He is Copying Me!

 

Dear parents and coaches! I received the following question from Nikola, a chess coach in Portland, Oregon:

"What should I do if a kid copies the moves of his opponent in a chess game?"

Wonderful question! I don't think there is any chess teacher who has not had a student raise his hand and complain, "he's copying me!" The truth is it is not against the rules to copy your opponent's moves!

So, what stops one player from copying his or her opponent until the end of the game? Basically, you cannot copy your opponent's moves forever, because at some point there will be a check or a capture which you will not be able to copy. For example, if your opponent puts you in check, you cannot answer the check by putting him in check. You have to actually get your own king out of check. So, at that point you would be forced to quit copying; and by that time, it might be too late - your position might already be beyond hope!

So, you are allowed to copy your opponent's moves as far as the rules of chess allow. But, it is not a good strategy to blindly copy. You can play symmetrical moves, but you must be thinking ahead just as usual. To illustrate this, here is a lesson, which also shows a well-known opening trap.

 

 

So, as you can see, there will sooner or later come a time when you will no longer be able to copy your opponent's moves, either because of a check or because the piece you need for copying is captured! By the time his happens, it might be too late! In the above game, Black's first two moves, 1...e5 and 2...Nf6 were perfectly ok. But on his third move he had to stop copying. After 3...Nxe4 Black will be down at least a pawn. Continuing to copy with 5...Qxe5?? made a bad situation worse, by losing the queen. 

This lesson can be used to explain not only the "copying" issue, but also some tactics like discovered check, as well as basic opening principles. As usual, you should have the students find White's moves, such as 4.Qe2! (the hardest move) and 5.Nc6+! (in the side variation where Black moves the knight away).

It is also interesting to note that people might be tempted to ascribe a "moral" value to chess moves. For example, some children naturally think it is somehow "unfair" for their opponent to copy them. At a higher level, people occasionally complain that their opponent played for "tricks", or played in a crude way, et cetera. But in reality, there are only strong moves and weak ones; strong moves are successful, even against good play; while weak moves fail against good play.