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Chessville
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Chess Workbook for Children Reviewed by Rick Kennedy
Ok, a while back maybe you took my advice and got a copy of GM Maurice Ashley’s inspiring Chess for Success. You read it, you got excited, and then you passed it along to staff at a local school. Now they have a chess club! The teacher in charge has assembled a small chess library for the students, and is always looking for resources – say, would you happen to know about anything that’s come out recently?
Chess Workbook for Children has a
glossy, attractive cover featuring a drawing of The Chess Detective (a chess
King, with deerstalker cap and pipe) at a chalkboard, with four rapt Pawns
(even the one with a cool drink in hand is paying attention) while, to the
side, a surprised / alarmed / amazed Bishop (an older student? a teacher? a
parent?) looks on. I had to admit from the start: chess +
instruction + whimsy =
By the way, the “Chess Detective” persona is easily deduced from Bardwick’s article of the same name (School Mates, Summer 2002):
Bardwick starts with a dedication “to chess students everywhere” and then has an “Introduction for Parents”, and an “Introduction for Children”. In the latter he introduces the two kinds of puzzles that will follow each of the ten Lessons (chapters). The easier challenges, for beginners and those learning chess, are marked with a graphic of a Basset Hound (with cap and pipe, of course). The more difficult problems are marked with a drawing of The Chess Detective – examined under a magnifying glass! Solutions are given in the back of the book.
An example of a Lesson One puzzle at the Basset Hound level would be a chess diagram of a relatively simple position with the question “What pieces can the knight capture?” An example of a Chess Detective level puzzle would be a diagram of a more complex position, with the question “What is the total value of all the pieces the Black queen is attacking?” The Lessons continue: Openings, Scorekeeping, Basic Checkmates, Basic Tactics, Draws, Free Stuff, Pawn Structure, Square of the Pawn and Checkmate Patterns. The chess diagrams are large and easy for youngsters to deal with – 2 ½ in boards with notation along the sides – and no more than four of them are put on a page in the puzzle sections. Throughout the Workbook there is good use of font size, bolding, and white space. Most enjoyable are the humorous drawings of Kevin Hempstead that illustrate the author’s text. (The “passed pawn” and “isolated pawn” crack me up.) By the way, looking at the list of Lessons, you may wonder if Chess Workbook for Children uses the second one for the latest on the Sicilian Richter-Rauser or the Meran Defense. Not to worry; the author introduces three main goals of the opening – control the center, develop your pieces, castle early – and ties them all together with a cute story, “Opening Presents, A Story for Chess Openings.” It is clear throughout his workbook, in the material he presents and in the way that he presents it, that Bardwick is familiar with the younger player.
Chess Workbook for Children concludes with Appendix A, containing two chess crossword puzzle and two chess word searches; Appendix B, with solutions to all the book’s puzzles; a Glossary; an Index; and a page About the Author. So – get back to that teacher in paragraph one of this review, ok? Sure, there are a lot of books out there on “how to play chess” – some, seemingly, older than Viktor Korchnoi. But, for something hot off the presses, brand new and teacher- and classroom- aware, well, let’s face it: this looks like a job for The Chess Detective!
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As
a matter of fact, you might want to recommend
.
Lesson
One is “Chess Basics” covering all the pieces, how they move and capture,
and their relative worth. The names of the squares, in algebraic
notation, are introduced, and the “touch move” and “touch take” rules are
presented. (The latter two might appear to be taught early – unless
you’ve had the misfortune to encounter a child who follows the
“touch-every-piece-at-least-once-before-making-a-move-and-then-take-the-move-back-and-start-all-over”
rule.)
For
that matter, he is also familiar with the classroom, and Chess Workbook
for Children is a good resource for the teacher who wants to include
some chess instruction along with the regular curriculum. In that
case, educators might do well to take a look at the author’s earlier,
companion book, Teaching Chess in the 21st Century –
Strategies and Connections to a Standards-Based World. I admit I
have not had the opportunity to review it yet, but
