The Steps Method for learning and teaching chess

The Steps Method was developed in 1987 by Rob Brunia and IM Cor van Wijgerden.
Rob Brunia was a pedagogue specialising in the development of highly gifted children. I worked with Rob Brunia in Rotterdam while doing my master's in Operations Research in the 80's. Rob died too young, at the age of 57, as a result of a brain haemorrhage.
IM Cor van Wijgerden also has a background in education but devoted most of his life to chess. He was the national coach of the Dutch women's and youth teams. His most well-known students include GM Loek van Wely and GM Erwin L'Ami.
The Steps Method is the official method of the Royal Dutch Chess Federation, is widely used throughout Europe, and is gaining popularity in the United States.

Given the background of the two developers of the method, it will not surprise that the child's development is the starting point of the method. It is rooted in strong didactic principles. This curriculum follows the material-spatial-time development of a child; lessons are structured in small building blocks and are based on concentric learning (explicitly checking required prior knowledge). Playing and analyzing games are integral to the method and necessary for knowledge transfer (going from knowing to understanding to applying). The Steps Method describes how to analyze the games of children best.

The whole curriculum consists of 6 manuals, specifically for chess trainers (and parents), and 26 workbooks for the students. The exercises in the workbooks are categorized by subject. A typical page has a title indicating the theme and 12 exercises. The manuals contain complete scripted lessons for the teacher and aids that address children's learning stages and development. There are, in total, over 14,000 exercises in the 26 workbooks. This allows a trainer to differentiate their training between weaker and stronger students easily.

The complete course takes you from novice to national master level. In Step 1, the student learns the rules of the game and the basics of mate, capturing, and defending. Step 6, the first self-study step, continues with training on attacking the king, tactics, and endgames but has more lessons on positional aspects of the game (increasing piece activity / reducing vulnerabilities) and opening preparation. Many IMs and FMs use Step 6 as preparation for a tournament to sharpen their chess skills again.

To better understand the method, you can download material from each step here: Steps Method Examples.

The Steps Method is a comprehensive method for learning and teaching chess. It helps school teachers to be good chess teachers by providing a well-structured chess curriculum. It enables strong players like IMs and GMs to be better teachers by giving a chess teaching method rooted in strong didactic principles. It helps chess program directors to have a proven uniform teaching method across teachers. For them, the Steps Method is a way to ensure quality assurance across their entire program.

In 1992, I became a certified Steps Method trainer. For that exam, I created an overview of all the chess concepts across the Steps. Since 2017, I have been teaching again and recently started a YouTube channel where I share the concepts in Steps Method. These videos can be helpful for adults who use the Steps Method for self-study, begin in Step 4 and are afraid they missed concepts of Step 1-3.
In 2019, the US Chess Federation asked me to give a presentation on the Steps Method at the US National Chess Open in Orlando. This presentation was developed in cooperation with Cor van Wijgerden, and I also presented it afterwards on YouTube.