Your child’s first chess puzzles: getting started at home
Once a child knows how the pieces move, chess puzzles are a simple way to practise between games. Here is how to tell when they are ready, which puzzles to begin with, how to keep sessions short, and a first puzzle to solve together.
When is a child ready for chess puzzles?
The right moment depends on the child’s chess more than on their age. A child is ready once they know how every piece moves, what check and checkmate are, and can play a game to the end. A quick way to check: ask the child to point to every square a knight can reach from the middle of the board, and to tell you, in a position you set up, whether a king is in check. If both answers come easily, the child is ready for puzzles; if not, playing games and practising the moves is a better use of the time.
A good sign is a child who plays whole games but still leaves pieces where they can be taken, or misses a mate that was on the board. That is exactly what the first puzzles practise. If the child already plays online, the rating there gives you a rough idea of where to start, and our article on chess rating levels explains what those numbers mean. Without a rating, start with the easiest puzzles and move up when they stop being a challenge.
What to start with: mate in one and hanging pieces
The first puzzles should have a short answer that the child can check on the board. Two themes do that well, and they are the first two of the ten themes in 300 Chess Puzzles:
- Mate in one. Find the check the king cannot escape, in a single move. The child has to look at every check, and at every square around the enemy king.
- Hanging pieces. A piece that nothing defends, or not enough, can simply be taken. The child has to ask, after each move, what is attacked and what is defended.
Both themes match what happens in beginners’ games, where pieces are often left where they can be taken and mates are missed on both sides. Here is the first puzzle of the hanging pieces theme, the easiest of the thirty.
The first idea may be to move the king out of check. But nothing protects the white rook, so the king can simply take it: 1…Kxg7. The bishop on b4 is lost too: it is pinned, because if it moved, the black rook would attack the white king, which the rules forbid. After 2.Kd4, 2…Rxb4+ takes it with check.
A puzzle to try together
Do not give the answer straight away. Guide the search in three steps, and let the child do the looking:
- Find every check Black can give. Here there are only two, both with the queen.
- For each check, see how White can answer: move the king to a free square, take the checking piece, or put a piece in the way.
- Write the chosen move down before anyone touches the pieces.
The first check, 1…Qf2+, fails at once: nothing protects the queen on f2, and three white pieces can take it, for example 2.Qxf2. The other check is mate: 1…Qf1#. The bishop on d3 protects the queen, so the king cannot take it; the king’s own pawns on g2 and h2 block its way, and the queen covers f2 and h1. When mates in one come easily, two of our articles take the next step: Scholar’s Mate, a four-move mate and how to stop it, and the basic checkmates with a queen or a rook.
Praise the search, not only the answer. A child who checked every square around the king did the right work, even on a day the answer is wrong.
Keep sessions short and regular
A few puzzles solved with care are better than a long session that ends in boredom. Stop while the child still wants one more: the next session will be easier to start. Some simple habits help:
- One theme at a time. Several puzzles on the same idea in a row keep the pattern fresh until the last one.
- A regular moment. The same days, the same time, at the table: puzzles become part of the routine.
- A board nearby. The child can set up the position to see it better, but writes the move before playing it.
- A list of mistakes. Come back to the missed puzzles a few days later and see whether the answer comes.
A simple session looks like this: one puzzle solved together to warm up, a few the child solves alone, then the answers checked together at the back. When the child is stuck, give a hint as a question, such as which pieces can give check, rather than the move.
Celebrate the right reasoning
When the answer is right, ask the child why it works. A child who can explain that the king cannot take the queen because the bishop protects it has understood the puzzle, not just found the move.
When the answer is wrong, do not give the right one at once. Play the opponent’s reply on the board, let the child see why the move fails, and let them look again. Finding the move on the second try still counts.
Praise good habits generously: looking at every check, counting attackers and defenders, writing the move before looking at the answer. Those are the habits a real game asks for, and they matter more than a lucky guess.
Paper, pencil and the beginner level
Once printed, puzzles need no account and no screen: no notifications, no videos one tap away, only a pencil and a position. Until notation comes easily, the child can draw an arrow on the diagram, or say the move aloud while you write it down. Our article on chess puzzles on paper explains the method step by step.
Our chess puzzle notebooks for kids come in three levels. Beginner, for 600 to 1000 Elo, is the one for a child who plays whole games but still leaves pieces hanging; Intermediate (1000 to 1400) and Advanced (1400 to 1800) come next, and you can change level at any time. Each notebook brings sixty puzzles in a PDF to print at home, with lines beside each diagram to write the move and every answer explained at the back, so you can check a solution even if you do not play chess.
The second page of each notebook explains the notation. And before you buy anything, you can try both puzzles above: they are among the twenty free puzzles of our Lichess study.