Outsmart the Guards, Capture the Flag

Chess teacher and author Igor Sukhin

Bisik-Bisik by Edwin Lam Choong Wai

Igor who? Well, Igor Sukhin is the author of the recently published Chess Gems: 1,000 Combinations You Should Know. Having written close to 50 chess educational books in Russia since 1991, Igor Sukhin is also the only chess author whose books have been recommended by the Russian Department of Education. Having reached Candidate Master’s playing strength in the early 1980s, Igor gave up his pursuit of chess glory and devoted himself to the development of methods of chess coaching to kids. With his daughters in pre-school, he created an original system of chess education aimed at general intellectual development. And, the result was impressive: both his daughters were straight-A students from elementary school through college. In this third Bisik-Bisik column, let’s listen to the wisdom of Igor Sukhin.

During a chess lesson at a preschool in Moscow in 2006

Igor Sukhin: I think I was about six years old and my father had taught me the rules of chess.

My first coach, Igor Osipov, really helped me to understand the game. He analyzed my games and provided a lot of invaluable advice in all areas.

Frankly, I don’t remember the very first one. But, there were a couple of books that made a deep impression on me: Chess by Ilya Maizelis, Kotov’s Chess Legacy of Alekhine and Aron Nimzowitsch’s My System.

I think my level was typical for someone who started studying chess fairly late – I was a candidate-master. My highest rating was 2274.

Chess teaches you to assess your strengths objectively. When I realized that to improve, I would need to give up a lot of other things in my life, I stopped playing in tournaments. At the same time, I was becoming more and more interested in the subject of introducing chess at elementary schools. There were very few books written on the subject, and I was happy to contribute my own ideas.

For the past 17 years, starting in 1991, I have taught chess to kids ages 4-6, in one of Moscow’s pre-school, Znaika-M.

Since 1993, I have held the position of senior researcher at the Institute for the Theory of Education and Pedagogic in the Russian Academy of Education. Based on the works of numerous psychologists, including Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner, Piotr Galperin and many others, I have developed my own program of teaching chess to kids. I have developed a lot of interesting tools to help the kids learn about the individual pieces. They include special puzzles and games such as “An Army Of One”, “Outsmart the Guards”, “Capture the Flag”, “Labyrinth” and more. My other idea includes using a fragmented chessboard. Alongside the normal 8x8 chessboard, I would also use special positions on subsets: 2x2, 2x3, 3x3, etc. This way, it is much easier for the child to concentrate on the key issues. Compared to older kids, 4- to 6-year-olds are the toughest to teach; yet, that is what makes the task challenging.

Mated on f7! Igor playing chess with his daughters, Olga and Elena, in 1987

I think it is incredibly important to share experiences – to pass on to others what you have learned. And it is not necessarily limited to chess coaches; a lot of parents are interested in innovative ways of teaching their kids. The younger the kids, the harder it is for a professional chess coach to teach them. That’s why there are very few really young kids taking lessons. Yet, with the right approach, it can be done.

My first book was Adventures in Chess Country, published in Moscow in 1991. It is a book introducing chess to 5- to 7-year-olds.

Igor with his "canonical" chess textbooks for kids

Around 100 titles, altogether. My books cover a lot of ground – from chess to crosswords to mathematical puzzles. Less than half of my books are about chess. The total number of my books in print in Russia exceeds 1,300,000.

More than ten of my books have been recommended by the Russian Department of Education. These books are given this seal of approval because they are the tools, not aimed solely to teach chess, but to teach kids to be able to think in their heads better! I am the only chess author in Russia to receive this honor.

You are absolutely right, Edwin, this is my first book published in English. My only other publication outside of Russia was La bolsita magica del ajedrez. El ajedrez para los mas pequenos published in 1992 in Spain. It is a chess book for little kids selected for publication by the Kasparov Foundation.

Thanks, Edwin. I am glad you share my fascination with the history of chess combinations! There are a lot of books about chess combinations. But, most of these books have the same flaws that reduced them to be just a collection of drills, whereby the combinations are categorized by themes and the second half of the 20th century is over-represented. In my book, the presentation is chronological which allows the reader to get a better feel for each epoch, and through the prism of combinations, survey the whole history of the great game.

Frankly, it was my publisher, Mongoose Press who persuaded Vladimir to write the foreword. I am grateful to them for the superb job they did with the book. Vladimir really appreciates the history of chess and he felt that my book tells the story well.

What is your next chess project?

One of my goals is the ultimate introduction of chess into all Russian schools. Even though in many countries chess is making its way into the educational system, realistically it’s still 99 percent about competition.

At a seminar in 2003

There is a curious observation someone made recently: lots of people know who the top grandmasters are, but virtually no one has heard about the results in the area of chess education. Still, in the last 30 years, we have accumulated enough knowledge proving the benefits of chess for both adults and kids. One can easily locate the lists of these reports on the FIDE or even my own website. Needless to say, I am very supportive of such research and consider myself an active contributor to it.

Great players of the past such as Lasker, Tarrasch and Capablanca believed that chess should be an integral part of school education. I believe that there should be some chess education for all kids, followed by purely elective classes for older kids, beyond elementary school. Why hasn’t it happened yet? In a recent project in Santa Fe, Argentina, after introducing chess to all the 18,000 students, a survey showed that 27 percent have continued their interests in chess, 34 percent did not, and 39 percent stayed neutral. In my view there is only one explanation: the teachers couldn’t motivate and engage the kids. The kids are the same everywhere, the game of chess too. Therefore, the approach to teaching is what makes the difference!

My family is very important to me. Everything else is secondary. My wife and I have been together for 30 years and we have two lovely daughters. Besides chess, I read a lot as well as play tennis and football.

Earlier Bisik articles by Edwin Lam