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Step 2: Capture & Count · about 25 min

Good Trades, Bad Trades

🖨 Worksheet🔑 Answer key🖨 Easy-reading worksheet

Goal: Kids can count a trade and decide whether it wins or loses points.

You need: One board and set per pair

📖 Early readers: On paper, read each trade question aloud and let kids answer with thumbs up/down. On iPads, easy reading reads the questions and answers out loud.

1 · Teach it (15 min)

Read these out loud, or put them in your own words. Show each board on screen or set it up on a demo board.

  1. 1.“A trade is when you capture a piece and they capture one of yours back. To know if it's good, count the points.”

  2. 2.“If our pawn takes this knight and their pawn takes back, we gave 1 point and got 3. That's a good trade!”

  3. 3.“If our rook takes a pawn and gets taken back, we gave 5 and got 1. Bad trade!”

  4. 4.“Trading a knight for a bishop, 3 for 3, is an even trade. That's fine, but it doesn't win anything.”

With younger kids: Use fingers: hold up what you give on one hand and what you get on the other. More on the 'get' hand means good trade.

2 · Play it: Trade Detective (10 min)

Set up: Play a normal game in pairs, with a third kid (or the teacher) as detective if possible.

  1. Whenever a capture happens, both players say the points out loud: 'I gave 3, I got 5.'
  2. The detective writes down each trade as good, bad or even.
  3. After the game, count who made more good trades.

3 · Practice and pass check

On iPads, kids open Student → Step 2 → Good Trade or Bad Trade?. On paper, print the worksheet. A kid passes by getting 2 of 3 on the pass check. The pass code for this lesson is S2-L3-MA.

Practice (4) with answers

1.You take a rook (5) with your knight (3), and they take your knight back. Good or bad trade?

  • ✓😀Good
  • 😟Bad
  • 😐Even

2.You take a pawn (1) with your queen (9), and they take your queen. Good or bad?

  • 😀Good
  • ✓😟Bad
  • 😐Even

3.You trade a bishop for a knight. Good, bad or even?

  • 😀Good
  • 😟Bad
  • ✓😐Even

4.Make the best trade you can. Draw an arrow or write the move.

abcdefgh

Move: cxd5

Pass check (3) with answers

1.Your rook (5) takes a bishop (3). They take your rook back. What was that?

  • 😀Good trade
  • ✓😟Bad trade
  • 😐Even trade

2.Your pawn (1) takes a knight (3). They take your pawn back. What was that?

  • ✓😀Good trade
  • 😟Bad trade
  • 😐Even trade

3.Make the best trade you can. Draw an arrow or write the move.

abcdefgh

Move: Nxd6

Topic order based on: Chess for Children, Part 2 (topic order); How to Win at Chess, ch. 7 (attacking and defending). All wording is original.