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Have to say, I hated Portal. If someone can't cope with the word "block" (Portal used "intercept" instead) or the concept of playing a spell at instant speed, they're not going to get on with Magic in the long run. So why even bother with a watered-down version? Modern Magic Core sets, like M11, are pretty well designed so that they contain everything ...

It depends. As a teacher, the most important is to reach your student and provide him the information he wants and requires in a way he can understand. You have to see how he likes to work and adjust to him accordingly. However, I can give you general advice as well. Time settings and at what point to explain The teaching process should start prior to ...

Well, I personally suffered from this condition for a long time - and still do to some extent. In my opinion the ability to loose gracefully is dependent on one's self esteem. It is much easier to shrug off a defeat if your self esteem is secure than when your "whole life" is a battle for every scrap of validation. With age (I'd say 20+) it does get easier ...

Spades. I think Spades is the easiest starting point, because is (1) easy and (2) the point is winning tricks, making it more consistent with the logic of other games. IMHO, spades shares more in common with the other games. Hearts has the reverse logic -- you are generally trying to LOSE tricks, not win them. If you start with spades, you spend your ...

Example is critical. Lose to the child gracefully yourself. Teach them by example to say thanks for the game when they win. (Graceful winning is the flip side of graceful losing, and I always found it much harder to do; I like gloating, dammit. I have to consciously suppress that.) And, importantly, demonstrate that it's to the child's benefit to lose ...

I highly suggest taking him through the puzzles in Polgar's book. The book starts off with very simple chess problems, with only a handful of pieces, with the idea of "solve for checkmate in x moves". The problems are designed with a logical progression, highlighting specific tactics and strategies, and become increasingly complex and demonstrating more ...

In my experience, the order in which you introduce games is only of minor importance in comparison with understanding what kind of person you're dealing with and what games that type of person would like. So the key is introducing different types of games to identify the gaming personality type. Here are a few gaming personality types I've run across, and ...

To best understand the answer to this question, it helps to understand the purpose of bidding and bidding systems. Bidding is an attempt by two partners to predict the number of tricks their combined hands can win in the play. The purpose of bidding is for each partnership to ascertain which contract, whether made or defeated and whether bid by them or by ...

How to study Go wrongly, a practical reference Even though you already directly pointed in the right direction, let me disregard part of your actual question and answer differently first. Consider it a supplementary answer. A common mistake in studying I believe there is a typical trap many Western players easily fall into (I'm guilty of this myself): ...

I'm going to go for a "so simple it's possibly insulting" answer here. Hopefully it won't actually be taken amiss! Bridge is a complicated game. There's a lot to take in, and in many ways there is no end to the amount of obsessive fine-tuning you can do to your system. A beginning player who has just brought a fat Bridge tome and read bits and pieces of ...

When I started working on my chess, I improved a lot just by playing at least one game a day with more experienced tournament players who would point out reasons why I lost afterwards. It was definitely more efficient than just reading chess books, which I did on the side. If there is a chess club nearby, you should definitely check it out. I am guessing ...

Here are some things you can do. Keep in mind for the first game I'm usually more interested in teaching people how to play than winning, especially if I know the game well. This method might not work as well with a mixture of old hats and newbies. Play with an open hand (maybe even have the other players do the same). This of course only works in games ...

Yours is a good idea: introduce him to the pieces gradually (though not too gradually - five-year olds learn fast!). Here's another one: to make sure the rules of moving stick, place a piece on the empty board before each game, and ask him to point out all the spaces that piece can move to. After he's got that down (a few days/weeks, depending on how often ...

I think you should teach them as soon as they're old enough that they won't eat the stones. One thing you have to watch out for with really young players is that they will focus too much on capturing, and you have to try not to encourage that. I started teaching my daughter when she was five, and she's surprisingly good at reading. Unfortunately she ...

There are a variety of ways to level the playing field in chess. The two most common methods are material advantage and time odds, although there are also a number of more exotic handicaps that one can conceive of (e.g. giving away free moves, requiring a given piece to give checkmate, allowing the King to move two squares, etc). With material handicaps, ...

The easiest is probably to play Oh Hell, with the ascending variation. http://www.pagat.com/exact/ohhell.html Everyone is dealt 1 card, and the trump is turned up. Everyone decides if they're going to win that one trick or not. Get good at that first, and the other games become much easier.

I have 1830, 1870, 1856 and 1833. Of them, I think 1830 is the most suitable for new players. It contains the basics of the game: Private companies Track building Route optimization Company management Stock manipulations If you want a simpler game, you can ignore the private companies. Lower the starting money a bit if you like. I have played with and ...

Neither of my children liked to lose but for very different reasons. I used very different strategies to help each of them through it. My eldest took losing as an affront. It challenged his self-image. I followed the strategy of "always play my best" and by the time he was 7 or 8, he was beating me of his own accord and taking enormous delight from it. He ...

Whom to teach You definitely can teach beginners. Showing scoring, atari, ladders, simple shapes and tsumego is not a problem at all, and as your students improve, you will still be able to give them a few hints, show them tesuji and shapes they missed. You should however bear in mind that your knowledge is limited. You can't be completely sure about some ...

Technology has helped me convert/graduate more players than any other tool that I have used. Consider Dominion: this game is very easy to play online. You click on cards that are in bold and then you click "end turn". Notice that arbitrary button-pressing will probably never lead to a victory, but that the game mechanics can be easily learned since the ...

Tales of the Arabian Nights This game has a ton of reading, but simple mechanics. You'll be getting a fun game, and an English exercise at the same time. Your wife will practice: Reading English text aloud Listening to English (when others read) Reading English text silently (from cards / other private information sources) Conversing in English (playing ...

Here's what I did - though it may be too late for some: I never, ever just let my son win while he was growing up. This was not always easy. For a while, for example, I could always count on him to side with his mother when we played A Game of Thrones. It was OK, she was going to win anyhow. Sometimes, he would score a win - usually in luck based games - ...

Collaborative games (especially Pandemic, since it's quick and easy to teach) come immediately to mind. The thing is, it can teach you how to accept collective failure, but I'm not certain it has a lot to do with losing to another human being (especially a relative, with all the emotional weight they carry) in a child's mind. I know a grown up (not the most ...

I would say... type of game, number of players, etc... are all factors... but being a "good loser" is a learned trait. You want to train him to be a good sport? Make sure he plays with respectful people. Other answers are all and good... but the best way to encourage good behavior is to encourage good atmosphere. You stick your kid into a Halo server... ...

Get a book of checkmate problems, and go through the whole thing. Then find another, and do the same thing. When you are done, you will have no problem attacking. Once your feel comfortable with simpler checkmate problems, get a book of general problems. After all, in a real game, not every move is forced checkmate :) One of my favorites (which is ...

When I was teaching my cousin, I started out by explaining the rules for capture and the strategies of territory. We started out in a 9x9 area so she could get a feel for the rules without feeling overwhelmed by the size of the board. After a few games we decided to move to the full 19x19 play area. I let her play as she pleased for most of the game. ...

I'm not sure, but maybe playing games in partnerships or teams would lessen the sting of losing. Perhaps a mixture of cooperative and competitive games would also help. Any game where players can exclude an unpleasant player from deals or trading might be effective in letting a child see the consequences. However, it would have to be done very delicately ...

Hearts ...is the easiest with which I'm familiar. I like Spades better, but it's a bit more complicated. A quick search will reveal many, many sites that allow you to play Hearts online, and chances are good that your computer came with the game pre-installed, so you can play against a computer. I'd bet a six-year-old could learn it without too much ...