Notes

1. Discuss with your merit badge counselor the history of
the game of chess. Explain why it is considered a game
of planning and strategy.
2. Discuss with your merit badge counselor the following:
a. The benefits of playing chess, including developing
critical thinking skills, concentration skills, and
decision-making skills, and how these skills can
help you in other areas of your life
b. Sportsmanship and chess etiquette
3. Demonstrate to your counselor that you know each of the
following. Then, using Scouting’s Teaching EDGE*, teach
someone (preferably another Scout) who does not know
how to play chess:
a. The name of each chess piece
b. How to set up a chessboard
c. How each chess piece moves, including castling and
en passant captures
4. Do the following:
a. Demonstrate scorekeeping using the algebraic system
of chess notation.
b. Discuss the differences between the opening, the
middle game, and the endgame.
c. Explain four opening principles.
d. Explain the four rules for castling.
e. On a chessboard, demonstrate a “scholar’s mate” and
a “fool’s mate.”
f. Demonstrate on a chessboard four ways a chess game
can end in a draw.
*