When is a kid old enough to learn to play Checkers?

The following are some thoughts and ramblings about my experience with checkers and other analytical games. I hope you find them useful.

My father taught me how to play checkers when I was four years old. He was a very good player, so it was a long time before I was able to beat him. We last played checkers in 2005, and we played two games. I won the first game, then he won the second because of a stupid mistake I made. He taught me all he knew about the game, and I learned from him very quickly. I was able to beat all of my friends, adults and children alike, with reasonable consistency, but I was never able to beat my dad more than about half the times we played in my later years.

My uncle taught me how to play chess at the age of six. He always won, despite my best efforts. I kept working on my chess-playing skills, and I finally beat him on my ninth birthday. That was the last game we ever played; he passed away three months later. I ran into other players who were still better than I was, and although my first several games with those better players ended in disaster from my point of view, I was eventually able to beat each of them, except for a couple of chess masters I have had the pleasure to play in my life.

In my opinion, checkers is not a difficult game to play, so it isn't surprising to me when even a new player of any age wins against a more experienced player. No child has ever beaten me in checkers or chess, even when I was a child myself, but a few have come very close. There are a few games in which a child has beaten me that do require some skill to play, though. I taught my niece to play Battleship, and she slaughtered my fleet in short order. My niece was six. It was a humiliating defeat for me, to say the least.

If you believe your granddaughter has the potential for strategic thinking, you should teach her how to play chess, and see how she does with that game. If she is able to win consistently against good players after only a short time, she may be a genius or a prodigy. Good chess play may be an indication of excellent logical thinking, in which case she will be good at math and other analytical skills. Or she may simply have good strategic skills. It is also possible that she has the knack only for checkers, and more analytical games, such as chess, may be way out of her league.

To answer your question, then, the fact that she was able to beat her grandfather at checkers doesn't necessarily indicate anything. You should try to teach her other games like chess and see if she picks up on those just as quickly. If she does, you can try other things like math and Sudoku, or anything else she likes that will help you analyze her logic. Above all, keep encouraging her to learn and to think. For all we know, your granddaughter may discover a cure for cancer one day. - LJS

Maybe Grandpa is a terrible Player if he's losing to a 5 year old that doesn't mean she's a genius.

I'd say 6 or 7 seven is old enough.

Hard to say if she got lucky, or if grandpa let her win, or if it was indeed all skill on her part. Have you played the game against your daughter? That's what I would do. If she beats you, or at least puts up a good game, you may want to try teaching her chess.

the grandfather let her win, call me when she plays chess

Thank you for sharing these with us... Ive never been embarrassed like the situation above...

Maybe pops let her win.

If she won on her own I'd say she was pretty smart.