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Creating Flash Cards for Training in Chess
Coaching and Training Tools for Teachers, Schools and Clubs

Creating Chess Flash Cards

by Steve Lopez

Teaching chess to young students can be a challenging and rewarding experience. Much of the challenge lies in the area of keeping a student's interest; in an era of constant electronic distractions (cell phones, television, video games), many of which are definitely more eye-catching than our ancient board game, keeping a child's mind focused on a chess lesson can be quite challenging indeed.

One technique which can be used effectively with children (twelve or so years old and under) is to use a "game within the game" by challenging a student to solve chess problems and rack up a high score. This is a particularly good technique to use when the child is solving checkmate puzzles (which is usually the stage of a student's chess study which follows learning how the pieces move). The instructor can make this game as simple or as involved as he or she wishes. A simple technique is to challenge the student to solve x number of puzzles within a time limit. A more elaborate technique borrows from the video games with which the student will already be familiar; after solving a set number of, say, mate-in-one puzzles, the student "levels up" and moves on to the next plateau: a series of mate-in-two problems. This can be repeated up to the limit of the student's abilities, but the technique does require a bit more work on the instructor's part in finding and preparing suitable chess puzzles.

This presents some challenges for the instructor. How does one go about finding checkmate problems? What method does one use to actually present the problems to the student?

The obvious answer, of course, is to use a computer to both locate games and present them in a printed medium. There are a number of electronic tools (that is, software programs) which one can use to create chess diagrams and worksheets. For the purpose of this article I'll be using the program with which I'm most familiar: ChessBase, which is a multi-functional program containing database, analysis, and printing features. If you wish to create a set of worksheets or flashcards for your students, you can do most of the work (depending on how elaborate you wish to be; more later) directly within the ChessBase program. The specifics of the instructions provided here will differ, of course, if you're using some other software program (or programs, if you're using a suite of them to handle different parts of the process), but the concepts discussed can still easily be used.

The first step is to locate suitable "mate-in-x" problems to use. For those not familiar with ChessBase or other chess database programs, the ease of this step may come as a surprise. Launch the ChessBase software, right-click on a database's icon (on the program's database "desktop"), and select "Search" from the submenu:

Chess Flash Cards for Teachers and Coaches

This will bring up ChessBase's Search mask, the means by which the user can locate games by many configurable criteria in nearly infinite combinations. This search, however, will be quite simple: we're going to look for games which ended in checkmate. There's a simple Search mask toggle for this: a check box which says "Mate":

Note the section of the Search mask labeled "Result" on the right side about midway down the dialogue; you'll see that I've already selected the box beside "Mate". Now we just click the "OK" button and let the program do its work. After a time (the length of which will depend on the size of the database and the speed of your computer), you'll see a new window displaying the search results. If you single-click on a game in the game list (to highlight it), you can replay the game directly in the "Search results" window. In fact, you shouldn't need to replay a thing because the game will "jump" directly to the next-to-last move when you single-click on the game citation in the list:

When you review the games in this list, you will occasionally come across one which doesn't actually end in checkmate. However, if you go to the game's final position, you'll notice that there's an unstoppable mate in the position (and thus the game's loser chose to resign). ChessBase detects these final positions and classifies them as mates in its searches.

To illustrate the procedure of creating a worksheet or some flash cards, we're going to create a batch of six mate-in-one positions. That number is no accident; six is the number of chess positions which will comfortably fit on a sheet of 8.5"x11" paper or cardstock without resizing the diagrams.

When you find a game containing a nice mate-in-one you'd like to add to the worksheet send it to the ChessBase Clipboard. This step isn't strictly necessary but will pay dividends later if you're making flash cards and want to add the correct answer to the back of a card. To send a game to the Clipboard, right-click on it, select "Edit" from the submenu, and select the "Clip or unclip" command:

As you can see from the menu, the shortcut for clipping a game is to hit the F5 key.

Do this for each game you want to add to the worksheet (or cardsheet, if you intend to make flash cards). After you've selected six games return to the ChessBase database desktop (by clicking the "ChessBase" button on your Windows taskbar) and double-click on the "Clipboard" icon. You'll see a list of the six games you've already clipped.

Now double-click on the first game to open it in a new Game window. In the game notation, click on the position from which you'd like to make a diagram (the next-to-last move of the game if it ends with an actual mate). Then go to the File menu, select "Print", and then "Insert diagram in list" from the submenu:

This will put the diagram in a sort of "second clipboard", a list of diagrams you'd like to have appear on the sheet you're creating. But first you'll see a dialogue which lets you control how the diagram will appear on the printed sheet. This dialogue has three tabs along the top; the first says "Coordinates":

This section of the dialogue gives you control over the display of algebraic coordinates around the borders of the printed diagrams. The check box labeled "Coordinates" toggles them on or off. When toggled "on", the radio buttons below are activated and let you choose where the coordinates will appear around the edges of the diagram.

The next tab, called "Print diagram", provides options for the printing of the diagram itself:

"Size" obviously refers to the size of the diagram on the page. I recommend using the default size until you're more familiar with the overall process of printing a diagram list. "Style" gives you the option of printing either a black and white diagram or one which uses the same color scheme as your on-screen ChessBase chessboard. This one is your option, but I'll warn you that color printing will use up quite a few more printer cartridges than will plain black and white diagrams.

There are other options you can choose. "Flipped" means that the Black pieces will appear at the bottom of the diagram. This allows the student to see the board as he would in an actual game. "Mark side to move" provides a white or black dot beside the chessboard indicating which side is to move (useful for cases in which you opt not to flip the board [see above]). "Diagram numbers" does just what it imples: places a sequential number beside each diagram. This can be useful if you wish to create a written "test booklet" containing numerous diagrams and want to have a numbered "answer book" which you can use while grading the test. "Colors and arrows" will only be available if the selected position contains these special ChessBase annotation forms.

The final tab is called "Diagram title":

The two sections of this dialogue are labeled "Headline" (for text which appears above the chessboard diagram) and "Bottomline" (for text appearing below the diagram). In order to use the options for a particular section, you must first select the corresponding check box at the top of the dialogue.

The "Headline" options allow you to either display the player names above the diagram or add your own text (which you'd type in the "Print text" box). The "Bottomline" options allow the printing of either the last move played, the next move played (the "answer", useful if you'd like to make a second, corresponding, answer sheet), the last annotation (if you've annotated the game and wish the previous comment to appear), or another "Print text" box which allows you to add your own comment below the printed diagram.

After you've selected your options, click the "OK" button. Then close the game window, open the next game on the Clipboard and repeat the process. Do this for all of the games containing diagrams you wish to add. Note that the dialogue we've just discussed will remember your choices from diagram to diagram, so if you add any text in the "Print text" boxes, please remember to change it between diagrams (as well as change the "Flipped" status for diagrams in which you'd like the White pieces to start at the bottom).

When you're finished, you will have created a diagram list containing six diagrams ready for printing.

Note, too, that you can go to the File menu (in a game selected from the Clipboard or in the "Search results" window), select "Print", and have a few other available commands pertaining to the diagram list. You can "Edit" the list, which allows you to remove diagrams from it (if you discover that you've accidentally added a position to the list which you don't want on your printed worksheet). You can also save your diagram list or load one which you've previously saved.

When you're ready to print out the diagrams, go to the File menu, select "Print", and then "Print diagram list" from the submenu. A print preview screen will appear and show you what your finished printout should look like:

The above illustration is of a reduced size (and quality) but will give you an idea of what the layout will look like when you print the worksheet. Click the "Print" button at the top of the dialogue to send the diagram sheet to the printer.

There are a couple of things you might do with this printout. If you print the diagrams on regular paper you can simply hand it to the student and have him either draw an arrow directly on the diagram to show the correct move or else write the correct move in the margin beside the diagram (which is useful for teaching algebraic notation).

Some students, particularly younger ones, might find this to be too similar to a school exam. Another method of delivery would be to create flash cards. This is really pretty simple to do. Just print the diagram sheet on cardstock instead of plain paper. The printed sheet already has a central dividing line (to aid in cutting apart the cards); you just need to carefully use a straightedge ruler to create dividing lines above and below the diagrams and then cut them apart to a roughly uniform size.

Now we come to the reason why we sent the six games to the ChessBase Clipboard: you'll still need the answer to each chess puzzle. Open the games one at a time from the Clipboard (by double-clicking on them) and write the correct answer on the back of each card using a ball-point pen; since the cards are going to be handled, the use of pencils, markers, or water-soluble inks is not recommended. If you're feeling extra industrious, and have access to a laminator, you might even go so far as to laminate the cards for extra durability.

I just write the answer on the back of the cards. Some people might wish to print the diagram sheet to a file, then send that image to a word processor to create two-sided cards with the answer typed (instead of handwritten) on the back. I find this easily doubles the time spent in flash card creation with not much return other than a bit of extra neatness. To each his own, but I prefer to just use a pen.

You can send as many diagrams as you like to a diagram list if you'd like to create multiple worksheets or batches of flash cards; we limited the number to six just for the sake of this example.

Returning to the idea of creating multiple "decks" of flash cards (mate-in-one, mate-in-two, etc.), you'd use the same process as above - just back up one move pair and use that diagram for a mate-in-two problem. Be sure, though, that the mates are indeed forced and can't be "cooked"; it's a good idea to use a chess engine/chessplaying program to double-check for these possibilities. In creating the actual cards, you'll be able to look at the back of a card and see in which "deck" (mate-in-one, mate-in-two, etc.) it belongs; an even easier method is to use colored cardstock with a separate color for each "level" of mate problem. This also adds visual appeal for the student, as he'll be able to see how far he's progressed.

Here's an example of how you'd handle "leveling up". Assuming you've created enough flash cards, you could tell the student that after twenty correct answers he'll advance to the next level and the puzzles will get more difficult. After a correct answer, hand him the flash card. After he's accumulated twenty cards, he hands them back and you then pull out a set of mate-in-two cards to repeat the process. Depending on the age and skill level of the student, you can repeat the process through as many "levels" as he's capable of completing. Not only is this fun for the student (it has that "video game" cachet to it), but it will also provide him with a sense that he's improving his skills.

Regardless of the software you use, or whether you make worksheets or flash cards, creating and using printed aids is a tried-and-true method of improving the chess skills of your developing students.