Chess Links for Kids and Beginners

I have been thinking about my next lesson for the kids I teach, surfing around the web to see if there is anything interesting out there to share with them. Among the sites I like to look through are the following, which I'd recommend to kids and beginners:

Chess Kids Academy
http://www.chesskids.com
There is some really great content here for kids--probably the best on the web. There are just two small issues with the site: (1) it is from England, so some things are more British-focused and (2) it is not very user-friendly to navigate and you do have to poke around to find the best stuff. The site navigation at the top takes a minute to load, so be patient. You can also use the "site map." But once you get the hang of this site it has a lot to offer for kids and beginners.

Chess is Fun by Jon Edwards
http://www.princeton.edu/~jedwards/cif/intro.html
An American correspondence chess champion and New Jersey native covers the basics and beyond.

Chess Lessons from Beginner to Master from Logical Chess
http://www.logicalchess.com/resources/lessons/index.html
A great set of tutorials for kids and their parents from the Huntsville Chess Club's "Logical Chess" website. Be sure to try all of the links.

Chess Corner
http://www.chesscorner.com/
A fun site that covers a lot of basics.

U.S. Chess – Beginners
http://www.uschess.org/beginners/
The United States Chess Federation (USCF) website has a good section for beginners and scholastic players. It’s a good idea to become a member of the USCF at some point in order to participate in tournaments.

Novice Nook by Dan Heisman
http://www.chesscafe.com/heisman/heisman.htm
A very popular monthly column by a Philly-area chess teacher. Some of the material may be too advanced for a true beginner, but it is all very worthwhile to study as you make progress.

Scholastic Chess by Steve Goldberg
http://www.chesscafe.com/scholastic/scholastic.htm
A good monthly column devoted to teaching kids chess. It often links to interesting sites on the net.

Susan Polgar on Chess by GM Susan Polgar
http://www.chesscafe.com/polgar/polgar.htm
A monthly column by America’s greatest chess promoter.

Susan Polgar Chess Blog by GM Susan Polgar
http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/
A web log or journal by the grandmaster, which often features fun chess art.

Chessgames.com
http://www.chessgames.com/
A fun place to play over famous and recent chess games, with user comments. You can never go wrong as a beginner by simply playing over lots of master games, simply to get a sense of how the pieces typically develop and what sort of patterns emerge.

The Kenilworth Chess Club by Michael Goeller
http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/
A website for our club, featuring an extensive set of links to other sites and a frequently updated web log called “The Kenilworthian.”