometimes you do everything right and your child still doesn't take to chess. That's genuinely fine — chess isn't for every child, and there's nothing wrong with a five-year-old who'd rather build with Lego. A few things worth thinking about first, though:
- Is it chess they don't like, or the format? Some children hate learning through apps but love a physical board. Some find group settings overwhelming but engage in a 1-to-1 conversation. Some resist parents trying to teach them but respond well to a stranger. Before concluding your child isn't interested in chess, check whether it's actually the format that isn't working.
- Is it the timing? Children develop readiness for chess at different ages. A five-year-old who isn't interested may be genuinely engaged at seven. Our piece on how to tell if your child is ready for chess lessons walks through the readiness signals in more detail.
- Is it worth trying a proper lesson? Sometimes a well-run 1-to-1 lesson with a tutor sparks interest in a way parents can't, because tutors know how to introduce chess to children in ways that make it feel like play rather than learning. If you've tried the informal routes and it hasn't stuck, a trial lesson is a low-cost way to find out whether the format was the problem. If you're considering it, our piece on what an online chess lesson for kids actually looks like covers what to expect.
- Or: accept it and try again later. Sometimes the honest answer is that chess isn't for this child at this age. Come back to it in a year. Interest that doesn't come now often appears later without any intervention.
The last option is worth taking seriously. A child who's been gently invited into chess and hasn't taken to it isn't a project — they're just a child who's currently interested in other things. That's completely fine.
If your child has tried and still isn't interested, first check whether the format was the problem (apps vs board, group vs 1-to-1, parent vs tutor). Check whether it's a timing issue and they might be readier in a year. A trial lesson with a tutor can sometimes spark interest that informal routes don't. And it's genuinely fine if chess just isn't for your child right now — coming back to it later often works.
Where to start
If your child has shown some spark of interest and you'd like to see how they respond to a proper lesson, the simplest step is to try one. We run 30-minute trial classes with a real tutor — enough to see whether the format engages them or not. If it does, you have your answer. If it doesn't, you've learned something useful without committing to anything.
