Where to begin with a five year old?

[Joelnelsonb]

My five year old nephew saw me playing Go one day and wanted to play too so I explained the basic idea of liberties and we began to play atari Go. To my surprise, he actually understands the idea! He can recognize ataris and knows when he needs to extend and what not as well as how to atari back. I haven't even mentioned life and death to him but one day, we were playing and I had closely surrounded a group of his and, totally on his own, he looked at them and said "these aren't gonna' survive" and proceeded to tenuki. Now don't get me wrong, the kid cannot PLAY Go. I'm just really impressed that 1) he would even find it interesting, and 2) that he would even remember to place stones on the intersections. I've even taught him some basic tactics such as the tiger's mouth (which he loves to make because of the name) and the idea of approaching corners as well as extending to strengthen stones before a fight and invading when he sees me get a large territory. So what's a good place to start with someone who can't even read a book? I have no children of my own so I'm curious, at what age is a child usually ready to start understanding the actual game (such as life and death, ko fights and threats, seki etc)? The most basic thing I'm trying to teach him right now is to always look at my move before thinking about his own. He likes to have his stone in hand ready to place it as if it were a race and I keep reminding him to wait for me to move, look at where I went, than think about his move. I'd like to continue to work with him because I feel like learning Go is like learning to play an instrument: Starting at a young age when you're brain is in initial development will give you an edge that people like myself that started as adults can never achieve .

[oren]

I've been teaching a five year old a bit. I started with capture go for a while and then went to 9x9 with some handicap. I try not to teach too much and just let him play as he wants. Just keep it fun.

[DrStraw]

It sounds to me like you don't need to do anything. He sounds pretty sharp and aware of some basic things. I would just let him play and learn as he goes. You can point out things here and there but don't overload him too much.

[Elom]

It seems that he'll figure life and death out faster than you may teach him

[mlund]

It seems like he's ready to play Capture Go on a 9 x 9 board, no? The concept of living groups, ladders, cutting, etc. all evolve pretty naturally in capture go. My 3-year-old likes the "Wonder Go" set we got through the American Go Foundation program and the AGA. http://agfgo.org/pages/store-teaching.php (bottom of the page). He's not anywhere near where your kid is, obviously, but he's got the concept of capturing down and we're working on the turn-taking aspect now with one-way capture problems like following a first-line group or playing a ladder. I think that regardless of age, providing reinforcement / motivators for kids is a huge factor in making things stick.

Marty Lund

[Joelnelsonb]

We play on a 13x13. It had been just atari Go (first capture Go) but recently I've been explaining to him the idea of territory and now he has a lot of fun surrounding little areas. It's funny, he'll make a territory and be like "look I made a territory!", then he'll make a wall going down the middle of it and say "Look, I made two now!" I also have trouble getting him to remember that the rim counts as a neutral border and so you don't need a wall of stones on the 1st line to surround something...

[mlund]

We play on a 13x13. It had been just atari Go (first capture Go) but recently I've been explaining to him the idea of territory and now he has a lot of fun surrounding little areas. It's funny, he'll make a territory and be like "look I made a territory!", then he'll make a wall going down the middle of it and say "Look, I made two now!" I also have trouble getting him to remember that the rim counts as a neutral border and so you don't need a wall of stones on the 1st line to surround something...

You could provide an incentive for holding territory. Use territory scoring and have him count by filling in the intersections in his territory with candies, stickers, or pennies. Prize structures usually work. When you get 5 less candies or pennies or whatever, you'll be less included to play in your own territory when you don't have to.

Marty Lund

[xed_over]

To my surprise, he actually understands the idea!

I don't know why we are surprised... kids are becoming professional players at age 11... so I suspect they are already quite strong by age 6 or so.

[CnP]

I've been teaching my son (who's 4) Chess and Go on and off for a while (he prefers Chess). If they're that sort of person it's definitely not too early to learn (he was pretty excited when he castled last time we played - unprompted). I taught my daughter the basics of western Chess, Go and Shogi a couple of years ago but she's more interested in other things right now. In Go I like to get him to count liberties & talk about territory and a few other things but trying to keep it fun and let him play where he wants to. Keeping it light-hearted is the top priority - or rather avoiding the temptation to turn it into a 1 hour monologue that will turn them off. I don't think Go should be 'spiced up' though and I think you've got no hope if they don't find Go inherently interesting. Really I only ever play Go or Chess with him when he asks (or I suggest it as one of several activities) and if he gets tired in the middle of a game we just pack up.

p.s. my son's pretty keen on maths so his interest in Chess went up quite a bit when I told him about estimating who was in the lead based on numerical value of different captured pieces. Every couple of moves he's adding them up to see who's winning