Chess help?

[gambitnut]

I've played plenty of novice players who move P-kB4 in the opening and I basically obliterate them
with Q-R5+. Sure, King's Gambit is good if you pay attention to the threat Q threat. If the 7 year old
is ready to pay that type of attention, great. If not, opening moves that do 2 or 3 things at once
(such as in the Ruy Lopez) are probably better.

I'm not sure I see the logic of saying if a six or seven year old can't pay attention to one big threat, they'll have better luck playing an opening where they have to pay attention to several things at the same time. The threat of Qh4 is pretty straightforward, and so are white's ideas in the King's Gambit, attack, attack, attack. I'm guessing that you beat the novices who play the King's Gambit against you mostly by knowing how to take advantage of Qh4, not just Qh4 itself, I'm not sure that more six or seven year olds will be able to do that even if she forgets about that threat.

 

[Dumpy]

These are all good points. I think it is important for kids to learn that there are a whole host of very different openings that one can play, even if he or she never learns to play all of them. Just the idea that there are many ways to begin, instead of just going down the Spanish/Italian/four knights tree, can be instructive. My impression of the King's gambit is that it is fairly thematic, so there is less need to memorize a whole host of variations, which kids that age can't do, anyway.

I personally play d4 as white. As black, I answer e4 with usually the pirc/modern, although I started focusing on the Sicilian (mostly the dragon, since it is relatively similar to the KID/Pirc themes) right before I stopped playing regularly. There's no way I would touch that with a six-year-old. How do you explain the idea of "hypermodern?" I've laid the foundation, by hammering home that you want to control the center of the board in the opening, but fianchettoing the bishop may be too advanced for her. I refuse to answer e4 with e5.

Kids that age will very rarely play anything other than e4, unless it is something completely unsound, like setting up an entire wall of pawns on the 4th rank.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

I'm not sure I see the logic of saying if a six or seven year old can't pay attention to one big threat, they'll have better luck playing an opening where they have to pay attention to several things at the same time. The threat of Qh4 is pretty straightforward, and so are white's ideas in the King's Gambit, attack, attack, attack. I'm guessing that you beat the novices who play the King's Gambit against you mostly by knowing how to take advantage of Qh4, not just Qh4 itself, I'm not sure that more six or seven year olds will be able to do that even if she forgets about that threat.

True enough. I suppose that there are advantages to forcing your opponent into an opening
which is what King's Gambit does and the Ruy Lopez does not.

What are the "several things at one time" that you need to know to play the Ruy Lopez?

The threat is clear, try to win the pawn.

btw, I would definitely stay away from teaching a 7 year old the Sicilian!