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Chessville
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I can understand grown-ups being excited about the benefits of children learning and playing chess, but if we’re not careful we’re liable to turn the Royal Game into a vegetable – “Push your pawns, Abby: chess helps build strong brains eight ways!” Yuk.
Carson and Wall have taken instruction on how to play the game of chess, added a beefy glossary of chess terms, folded in some home-spun wisdom, and spiced it heavily with frequently subversive silliness.
All of this is then poured over a menagerie of chess openings, from the Alligator, Bird and Chipmunk, to the Raccoon, Radish and Raptor. Hah! Fooled ya! A radish isn’t an animal, it’s a vegetable. But like the Fishing Pole, the Mouse Trap, the Lollipop, and Burger & Fries – it’s in there. Each animal opening in the book is delightfully illustrated by Trochim, who has in the past drawn animated characters from the “Flintstones,” “Scooby Doo,” and “Fat Albert and Friends.”
And then there is the ultra-important Rule #99. (I’m not telling.)
All of it is designed to give the readers some ideas – and then get them over to the chessboard to play!
Levity guaranteed, from the stylized menu page courtesy the “Burger Rook Café” to instructions on how to play Chess Bingo (a great idea, Anthea!) How to Play Chess Like an Animal is not to be mistaken for Modern Chess Openings, ChessBase Magazine, or How to Make Master or Die of Boredom Trying. Is How to Play Chess Like an Animal for you, or someone you know? Ask yourself, is the following quote by Kasparov true or false for you: “Chess is not skittles.” If it is true, then you, future grandmasters and future world champions can all demur. All budding pawnpushers, however, can safely get in line. That is, if you’re young – or young at heart.
By the way,
the mirth continues onto the website,
http://www.chesslikeananimal.com/ where there is a wacky YouTube video.
Check it out.
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Some
of the openings are presented with just their first few moves, others with
accompanying stories or games. The Giraffe Attack, for example, is as
much a morality play as it is a way of starting a game. Some openings
are likely to be familiar to the reader, like the Bird (1.f4) or the
Orangutan (1.b4), while others are more obscure, such as the Lemming (1.d4
Na6) and the Raccoon (1.e4 e5 2.f4 h5). They can be as innocent as the
Smiley Face (1.a3 e5 2.h3 d5 – otherwise known as the Creepy Crawly) or as
serious as the Sicilian Dragon (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3
g6).