Comment by Townley
My teenage niece is getting solid at chess, but I can still beat her handily. So we came up with a fun handicap the last few times we’ve played:
Every third turn, my four year old daughter gets to move for me. She doesn’t know the rules so she chooses a piece and we give her the full rundown of options where that piece can legally move. Neither of us can influence her choice, but there’s some degree of psychological play allowed for everyone’s entertainment
It’s been unexpectedly rich and fun for everyone involved:
- My daughter is slowly learning the game and likes hamming up the choice
- I exercise a different part of my brain around guarding eventualities and conservative movements
- Pure cackles of joy and glee from my niece whenever my daughter reaches for the queen
This reminds me a bit of Hand and Brain [1], another fun variant with kids. We usually switch to normal chess after a predetermined number of moves.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_and_brain