Tactics in Chess Books

Transcription

1 Tactics in Chess Books What do some chess books have to say about tactics? A great deal! The following brief book reviews relate to tactics in the royal game We ll stick to simply quoting from these five books Beat That Kid in Chess (by Jonathan Whitcomb) Keep your king safe, especially early and in the middle of a game After most of the pieces have been captured (and no queens are left), it may be important to use it as a fighting force, but not when it can get into danger Be especially careful with the king in the opening and middle game Castle early to get your king closer to a safe corner From page 18 of the book Beat That Kid in Chess Win at Chess (by Ron Curray) After the opening, the challenging, complex, and often critical middlegame begins It is characterized by the three elements: strategy, positional play, and tactics Strategy is

2 the formulation of plans to exert maximum offensive and defensive force Positional play is the positioning of pieces and pawns to control important squares for optimum activity and flexibility Tactics, the most powerful factor in chess, are direct threats to win material or [obtain] checkmate 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations (by Fred Reinfeld) Brilliant sacrifices and combinations, either calculated in advance or played on the spur of the moment, give us thrills that cannot be equaled by any other aspect of the game And, by a very fortunate coincidence, these brilliant strokes are just what we need in order to become first-rate players How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (by Murray Chandler) If you were to visit a chess tournament and watch a grandmaster in action, you would be able to observe a surprising range of emotions Sometimes, in apparently simple positions, the grandmaster might lapse into lengthy periods of concentration, where ten minutes or more might be spent on a move At other times the moves will come very quickly, even in complicated positions You might even be shocked if the grandmaster suddenly wins the game with a lengthy and brilliant mating sacrifice after thinking for just a few seconds The reason for this is pattern recognition Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors (edited by Lou Hays) The Discovered Attack The discovery is one of the most powerful types of move possible in a game of chess The term discovery simply means that a piece is moved from a rank, file, or diagonal while uncovering an attack by friendly forces behind it on the line, thereby giving both pieces a chance to

3 simultaneously threaten the opponent ### What a Variety of Chess Books! Are you a beginner, post-beginner, lower-ranked club player, or tournament player? Do you need a book on openings, middle games, or end games? Are you looking for help with tactics or strategy? (They re not the same thing) New chess book for beginners If you already know the rules of chess but losing has cut down some of the fun, Beat That Kid in Chess puts back the fun What other book for beginners uses the Nearly- Identical-Positions method of chess instruction (NIP)? This is the natural way, the easier way, the new way, to lead you to notice important details in each position on the board The Beginners Chess Books First we ll look at what may be the best chess book for beginners who already know the rules of the game: Beat That Kid in Chess After that brief review, we ll look at two books for teaching the rules Chess Book for Teenagers and Adults (Beginners) It s for the beginner who knows the rules but not much else Children, teenagers, and adults can benefit from these lessons Best chess book for the beginner One estimate for the number of chess books published (in

4 history) is about 100,000 Probably less than 10% of those were written for the raw beginner, the player who knows the rules but not how to win an actual game Chess book for the raw beginner Two publications on the royal game: Beat That Kid in Chess (by Whitcomb) Chess Tactics for Kids (by Chandler) Chess Books What a Variety! Countless thousands of books have been published on the game of chess, for a variety of players and readers Your best choice can be greatly influenced by the following: Are you a beginner, post-beginner, lower-ranked club player, or tournament player? Do you need a book on openings, middle games, or end games? Are you looking for help with tactics or strategy? (They re not the same thing) How old are you? (child, teenager, or adult?)

5 Chess books can be as basic as instructions on the rules or as advanced as the few that are of value to masters, but most of them are for players between those extremes Consider now three publications on the royal game Chess for Children This popular book on Amazon is listed as Age Range: 9 and up, but this can be misunderstood The ideal child for Chess for Children would be about 4-6 years old, with an adult reading the book out loud to him or her An eleven-year-old could easily be disinterested in it, for it s obviously for small children Chess for Children has many pages for teaching the rules of the game, and this instruction is done in a way to entertain small children This is not for teenagers Beat That Kid in Chess Like the previous book reviewed, this is not for handing over to a small child, but for different reasons The concepts are simple and explained to make them easy, compared with most chess books, yet this was not written for little kids

6 The reading level is for a wide range: adult, teenager, older child It assumes the reader already knows the rules of the game how to move the pieces, castle, and respond to check, etc The new book Beat That Kid in Chess teaches you how to win a game, if you re a beginner with little experience in winning It teaches tactics For the true beginner who already knows the rules, this could be the best book available for quickly learning what it takes to win games It uses a new teaching method: NIP (using nearly-identical positions for training in tactics) This may be the first publication to systematically use this new technique in chess education Winning Chess Tournaments This book is not new, published in 2007, yet it has no Amazon customer reviews, suggesting it was poorly promoted It appears to have been written for players with some experience

7 or training or book learning not for the raw beginner This appears to be a valuable guide to the young competitor who has not yet played in a tournament but would like to try It may be best for the player who has already won many informal games and now feels a desire to compete in formal competition ### Chess Book Review How to Beat Your Dad at Chess It was the best of books; it was the worst of books For average chess beginners or the lower-intermediate-level players, how can this book simultaneously be the best and the worst, this bestseller on the royal game: How to Beat Your Dad at Chess? It s complicated

8 The Big Factor in Winning Chess Games For most chess players, tactics is king if you want to win more often Does a typical chess game resemble a battlefield? It s more like a savage street fight in a narrow alley New Chess Book We ll look at a few of the new chess books available on Amazon A Chess Book for a Teenager Most of these publications have been to help players to improve their abilities over-the- board Best Gift of a Chess Book Each of the following chess books are here given a brief review, for gift consideration: The Kids Book of Chess Beat That Kid in Chess Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors Many other good chess books are available, including How to Beat Your Dad at Chess and Chess Tactics for Kids (both of which are by the grandmaster Murray Chandler; they re for intermediate-level players), but those are reviewed elsewhere The best chess-book gift for a particular recipient that depends greatly on the knowledge and skill of the reader

9 who ll receive the gift The following three publications are for three different kinds of readers The Kids Book of Chess The best recipient for this gift may not literally be a reader It s a small child who ll enjoy a parent or grandparent (or other adult) reading it while the little one looks at the pictures The Kids Book of Chess is a book for small children and it includes a chess set An Amazon customer-reviewer said: Fun book that taught my 6 year-old son not only to play chess, but the story behind the games, its pieces and its strategy He is now teaching me to play The game board shows how each piece may move, which is a helpful aid Beat That Kid in Chess This is for a wide range of ages of reader, and your opponent over-the-board does not have to be a child This chess book is for the beginner who already knows how to move the pieces around but doesn t yet know how to win a game

10 An Amazon customer-reviewer said this about Beat That Kid in Chess: This book is perfect for someone who knows the basic rules of chess but needs additional help to actually win I learned chess as a child, but as someone who hasn t played in over a decade, this is a great refresher Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors This is not the best chess book for most beginners, especially not for a low-level of novice Yet Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors can be a great exercise tool for an average club player or a USCF competitor rated between , regardless of age

11 This chess book has 534 tactical exercises, needing the reader to see up to three moves ahead (although some of the problems need foresight of only one or two moves ahead) Check-mark spaces are provided for each of these 534 diagrams The reader can thus keep track of which ones he or she has already solved, and this can be helpful the second time going through the book ## A Chess Book as a Gift If the gift is for someone who is at least ten years old and already knows the rules, however, A much better choice would be Beat That Kid in Chess, which is written for the early beginner who knows how to play but does not yet know much about winning Chess Book for Beginners I know what the beginner most needs to learn to quickly be able to win chess games, and I know how to teach it

12 Chess Book for the Teenager The cover seems to show a young boy and a mom, but the text of this book is more for the teenager or adult reading level (or the older child) Review of How to Beat Your Dad at Chess This book may be ideal for the intermediate-level player or post-beginner who can already handle looking more than one move ahead [Another chess book, here reviewed, is much better for the raw beginner, however] Queen Versus Rook Endgame What is the Philidor position? It depends on what kind of endgame you re talking about With queen versus rook, it looks something like this Best Chess Books in Various Categories We ll look at the following categories for chess books, whether to be used as a gift or for personal use: Openings in general Middle game End game For the early beginner For the intermediate player

13 For the small child One book will be reviewed for each of the above Please be aware that there is no standard method of judging the quality of a chess book, no matter what the category The following selections are not necessarily the absolute best choices for particular chess players The first three chess books are for more advanced players rather than for beginners Beat That Kid in Chess is for the early beginner who knows how to play but wants to learn how to win Fundamental Chess Openings ISBN-13: From the Introduction of this chess book we read: Everyone who devotes even the tiniest mount of thought to his first move not only makes a start with that particular game but also with the development of opening theory From that moment on, every new game will confront him with the starting position again and therefore with his earlier thoughts on it

14 From an Amazon customer review: This book is a miracle This book is in fact a modern and a more advanced version of Ruben Fines The ideas behind the chess openings And lower rated chess players (below 1800) should understand the chess opening plans, rather than memorizing openings Winning Chess Strategies (middle game) ISBN-13: From the first chapter, we read: The unique beauty of chess has attracted some of the greatest minds of human history Why? What makes chess so fascinating? Things survive the test of time because they are needed Stop and think for a moment What is there in your life that has survived for thousands of years? Tools like the spoon have survived Chess is the perfect tool for developing the mind As Goethe said, The game of chess is the touchstone of the intellect

15 An Amazon reader-reviewer said this: The third and final part of a series by renowned International Grand Master Yasser Seirawan and International Master Jeremy Silman, Winning Chess Strategies is also the most difficult to devour The book follows the same format Seirawan and Silman used in Winning Chess Tactics, taking one strategic element of chess at a time and spending an entire chapter on it Each are explained, explored and exemplified individually to help the aspiring chess amateur develop these lines of strategic thought Fundamental Chess Endings (for end game study) ISBN-13: From the Introduction we read: The fascinating world of chess endings has been explored in several complete works before There are also many books devoted to specific piece distributions Our intention was therefore not to reinvent the wheel, but to connect the best from the past with the most suitable recent examples and research

16 From an Amazon customer review: Please read what Grandmaster Lubosh Kavalek had to say (November 25, 2002 Washington Post chess column) An endgame book does not often win a prestigious award, but Fundamental Chess Endings by Karsten Muller and Frank Lamprecht and issued by Gambit Publications in London, could not have been overlooked by the judges of the British Chess Federation s 2002 Book of the Year Award The clearly written volume honored by the BCF was conceived as a textbook, divided into 12 chapters with exercises It has been meticulously checked by computer programs, correcting mistakes and some myths of the past Beat That Kid in Chess (for the raw beginner who already knows the rules) ISBN-13: From the Introduction: If you know the chess rules but almost nothing about how to win, this book is for you We ll keep to the basics that you need most

17 Have you ever observed someone s reaction to a chess game between raw beginners? Did the observer walk away after grimacing or stifling a laugh? If that reaction could have come from almost any move made in that game, it was not a reasonable game of chess You can learn to avoid that kind of embarrassment This book can take you into a level that should help you defeat many beginners, at least sometimes In other words, you will no longer be a raw beginner and will instead be able to defeat raw beginners, at least more often than you lose And it may be easier than you think From the back cover: Do you know the rules but almost nothing more about chess? This is the best book for the early beginner Whatever your age, feel your understanding grow as you learn to checkmate and also learn to gain many advantages that can lead to a checkmating position How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (for the intermediate-level or club player) ISBN-13:

18 From the Introduction: Each of the 50 Deadly Checkmates catalogued here explains a specific theme used to attack the opponent s king These themes are recurring, and crop up again and again in chess games virtually regardless of the level of the players, or the precise placement of the pieces Top chess players are very skilled at recognizing these basic patterns From an Amazon customer review (three stars out of five): I got this book My dad didn t fall for all but one of these checkmates But then I was happy I tried them all, but he would get me down too much to use any of them so I think just the beginners book for juniors worked better anyway The Kids Book of Chess (including the rules of the game and a chess set) ISBN-13:

19 From the back cover: In the Middle Ages the knight was the ultimate warrior In his suit of armor, on his spirited horse, he could overcome any resistance-as in the eleventh century, when it took only seventy knights to conquer the entire civilized kingdom of Sicily! Today the movements of medieval warriors are preserved in the moves of pieces on a chessboard; and by going back to the life and times of the Middle Ages, Harvey Kidder is able to explain the game of chess in an uncommonly exciting way An Amazon reader-reviewer said this (three stars out of five): Actually, for a starters chess set for someone who might not get into chess seriously (by joining the school chess club) the chess set is ok My pieces did not crack, but I only used them a short time before getting a regular tournament design chess set and roll board for playing at the school chess club The book is not so bad if once again if you are not sure if you are going to get very involved in chess If you think you are then the book is not very deep and you will outgrow it very fast after reading it ###

20 Chess Books as Gifts When choosing a publication on the royal game, first consider the intended audience for the book If the gift is for someone who is at least ten years old and already knows the rules A much better choice would be Beat That Kid in Chess, which is written for the early beginner who knows how to play Chess Game in a Movie In the 1957 Swedish film The Seventh Seal, a man s life depends on a game of chess Probably best chess book for beginners Beat That Kid in Chess for the early beginner to win, possibly the best chess book Chess book for the beginner these appear to be chess books for REAL beginners We ll consider these three in alphabetical order of the title New Chess Books for Beginners A few of the newer books on chess, appropriate for beginners, at least apparently for novices of the game (see the comments in brackets)

21 Beat That Kid in Chess ISBN-13: September 2, 2015 This book has been carefully crafted for the raw beginner who wants to win a chess game as soon as possible [assuming you already know the rules; but if you know how to move the pieces, this may be the best beginner book on chess] * Chess: The Complete Guide ISBN-13: July 13, 2015 You ll go from newbie to aspiring grandmaster in just a few moves [not really, unless you can read a book on golf today, play your first golf game next week, and win $20,000 for playing golf next month; but in spite of the exaggeration this book s fairly popular] * Chess: Conquer your Friends with 8 Easy Principles ISBN-13: February 2, 2015 Sub-title: A Cheat Sheet for Casual Players and Post- Beginners [but a few reader-reviewers consider this chess book too much like a cheat sheet: too brief] * Chess: From Beginner to Pro (Kindle) ASIN: B011HCYDJS July 12, 2015 Chess, a two-player strategy game, may appear simple to the casual observer [from a few of the reviews, this Kindle book cannot come close to getting anyone near pro level] *

22 Chess: How to Play Chess for (Absolute) Beginners ISBN-13: July 13, 2015 The Game of Kings is Now at your Fingertips! Join the Casual Chess Revolution Today! [This could be a great chess book, but it appears to teach only the rules; if all you want is a book to help you learn the rules of the game, this may be the best one] * Chess: Tactics & Openings To Dominate Your Opponent (Kindle) ASIN: B00Y7QO748 May 24, 2015 Subtitle: Suitable For Beginners Including Diagrams & Images (Chess Openings, Chess Tactics, Checkers, Board Chess Patterns, Checkmate, Puzzles & Games) [You have a right to be suspicious of a chess book that has checkers in the subtitle; this book appears to be far from ideal for the beginner who wants to learn basic chess tactics] ### Chess Books for Teenagers If you re looking for a chess book to give to a teenager or if you are the teenager either way, you need to consider the skill level of the reader [Beat That Kid in Chess and the older book for intermediate players: How to Beat Your Dad at Chess] Brief Reviews of Chess Books Some for beginners and some for those with intermediate skills

23 New Chess Book for Beginners Many small details can make an infinite difference in chess, and these can be created in nearly-identical positions Consider what can happen when a book has no such nearduplicates: Students can unconsciously memorize general appearances and fail to look carefully, and failure to look at a position with care often leads to losing a game How to Beat Your Dad at Chess Comparing three chess books Best Chess Book for Beginners It may be rare for two chess books to differ greatly inside when they look very similar on the cover Yet that s the case with Beat That Kid in Chess and How to Beat Your Dad at Chess The first is for beginners; the second is for more experienced players Chess Books for Teenagers Gift Book or for You If you re looking for a chess book to give to a teenager or if you are the teenager either way, you need to consider the skill level of the reader The following books are for those who already know the rules of chess, for teenagers can learn those rules from many sources They don t need a book just for that

24 Beat That Kid in Chess Contrary to what one might assume from the title, this book is not for little kids The reading level is for teenagers, adults, and some older children And Beat That Kid in Chess is not restricted to winning against children It teaches the raw beginner how to win chess games against other beginners And this book is honest about what it takes to make big progress In the Introduction it says: [This book] might not take the place of seriously struggling through eighty games, however, for over-the-board experience teaches in its own way Yet you might soon see your opponent struggle in competing with you, as you apply these lessons and teach [your opponent] humility It s about time At the beginning of the book that s where the importance of playing experience is emphasized But from there it shows you the tactics and techniques that will most quickly lead you to avoiding a loss and getting a win Beat That Kid in Chess is for the beginner who knows the rules of the game but hardly anything about winning against a

25 determined opponent It may be the best chess book available for quickly teaching the novice to win his or her first game How to Beat Your Dad at Chess This is not for the beginner who has little experience winning chess games It s much better for the intermediate player, or the post-beginner, who has learned how to compete with a least a little competence but who wants to learn many different ways of bringing home the victory How to Beat Your Dad at Chess is all about checkmates One book review said, It was the best of books; it was the worst of books It depends a great deal on the playing skill of the reader and what that person wants to accomplish How to Beat Your Dad at Chess is best for the teenager who already has the skill to look more than one or two moves ahead It could be the worst chess book for the player who has recently learned the rules of the game For the latter, get Beat That Kid in Chess ### Adult or Teenager Chess Book Beat That Kid in Chess may be the only book of its kind for

26 beginners, in that it regularly uses nearly identical positions that make up a new method of teaching chess Another chess book for beginners My new paperback book is for the early beginner who knows the rules of chess but almost nothing else about the game Chess books online The Blue Book of Chess by Howard Staunton [free] Chess Book for a Novice [This] may be the best chess book for the novice who wants to learn how to win but does not want to go through a book that is over 200 pages long Best chess book for beginners For those who have never before read a chess book, know the rules of the game, and want to learn how to win they probably need Beat That Kid in Chess Do Chess Books Help? How much can a chess book help a player in competition? Step back and ask, How much can a nonfiction instructional book help anybody? We don t read an algebra book like a novel, and

27 improving our skill in playing chess takes exercise with a book or experience over the board or both Like learning algebra well, learning to play better chess requires some kind of problem solving, some kind of exercise Twenty-eight out of many thousands of chess books Exercise With a Chess Book Reading enjoyment has a place in our lives, to be sure; but improving the quality of our chess moves that requires more than just reading a chess book Make the time resemble an actual over-the-board encounter One way to do that is by setting up a chess set with what you encounter in your book Many chess books give us the full games of grandmasters, from White s first move through the last move of the game But don t just rush through every move on your board, as fast as you can follow the game notation in the book Why not ponder each position and choose your own move, by covering up the moves in the book one by one See how many times you were able to guess the moves made by the grandmasters Example From The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess The following position is taken from a chess book by Irving Chernev It s from next to the last move of a short correspondence game played in 1914 by Kraus (White) and Costin (Black) With White to move, do you see what wins?

28 From the book The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess (1955; Simon and Schuster) Try to find the winning move for white The answer is found after the following image

29 In the chess position shown earlier, notice that the black queen is cramped, with few safe squares available, should it be attacked The winning move for white is b4!, giving the black queen no safe square except c6 But after black moves Qc6, white would move Bb5, pinning that queen After the queen captures that bishop, the white knight at d5 would move to c7 forking the black king and that queen After white moved b4, Black resigned that correspondence game ### Chess Books and Purpose When choosing a publication on the royal game, first consider the intended audience for the book The Best Chess Book for Beginners Do you know the rules but almost nothing more about chess? This is the best book for the early beginner I pressed

30 forward, with full confidence that my book, Beat That Kid in Chess, could become the best chess book ever written for the raw beginner A Book for Beginners Beat That Kid in Chess I may not be able to compete well with grandmasters over the chess board, but in writing a book for chess beginners, few grandmasters can compete with me One evidence for this shows itself in the nearly-identical chess positions in my new book How to Beat Your Dad at Chess The book by Murray Chandler ( How to Beat Your Dad at Chess, abbreviated HBYDC) does not really compete with my book Beat That Kid in Chess, in my opinion mine is best for the early beginner [Beat That Kid in Chess] Book 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations A few recent chess books may have outdone 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations, by Fred Reinfeld, in the numbers of their diagrams, but the older publication lead the way It still stands as a classic in this form of chess book It alternates between white moves first and black moves first with the following twenty tactical themes:

31 1 Pin 2 Knight fork 3 Double attack 4 Discovered attack 5 Discovered check 6 Double check 7 Overworked piece 8 Removing the guard 9 Clearance 10 Interference 11 Queening Combination 12 Vulnerable first rank 13 Queen sacrifice 14 X-ray attack 15 Surprise move 16 Defensive combination 17 Trapped piece 18 Zugzwang 19 Helpless king 20 Weak castled position What a treasure of tactics for this chess book that was published six decades ago! Here is one example from 1001 Winning Chess sacrifices and Combinations:

32 Diagram-1 with white to move Do you see the combination available for white in Diagram-1? If you don t and would rather just look at the solution, scroll down a bit

33 Notice that white could checkmate the black king with Nf6, except the black queen is protecting f6 Can the black queen be removed from protecting that square? Notice that the white queen would be able to sacrifice itself to obtain that mate by moving Qg4+, except that the white rook at e2 is in the way Is there a way to move that rook without allowing black time to guard against the queen-sacrifice combination? Here is the solution, according to the above needs: 1 2 Re8+ Rxe8 Qg4+ Black must give up the queen to avoid immediate mate White wins Notice that after Qg4+ only one move by black will prevent immediate checkmate: Ng5, after which black will have two minor pieces en prize and the black king is still in danger It will be hopeless for the defender ### Chess books with grandmaster authors

34 Written by Murray Chandler, Susan Polgar, and John Nunn Chess Book for the Beginner Many chess competitors would find Beat That Kid in Chess too elementary, with hardly anything to offer for the average tournament player Yet how many persons know the rules of chess but have hardly a clue about how to play well! Patience in Winning at Chess I recently played chess with a friend from church The results may be instructive to lower-intermediate level players and possibly to some beginners How to Beat Your Dad at Chess It was the best of books; it was the worst of books For chess beginners or the lower-intermediate-level players, how can this book simultaneously be the best and the worst, this bestseller on the royal game: How to Beat Your Dad at Chess? It s complicated Beating-Dad Versus Beating-a- Kid, at Chess This is mainly about the book How to Beat Your Dad at Chess What I now declare may appear weird: I have just written a chess book that appears, on the surface, to compete with this book, and yet I proclaim that a certain kind of player may

35 benefit from How to Beat Your Dad at Chess and benefit from it more than from any other book ever written on chess Yes, my apparent-competitor s book may be the best one of its kind ever written, for certain competitors, among perhaps about 100,000 books that may have been written on playing chess That s my opinion I Don t Give a Plea of Insanity No, I m not crazy for promoting my competitor with such high praise The book by Murray Chandler (How to Beat Your Dad at Chess, abbreviated HBYDC) does not really compete with my book Beat That Kid in Chess, in my opinion At least to me they seem to work best with different potential readers Chandler s book can be great for the advanced beginner or the intermediate player; mine is best for the early beginner Who Would Most Benefit From HBYDC? Chandler s book is best for chess players who compete in the general USCF rating range of about (It can be a very poor choice for early beginners, who could easily become discouraged by the deep-move combinations that fill this book) The subtitle, Including the 50 Deadly Checkmates, is not 100% accurate, as a few of those fifty are not actually checkmates but other tactical themes that win material As a practical tool for the advanced-beginner and intermediate competitor, however, this chess book can be of great value to players of that approximate level of ability

36 Contents of How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (a partial list) Here are thirteen of the fifty themes from the table of contents: Anastasia s Mate Arabian Mate Philidor s Legacy Damiano s Mate The See-Saw Blackburne s Mate Double Rook Sacrifice Morphy s Mate Greco s Mate Removing the f6 Defender Lolli s Mate Back-Rank Mates Legall s Mate Amazon Comments on How to Beat Your Dad at Chess The following are brief excerpts from reader-comments on the Amazon pages for Murray Chandler s book: Five-Stars (64%):

37 Do you know how to mate? You can now get actual experience in the most important basic positions This book will test you and teach you new positions you probably didn t know about before Four-Stars (16%): Based on the principle of pattern recognition the author introduces you to fifty checkmate patterns and emphasizes the elements necessary to attain them Three-Stars (11%): My dad didn t fall for all but one of these checkmates But then I was happy I tried them all, but he would get me down too much to use any of them so I think just the beginners book for juniors worked better anyway [a kid s review] One-star reader-comments (3% of all reviews) and two-stars (6%) are not quoted here A Plea to Consider my own Book I propose that my new book, Beat That Kid in Chess, may be the most useful one ever written for the raw beginner, the person who knows the rules of the game but knows nothing, or next-tonothing, about how to outplay an opponent I don t know of any other book that even uses the nearly-identical-positions (NIP) approach to chess training, a new and effective way to train competitors in tactics and combinations ### A New Chess Book for Beginners The paperback Beat That Kid in Chess was published by

38 Createspace on September 2, 2015 How few chess books are for the raw beginner! Beat That Kid in Chess for the early beginner, the player who knows the rules of chess but almost nothing else about the game Two Chess Books; Just One for Beginners Beat That Kid in Chess (BTKC) is for the early beginner, who knows the rules of the game but little or nothing else, who would like to win but has little idea how How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (HBYDC) is best for the more experienced player Most Useful Book Ever Written for the Beginner The reading level is teenager/adult, although some twelveyear-olds could understand and enjoy it Chess Book for the Early Beginner I ve looked through other chess books that appear, on the surface, to be for the chess beginner Not one of them impressed me Image of Chess Books for Beginners Beat That Kid in Chess and the apparently (on the surface) similar book How to Beat Your Dad at Chess are compared

39 Beat That Kid in Chess A Book for Beginners Update (Dec 3, 2015): My new paperback book Beat That Kid in Chess is for the early beginner, the player who knows the rules of chess but almost nothing else about the royal game (published Sep 2, 2015) This chess book is now available on Amazon and with other online retailers It s for a wide range of readers: adults, teenagers, and some older children The title implies a narrow focus, but the age of your opponent, in a game of chess, is actually unlimited Whoever your opponent, of whatever age, this book can help you in your over-the-board competitions in the royal game How does this new publication teach the raw beginner better than previous books for the novice chess player? Beat That Kid in Chess uses NIP, a new teaching method that naturally guides the mind of the reader to grasp basic tactics Nearlyidentical positions are used systematically in this chess book, perhaps the first publication to use NIP in an organized, dependable way (For more on this, look further down in this post) Here is the table of contents in the 194-page book:

40 Here s a paragraph from the middle of the introduction: You may notice that many diagrams are nearly identical, something rarely encountered in most chess books You need to get used to those small differences that are so important in chess games How critical can be the smallest difference! This approach can help you to think like a tournament player, in the sense of diving into a chess position as if it had never come up before, a unique landscape for you to explore Nearly-Identical Positions I ve read and studied dozens of chess books in the past 53

41 years I don t recall any of them that included nearlyidentical positions for training Many of the authors were masters or grandmasters of chess, but few (if any) of them likely had much experience in teaching or tutoring students except for intermediate and advanced chess students In addition, few chess authors are professional writers I may not be able beat grandmasters over the board, but in writing a book for chess beginners few grandmasters can compete with me One evidence for this shows itself in the nearly-identical chess positions in my new book Why show a chess student a position that s almost the same as one that was already shown to that student? Many small details can make an infinite difference in chess, and these can be created in nearly-identical positions Consider what can happen when a book has no such near-duplicates: Students can unconsciously memorize general appearances and fail to look carefully, and failure to look at a position with care often leads to losing a game The reader need not even know that NIP is working on that player s side, for the tactics and good chess habits are learned naturally This has the added advantage of allowing this moderate-length book to have more value, as if it were a long book: You can get through it more quickly but still have the opportunity to review it later, for maximum training benefit, if you like Either way, you ll learn to see a chess position tactically, more like an expert or master would comprehend that position The Background of Jonathan David Whitcomb I come from a family of generations of authors and teaching professionals My tutoring experiences with chess beginners extend back to the mid-1960 s: I know what the beginner most needs, to quickly learn to win chess games, and I know how to teach it

42 Beat That Kid in Chess for the early beginner to win, possibly the best chess book for beginners because of the systematic use of nearly-identical positions (NIP) ### Does Chess Benefit Children? Test scores improved by 173% for students regularly engaged in chess classes, compared with only 46% for children participating in other forms of enriched activities Queen versus Rook in Chess

43 What is the Philidor position? It depends on what kind of endgame you re talking about With queen versus rook, it looks something like this Succeed in the End Game (Fireside Chess site) In the endgame position on the right, white has many ways of missing a win One set of moves will win, but just one slipup will allow the defender to avoid loss Chess and Childhood Education Chess dramatically improves a child s ability to think rationally increases cognitive skills improves children s communication skills and aptitude in recognizing patterns Chess Puzzle clear understanding of the influences of chess pieces can here make an apparently difficult problem easy to solve How to Beat Your Dad at Chess Chess Book Review It was the best of books; it was the worst of books For average chess beginners or the lower-intermediate-level players, how can this book simultaneously be the best and

44 the worst, this bestseller on the royal game: How to Beat Your Dad at Chess? It s complicated To know if this book would be the best one or worst one for you, understand what it contains, what you want to accomplish, and when you want to accomplish it You also need to consider your own present skills in the royal game Don t misunderstand There s nothing average about this book The focus is narrow: checkmate patterns, so if that is what you most need to learn, I highly recommend it Fifty Deadly Tactics According to the Introduction, there are 47 checkmating strategies plus three other patterns (one for perpetual check and two for winning material) in the book Does that mean about 94% of this book is about checkmating patterns? Exactly The patterns themselves and how they are presented in this book have been highly acclaimed, rightfully so Almost any chess player who is around the USCF rating strength should greatly benefit from studying this book But the title is How to Beat Your Dad at Chess, and that can be a different animal

45 I highly recommend this book for those who are in the lowerto-mid rating levels of tournament competition But for the majority of raw beginners who want to soon win games against other beginners, I found it to be inadequate, to say the least How This Could be the Worst of Books To perfectly understand how this can be the worst chess book to purchase requires an understanding of how it can be the best chess book But we ll get to that soon enough For now, notice the following: Most of the fifty deadly tactics in this book will never be encountered in games played by a typical beginner, meaning a person below a rating strength of about 600 Beginners need to learn to regularly avoid throwing away material To win many games, beginners need to learn how to win basic endgames This book shows you how to create a classic checkmate combination, but it does not show you how to get into such a favorable position In other words, this is not the best book for beginners For the early beginner, the novice who knows the rules but little else about winning an actual game, the best chess book may be the new paperback Beat That Kid in Chess In support of point number one, pages demonstrate a smothered mate from a queen sacrifice, a well known pattern known to masters and some lesser-ranked players Yet in my half-century of playing chess I have encountered this form of smothered mate only twice in my own games (both of which games I won) Other patterns are likewise rare For what it s worth, I learned the smothered mate from other sources, not this book, probably from one or more books in which I was first enlightened in that particular pattern

46 In addition, How to Beat Your Dad at Chess does not tell you how to arrive at a position in which you can use your knowledge of those patterns Learning to get into those precise, advantageous positions that can take years of experience over the board It does little good, in the shortterm, for beginners to learn only checkmating patterns How This Could be the Best of Books Once you have risen well above the beginner level, however, How to Beat Your Dad at Chess can propel you higher and faster than almost any other chess book The main catalyst to ignite that rocket of performance improvement that s a skill you won t likely learn from this book: a skill at driving your pieces towards your opponent s king when it is vulnerable I m not talking about getting to the moon with one rocket engine Once you have mastered the patterns in this book, you should be able to at least occasionally put that skill to use, but many other chess skills are needed to continue progressing Conclusion of this Book Review What do you want? If it s reading a book in the next two weeks and expecting to win a lot more games on the third week (compared with how many you usually win), this book is not likely to help you attain that goal, unless you have been regularly almost succeeding in getting to your opponents king in the middle game, then losing because your attack failed Here is one key to the paradox of how this can be both the best and worst chess book: Because it is so good at what it does best, a novice chess player can easily assume that this is very beneficial when it is not It s also fun to learn many checkmating patterns that can, theoretically, defeat an opponent That combination benefitting a little and having fun makes it appear that the reader is much more likely to win games after that reading

47 If you want chess books that will help you win more games in the next few years, How to Beat Your Dad at Chess may be the best one to purchase, unless you already know many of those patterns This book works best like an intermediate booster If you have the rocket to get you into earth orbit and the precise rocket engines for landing on the moon, this book will get you out of earth orbit and into a lunar orbit If that s precisely what you need, this may be the best book for you ### More Chess, Nonetheless White pawns at a4 and f4, with king at e4; black pawn at a5, with king at f6 White to move and win with a simple pawn endgame

48 Beat That Kid in Chess is the best book for the raw beginner Teachings From and for the Backyard Professor To begin, I enjoyed watching the Backyard Professor Youtube instructional video Chess Psychology Phenomenal Way to Turn Your Thinking Around and Win I enjoyed it enough that I plan

49 on watching at least one more of his Youtube videos on chess I believe that a beginner or even a more experienced player can benefit from watching this video and I suspect his others as well With that said, I found some limitations This is not instruction from a grandmaster A critical point in this middle game Analysis by the Backyard Professor I, Jonathan Whitcomb, never attained the rating level of a master, not even close, even when I was a young man playing in tournaments in Southern California (and I played in many tournaments, long ago when I was young) Yet I did maintain a class-a rating and I can tell a lower ranked player by watching many of his or her moves The game The backyard professor played, and analyzed himself in his video, gives me the impression that he plays well below a class-a level, possibly a B but more likely lower From my experience, a B-player rarely leaves a piece en prize, in a slow time control competition The backyard professor not only did so, in this game, but he failed to see the error when he was going over it in his analysis Perhaps it was a speed game, but the analysis need not be so speedy Analysis has no clock to punch I can say this for his abilities in chess: He has experience in attack and defense and knows the pattern of a smothered mate that comes after a discovered attack from a queen He won

50 this game with that mate I doubt that any beginner could ever make any reasonable match for this club player, for the Backyard Professor has considerable over-the-board-experience, not to mention book study Let s look at parts of the game he played, I presume against a respected fellow member of his chess club, a game he later analyzed on his video After the first move, this looks nothing like a King s Gambit opening, more like a Pirc Defense Still, opening transpositions can happen, and this game is an example

51 Two moves later, we get the above opening position I see no fault with any of the moves so far, which were the following: 1) e4 g6 2) Nc3 d6 3) f4 e5 The next eight moves, however, and the words of the man who played white in this game (Backyard Professor), tell me that he was probably unaware of a transposition into a King s Gambit, albeit an unusual or lesser-known variation From the explanations of his thought process, which he gives on the video, he seems to have been oblivious to the transposition, or at least to the implications for a black pawn storm on the kingside

52 The above position is a King s Gambit accepted, regardless of the order of moves One point that white needs to know in this opening relates to the knight at f3: Black may choose to advance the g-pawn, with the possibility of eventually moving it to g4, attacking that knight That means white needs to be careful about castling on the kingside and be prepared for that pawn advance My advice for white, in the above position, goes beyond average beginner instruction If I were tutoring a class-d or higher player, I would mention the following:

53 I see two reasonable moves for white, in the above: 1 2 Capture the black bishop Protect the white bishop with Qe2 (and later castle queenside, if black exchanges) In the actual game, the Backyard Professor moved Qe2 but soon castled kingside, which invited black to attack the white king through a pawn storm How did that happen? Black first exchanged bishops, which put the white queen on c4, away from the fireworks black was preparing on the kingside I ll not get into details, for you can watch the video The Backyard Professor did change his thinking, his approach to the game, at an ideal moment, on an ideal move for that epiphany Yet it began with noticing something spooky, a possibility for his opponent to checkmate him in two moves For that moment, see minute #19, second #05, of his video For the point of the video when his defense was set aside and he moved into an offensive stand, watch the video from about minute #20, second #30 If you watch nothing else, just look at this part of his video What was the epiphany? In my own words, I would say it s that we need to find active attacking moves rather than just react to what our opponent is doing That sounds like wonderful advice, but we also need to concentrate on each position and make defensive moves when they are more appropriate in the moment Now for a later moment in this game, when the Backyard Professor is winning handily with an apparently secure win This is found at minute #28, second #26:

54 White has just moved one of his knights to g4, apparently unaware that he has just put up a free prize That knight can be captured, but black had better be careful how he does so If black moves Qxg4, it can result in a mate in five, in favor of white, beginning with white moving Qxe5+ Yet in the above position, if black captures the g4 knight with his rook, he will threaten a mate of his own: mate in three, beginning with Rg1+, but that threat depends on where white retreats with his queen Strange to tell, but the club player on the black side also failed to see that free prize To see the instructive smothered mate at the end of the game, watch the video I understand the Backyard Professor s delight in making a smothered mate, for I recall when I won a game that way It is indeed fun ### Chess in the Movies The three children must use themselves as three of the chess pieces, with Ron Weasley a knight who sits on a horse

55 The Grandmaster Akiba Rubinstein What a year for the Polish chess grandmaster Akiba Rubinstein [in 1912]! I herein undertake a brief study to determine if he deserves the title of Honorary World Chess Champion of 1912 The Elephant Trap (Chess Opening) This opening trap in the Queen s Gambit Declined loses a knight for white Watch out for the Elephant Trap, or you ll get stepped on