Children learn chess step by step. They start with the board and the pieces, practise how each one moves, learn the rules properly, and build up to playing thoughtful games where every move has a reason behind it.
First lesson: how the knight moves
Brolly Juniors runs chess classes for kids in Hyderabad for ages 6 to 14. Children learn piece movement and checkmate patterns, then tactics, opening principles and endgame technique, playing coached games every session. Every batch ends the term with an internal tournament and each child leaves with annotated games.
A short, plain-English explanation you can read through with your child.
Chess is a two-player board game. Each player starts with sixteen pieces lined up on opposite sides of a board made of 64 squares, arranged in eight rows and eight columns of alternating light and dark.
There are six kinds of piece: king, queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn. Each moves differently, and learning those six movements is the whole of the first stage. Nothing else makes sense until a child can move every piece without stopping to think.
Players take turns, one move each. If a piece lands on a square occupied by an opponent’s piece, that piece is captured and comes off the board. When a king is under direct threat it is in check, and the player must deal with it immediately. If there is no legal way to escape, that is checkmate and the game ends.
Children learn all of this by doing it. A concept is shown on the board, practised on a few positions, and then used in a short game the same session — because a rule you have used is a rule you remember.
Simple explanationChess is a game between two players on a board of 64 squares. Each player has six kinds of piece, and each kind moves in its own way. Players take turns, and the aim is to trap the other player’s king so it cannot escape.
Easy exampleThe rook moves in straight lines — up, down or across. The bishop moves diagonally. The knight jumps in an L shape and is the only piece that can hop over others. Children learn one piece at a time, with a demonstration for each.
At Brolly JuniorsOne idea per session, shown on the board, with guided practice before a child plays. Book a free trial to see how your child takes to it.
The honest answer: chess is a structured way to practise thinking, and children keep doing it because it is a game rather than an exercise.
A good move is not the one that looks best right now — it is the one that leaves you better placed in three moves. Chess asks children to hold that longer view.
Every position is a small puzzle with several possible answers. Children practise reading the situation, comparing options and committing to one.
Attention drifts and you lose a piece. Chess builds sustained concentration because the consequence of losing it is immediate and visible.
The game rewards children who wait and think over children who move quickly. Very few activities give that lesson so directly.
Children learn to set up a move before making it, which is a habit that shows up well outside the board.
Every turn is a decision a child owns. Making hundreds of them, seeing the results, and adjusting is how confidence gets built.
How much a child gains depends on how often they play and whether they review their games. We do not promise improvements in school performance or intelligence — what we commit to is structured teaching and regular guided practice.
Eight things children work on across the programme.
Choosing moves that improve a position rather than only reacting to the last move played.
Reading a position, weighing several options, and picking the one that holds up.
Staying with a game long enough to notice what the other player is threatening.
Setting up an idea over several moves instead of hoping something turns up.
Waiting for the right moment, which chess teaches more directly than almost anything else.
Committing to a choice, seeing how it turns out, and learning from the result.
Following a chain of consequences: if I move here, they can do that, and then what?
Spotting shapes that repeat — a familiar checkmate, a familiar trap — and acting on them.
Tap a piece to see where it can move from the middle of the board. This is exactly how each piece is introduced in class — one at a time, shown before it is explained.
Moves in an L shape: two squares in one direction, then one square to the side. It is the only piece that can jump over other pieces.
A five-by-five section of a chessboard, for clarity.
Everything in this list is covered before a child is asked to play a full game.
64 squares in eight rows and eight columns. Children learn how to set the board up the right way round and how to name a square.
King, queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn — what each looks like, where it starts, and roughly how valuable it is.
How each of the six pieces travels across the board, practised one piece at a time until it needs no thought.
How a piece takes an opponent’s piece by moving onto its square, and why a capture is not always the best move available.
One move each, no skipping. Children learn to use the opponent’s turn to think rather than to wait.
What it means when a king is under attack, and the three ways to answer it: move, block, or capture the attacker.
How a game is won, plus the simple checkmate patterns children practise as puzzles before using them in play.
Castling, pawn promotion, stalemate and draws — introduced once the core movement is comfortable.
Forks, pins and other repeating patterns, along with early ideas about controlling the centre and developing pieces.
The knight is on the yellow square. Tap every square it can jump to — there are eight. Sit with your child and work them out together.
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Tactics are drilled, games are played and games are reviewed — in that order, every single week.
How everything moves, plus the three checkmates a beginner must be able to deliver.
The shapes that win material. Children start seeing them on the board instead of after the game.
Not memorised lines — the three ideas that make an opening good, and how to make a plan from a position.
Technique for the positions games actually end in, and the discipline of the clock.
Four stages showing the shape of the journey. Your child’s actual starting point and pace are set after we see where they are — the four levels above are what the batches run to.
Board orientation, the names of the pieces, where everything starts, and how to read a square. Nothing is assumed — a child who has never seen a chessboard begins comfortably here.
Each piece is taught separately and practised until it needs no thought. Capturing, check, checkmate, stalemate, castling and pawn promotion are added as the movement becomes automatic.
Children start recognising patterns rather than calculating everything from scratch. Forks, pins and simple checkmate patterns, plus early ideas about controlling the centre and getting pieces into the game.
Full games with a plan behind them, followed by review. Children learn to explain why they chose a move and to spot the moment a game turned — which is where most of the improvement actually happens.
Suggested groupings, not fixed batches. Learning adapts to the child’s current level, so a younger child who is ready can start earlier and an older beginner still starts from the basics.
Chess awareness & basic pieces
Getting to know the board and the pieces through short activities and movement games. Sessions stay hands-on, and a full game comes later rather than on day one.
Rules, tactics & guided games
The full rules, simple tactical patterns, and regular guided games where a coach can point out what was missed while the position is still on the board.
Strategy, analysis & advanced practice
Longer games with a plan, harder puzzle sets, and reviewing completed games to work out where the position turned and why.
Not sure where your child fits? That is what the free trial is for — we look at what your child already knows and suggest a sensible starting point.
What each one actually means, in plain language.
Choosing a move for what it sets up later, not only for what it does right now.
Working out what a position needs before deciding which piece to touch.
Holding attention on a game long enough to see what the opponent is planning.
Building an idea across several moves instead of playing one move at a time.
Waiting for the right moment rather than forcing something that is not there.
Committing to a choice and taking responsibility for how it turns out.
Following a chain of consequences several steps forward before moving.
Recognising a shape on the board because it has come up before, and knowing what to do.
The six movements, in the simplest words we can manage. Keep this open while your child practises at home.
Moves one square in any direction — forward, back, sideways or diagonally. It is the piece the whole game is about, so it is kept safe rather than sent out to fight.
Moves any number of squares in a straight line or a diagonal. It is the most powerful piece, which is exactly why children are taught not to bring it out too early.
Moves in straight lines only — up, down or across, as far as the path is clear. Two rooks working along the same line are much stronger than two rooks apart.
Moves diagonally, as far as the path is clear. Each bishop stays on its starting colour for the whole game, so the two bishops together cover both colours.
Moves in an L shape: two squares in one direction, then one square to the side. It is the only piece that can jump over other pieces.
Moves one square forward, or two on its very first move. It captures diagonally rather than straight ahead — the one piece that moves and takes in different directions.
Seven stages, in the same order every time. Children settle quickly when they know what is coming next.
A short warm-up puzzle that revisits what was covered last time.
The new idea is introduced, with the reasoning behind it explained.
The idea is shown on the board move by move, with questions welcome.
Children work through set positions while support is close at hand.
A puzzle or short task that uses the day’s idea in a different shape.
Children play, which is where the learning gets tested for real.
A quick look back at the games and what to practise before next time.
Examples of the kinds of activity used to keep practice varied. Children who enjoy the practice do more of it, and doing more of it is what makes the ideas stick.
Tasks like moving a knight across the board in the fewest jumps, until movement is automatic.
Set positions where one move is clearly best, and the task is to find it and explain why.
Simple mating patterns practised as puzzles before they are ever needed in a real game.
Short games with fewer pieces, so a child gets many decisions in a small amount of time.
Positions where the task is to form a plan rather than to find a single winning move.
Setting up, naming squares and finding pieces quickly — the groundwork everything else sits on.
Spotting familiar shapes such as forks and pins across many different positions.
Walking back through a finished game to find the moment it turned — where most improvement happens.
If your child has never touched a chessboard, that is completely fine. Most children who join have not. Nothing in the first sessions assumes any prior knowledge at all.
Beginners start with the board itself — which way round it goes and how to name a square. Then the pieces, one at a time, each with a demonstration and a short practice task before the next one is introduced. The basic rules follow, then simple positions, and only then a guided game with support available throughout.
Children are never dropped into a full game and left to work it out. They play their first game once they can move every piece confidently, and a coach is there while they do it.
Brolly Juniors is a children’s learning centre at Nizampet X Roads, Hyderabad. Chess sits alongside our abacus, Vedic maths, mental maths, coding, robotics and AI programmes.
Everything is pitched at how children actually learn — short explanations, plenty of demonstration, and practice broken into pieces that hold attention.
One idea per session, shown before it is explained, and never more than a child can absorb in one sitting.
Children play in every session. Chess is a game, and it is learned fastest by playing it rather than by being told about it.
Support is available while children play, so a mistake gets explained while the position is still on the board.
We tell you what your child is working on and what would help at home, in plain terms and without jargon.
A child who can explain a losing move has learned more than one who won without knowing why.
Children get guided support to understand each idea and practise it step by step. Explanations come at the child’s pace, mistakes are talked through as they happen, and no child is pushed to play faster than they are ready to.
We share these directly rather than publishing them here, so what you get is current and specific to your child’s level.
Ask us
Changes through the year
Nothing before the trial
Let your child explore chess through simple concepts, guided practice and strategy activities. The trial is a real session, not a sales meeting — your child sits at a board and plays.
Metro Pillar No. A689, Dr Atmaram Estates, 3rd Floor, Nizampet X Roads, Nizampet, Hyderabad, Telangana, 500072
You should not have to guess what your child is doing in class. Here is what you can expect to understand at any point.
Which concepts have been covered and roughly where your child is in the sequence.
Whether the current focus is piece movement, tactics, planning or game review.
The specific thing your child keeps missing — often one pattern that a few puzzles would fix.
Simple, short things you can do between sessions, none of which require you to play well yourself.
Want an update on how your child is getting on? Ask. We will tell you honestly, including the parts that still need work.
Seven things that make a real difference between sessions. You do not need to be a good chess player for any of them.
Fifteen minutes a few times a week beats a long session on Sunday. Short and frequent is what builds familiarity.
You do not have to win or even play well. A parent who is willing to sit down and play is worth more than a strong opponent.
“Why did you go there?” is the single most useful question. Explaining out loud is how a child finds the gaps in their own thinking.
A gentle “are you sure?” before a move is made teaches more than pointing out the mistake afterwards.
A puzzle or two a day keeps pattern recognition ticking over and takes almost no time.
Praise the good move in a lost game. Children who only hear about results stop taking interesting risks.
Losing is most of how chess is learned. A child who dreads losing will avoid playing, and then nothing improves.
Brolly Juniors runs its chess classes from a learning centre built around children rather than adult coaching. The pace, the explanations and the practice are all pitched for young learners.
Parents across Hyderabad come to this for different reasons. Some have a child who picked up the game at school and wants to get properly good at it. Some are looking for an activity that asks for sustained attention without a screen. Both work here, because children start from where they actually are rather than from a fixed syllabus point.
If you want to see the teaching before committing, the free trial is the simplest way. Your child plays, you watch how they take to it, and we talk about a sensible starting point.
Metro Pillar No. A689, Dr Atmaram Estates, 3rd Floor, Nizampet X Roads, Nizampet, Hyderabad, Telangana, 500072
Beside Sri Bhramaramba Theatre, near JNTU Metro Station.
You are probably weighing two things: whether the centre is close enough to reach on a school night, and whether your child will actually enjoy it. We are at Nizampet X Roads — and the second question is best answered by letting your child sit at a board for an hour.
Chess pairs naturally with our other reasoning and number programmes. Many families combine it with one of the maths pathways.
Calculating in the head using flexible strategies — the same habit of weighing options before committing.
➗Shortcut techniques built on spotting patterns, much like recognising shapes on a board.
🧮Bead-based calculation that builds visualisation and concentration.
🧩Broader thinking practice — memory, logic, patterns and strategy in short bursts.
💻Logical sequencing and step-by-step thinking, built through projects children make themselves.
🤖Hands-on building and problem solving that puts logical thinking into a physical, visible form.
Clear explanation
Guided activities
Visible outcomes
Short, direct answers to the questions parents ask most.
It gives repeated practice at planning, comparing options and accepting the result of a decision. It also rewards patience directly, because moving quickly usually costs you something on the very next turn.
The programme runs ages 6 to 14. Children can usually start once they can follow simple rules and stay with a task for a short stretch.
Tell us your child’s class and what they enjoy. We will suggest the closest program fit—no pressure and no upfront payment.