History

The Steps method by Rob Brunia and Cor van Wijgerden has officially existed since 1987, when the first publications appeared. Development began in 1985.

In the 1980s, Cor van Wijgerden created many stencils with exercises for the youth and women top players of the Netherlands (he was the national trainer of the KNSB at the time). Demand for that kind of exercise material at lower levels grew steadily, which led to the plan to develop different levels. At the same time, the KNSB wanted an alternative to Withuis's Juniorenschaak: the one-on-one approach that book assumed could not be delivered for lack of manpower.

The experienced trainers Rob Brunia and Herman Grooten were willing to help. The latter dropped out after only two sessions (because of travel time and overlap with the Brabant book). By bundling the chess-technical and didactic experience of both authors, a sound teaching method was developed that fits the development of children (and adult beginners!).

In 1987 the first manuals and (loose-leaf) stencils were self-published. The KNSB considered the risk too great. In 1990 the fifth manual appeared and the method was more or less complete. Since then, many adjustments and improvements have been introduced — unfortunately without Rob Brunia, who in early 1991 had to step away due to other busy work.

An (incomplete) overview of major and minor changes since 1991:

The loose-leaf stencils were replaced by workbooks in 1993.
The workbooks have become thicker and partly changed. Exercises that were too difficult or incorrect have been simplified, modified or replaced. All workbooks for Steps 1 through 5 now have 56 pages.
Various new topics have been added to the manuals. The original lessons have been expanded with instruction examples.
New in the manuals are summaries, search strategies and lists of concepts.
In 1999 Step 6 appeared; in 2003 two Stepping stones (Step 1 for very young children) were published with the help of Eddy Sibbing.
The method has been extended since 2002 with 6 extra workbooks and 5 plus workbooks.
All workbooks now contain drawings by Rupert van der Linden.
In 2003 the method appeared in German, English and French. By 2017 the number of titles in all languages had grown to 31.
In 2009 the method appeared in Turkish.
In 2010 the workbook Thinking ahead Step 2 appeared, in 2011 Thinking ahead Step 3.
Since 2011 translations have appeared in Danish (Step 1), Czech (Krok 1, 2, 3), Greek (Manual 1, Step 1 and 2), and Azerbaijani (Addim 1 and 2). The 'ranking' in 2018 by number of books: Swedish (15), Greek (15), Turkish (10), Azerbaijani (5), Czech (4) and Danish (1). In 2018 a Spanish and Korean version appeared.
A computer course (all steps): the Chess Tutor. Steps 1, 2 and 3 have been published. Step 4 is on the agenda once the programmers have an Android and Apple version. They are taking their time!
In 2016 and 2017 five mix workbooks appeared: Steps 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.