Beautiful old times learning Chess

Hello everybody!

As I was giving a chess lesson today to a young promising kid, I thought back at the wonderful times when I was growing up, and my Dad was teaching chess to me.

The very nice collage above, made by Mister-M, helped me to think back and to remember what it was like. My Dad taught me to play chess when I was five, in 1989, and he would show me chess tricks daily, I loved them so much. At the time our family lived in Moscow, and my Dad would take me to parks to play chess with other kids and with grown-ups. Even though Russia was going through very hard times, my parents did everything so I would not notice, and I continued enjoying learning chess. On the top right of the collage you see me at 7 years old during the Moscow youth championship, when I earned my first title of Moscow champion Under-10.

If you have children, give them the gift of chess. I promise you will not regret it, and chess will help them in their future life, that's for sure! Chess teaches to concentrate, it shows the value of hard work, and it develops memory and problem solving skills.

The earlier one starts to play chess the better, so don't waste a moment - go and teach your loved ones chess!

Very best wishes to you all on this Valentine's Day!

And thanks to Mister-M for the beautiful collage he created!

Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com