Learning From Your Students

Submitted by eugen on Sun, 07/28/2024 - 10:15
PUBLICATION NOTE:
This article was published originally on The Chess Improver blog on 2016-09-06
I have reposted it here for reference.

Life teaches us plenty of lessons along the way. One such lesson is to be open minded and actually listen to the feedback your students give you. Here is a simple scenario: you present a puzzle for solving and the students get started; some will do it seriously, excited by the challenge in front of them. The vast majority will start pestering you with questions from the simplest ones (who moves first?) to the most challenging (is this first move the solution?...); of course a small percentage will simply do not care and wait for the solution to be presented.

Paying attention to the questions asked is key in my experience! When I started teaching chess I was pretty much decisive: "No, that is not it. Have another look!". That does not help anyone and of course could be done by anyone. Hey, the software does that too when you try solving puzzles on your own. I am not a piece of software!

Here is a mate in 4 puzzle I challenged by students to take upon during their summer vacation to stay in touch with chess until we resume classes. Give it a try as well!
[Event "Puzzle #01"][Date "2016.08.29"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "7N/3K1Npk/6p1/8/8/1B6/8/8 w - - 0 1"]

I chose it as appropriate for the next level we are going to study together in the upcoming school year. Now some of the students have failed to pass the graduation test back in June and will have to take it again in September when we start again. This is a good opportunity to use the knowledge they have so far and practice for the test. One of the students who is in that boat has emailed me his solution:
[Event "Puzzle #01"][Date "2016.08.29"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "7N/3K1Npk/6p1/8/8/1B6/8/8 w - - 0 1"] 1.Kd8 Kg8 2.Kd7 Kf8 3.Nxg6+ Kg8 4.Ng5#
You already know that is not it, right? What do we do with the kid though? He moved the white King back and forth; that is of little value. Hmm, he got aggressive with the black King, right? Hey, if you look careful that is actually a nice help mate, ain't it? Don't you think the kid has some ideas running through his mind? I do! Here are a couple of pointers;
1. The kid actually achieved a mate in 4
2. His solution shows ingenuity; help mates require effort and out of the box thinking. Here we can actually think the first 2 white moves were in a way done similar with gaining the opposition, don't you think?
3. There clearly is desire to do the work
Would you give him a second chance? Probably it depends if you found the solution by now. Have you?
[Event "Puzzle #01"][Date "2016.08.29"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "7N/3K1Npk/6p1/8/8/1B6/8/8 w - - 0 1"] 1.Ke8 {Both Knights can't move and 1.Bc2 mates in 5} g5 (1... Kg8 2.Nxg6 Kh7 3.Bc2 Kg8 4.Ne7#) 2.Kf8 {now only the pawns can move} g4 (2... g6 3.Bc2 g4 4.Bxg6#) 3.Bc2+ g6 4.Bxg6#