The Right Age for Chess

Remember Alisa Maric? I certainly don't, but she was once a challenger for the women's version of the world chess championships. Indeed, on two occasions she finished third in the world championship cycles and, in 1991, was actually a joint winner of a Candidates event. One other detail about Alisa is that she happens to have a twin sister (younger by 21 minutes) named Mijana. Both of them are women grandmasters - the only two such pair of twins in the world!

I'm talking about Alisa because I've just now once again stumbled upon a new chess website. And this one seems to have a lot of interesting content. I'm talking about www.latestchess.com which currently features a lengthy interview with, of course, Alisa herself.

LatestChess :- You were introduced to chess at the age of four, together with your 21 minutes younger twin sister Mirjana Maric. You are the only twins with grandmaster titles in the history of chess. How does it feel?

GM Alisa Maric :- It is interesting that Mirjana and I are the only twin grandmasters still despite many new players rising. I am very happy that both of us have achieved great results during our careers. I got higher rank than my sister but it was because she gave her best to help me as a trainer and pushed her own career back.

My sister was twice champion of Yugoslavia, world champion U16, participant of World championship Inter-zonal tournament and member of Yugoslavian national team at Chess Olympiads in a period of 1990-1994. Finally she had more obligations about her work as a computer programmer in national telecommunication company but also to her family and especially young son Filip.

Apart from being a WGM, Alisa also holds the men's IM title. Here's another article on Chessbase.

Speaking of young kids and chess, Latest Chess also has an interesting article that asks the question, "When should I start teaching chess to my child?" It's written by Dan and Laura Sherman, founders of Your Chess Coach, based in Florida.