Almost all the students are not yet able to play chess well enough even after finishing the workbook accompanying Step 1. Pieces are still being given away and pieces which have been left en prise by the opponent are not always being taken. They do not yet have a sufficiently good overview of what is happening on the board, i.e. they do not yet see all the possible attacking and defensive options.

It is important to give top priority to the job of helping students improve in this area, or else it will remain a serious weakness for longer than necessary. We should not deal with new material before the children have mastered the basics to a great enough degree. Watch carefully to be sure that they apply in their own games what they have learnt from the lessons and the exercises. Should a child not spot immediately that one of the pieces is hanging, then it makes little sense to want to teach him to look for the double attack (Step 2) in his own games. If during game play a student is stuggling to spot a piece that is en prise, then that student will likely fail to spot that on the next move two pieces will be in danger!

The best method for the improvement of children's board vision is to let them play games. It is helpful to remember that every child will require a different amount of time to master each phase (as defined in the introduction in the manual "How children learn to play chess"). One child may need to play 300 games, another one perhaps 1000. Of course, solving exercises also develops this overview of the board.