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It would be nice if just once I could “judge a book by its cover.”  This cover is colorful, glossy and heavy – and would probably stand up to an occasional coffee spill, if I wiped it off promptly.  I can’t say the same about the books that I have by several World Champions.

It has the author, smiling, but dressed in a blue work shirt – nice guy, but you know that he means business.  Gold wedding band on his left hand: he’s a good chess player, sure, but he’s also, you know, a regular Joe.  Nearby are two students.  The trio stands between two rows of large chess pieces, perhaps between the first and second row of a gigantic chessboard.

Above them is the provocative title: ONE MOVE AT A TIME: HOW TO PLAY AND WIN AT CHESS …and Life!  In the lower left corner is a box that proclaims PLUS 20 LIVE LESSONS YOU CAN LEARN FROM CHESS.  Across the top is the author’s name, and besides it a large “#1” which proclaims AWARD WINNING SPEAKER, EDUCATOR AND CHESS CHAMPION.  As if this were not yet enough, the bottom spells out: FOREWORD BY JACK CANFIELD, author of The Success Principles ™ and co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series.

Okay, I haven’t even gotten to page “i” and the author has got me hooked.

That’s not surprising. Orrin C. Hudson is a chess player and chess teacher, but he’s also an accomplished motivational speaker.  Swing by the web page of his Be Someone program (based in Atlanta) website (www.besomeone.org) which focuses on his programs promoting “Life skills through chess and motivation.”  It’s got information.  It’s got videos.  It even has a theme song.

The Be Someone program is about chess, but also something deeper as well, as shown in a quote by the author from an editorial review at Amazon of Hudson’s earlier book, Think, Act and Be Someone:

This is less about chess and more about building character.  Love, Honesty, Respect, Responsibility, Patience, are 5 character traits that are essential to success.  If we have the brightest children in the world and they don't have character, the schools have failed them and this nation has failed them…  After all it is the moral development of the whole child that will determine their success in life.

The author attributes a significant part of his success in chess and in life to his high school teacher, James Edge, who got him involved in the Royal Game – “It was through his encouragement that I became the champion I am today.”  Mentors, take note.

In the “Acknowledgements” chapter of One Move at a Time, Hudson gives thanks to many more people who shaped his life and supported him, from his mother, to his wife, to a stellar cast of entrepreneurs and speakers.  It takes a village…

One Move at a Time: How to Play and Win at Chess and Life includes basic instruction on chess (rules, basic strategies and tactics, simple checkmates) as well as basic instruction on life (“Life Lessons from Chess”).  Kids should learn chess because:

You will gain:

Self-confidence
The ability to set goals and carry them out
Clearer thinking
Common sense
Planning skills
Concentration
Patience

Lifetime pawnpushers may be familiar with this list (and have a few more to add of their own), but a surprisingly large part of American society is not.  Yet.  Hudson’s program has worked with over 16,000 children, and that’s a decent start.

One Move at a Time has a personal touch throughout the book, as Hudson strives to make his lessons attractive and enjoyable, and as he slips in his positive philosophy.  (He is a graduate of the Dale Carnegie Success School.)  Anyone who has seen Hudson at work with a group of young chess players will be impressed by his energy and sense of excitement.  Chess is easy.  Chess is cool.  Chess opens your mind.  Here is a mentor and a role model that kids can relate to.

Hudson’s game against International Master Rashid Ziyatdinov (my guess is that it’s from a simultaneous exhibition) is annotated across a couple of chapters.  The game is accessible, instructive, and the “good guy” of course, wins.

Fun as well is the “Target Practice” chapter, with several exercises where the reader is challenged to use a particular piece to capture a collection of pawns set up around the board – with the least number of moves. (Students in my “Chessboard Math” group loved them.)  An example that had me puzzled for a while:

You play the White pawns and are going up against a line of Black’s target dummy pawns.  Don’t be afraid, they won’t fight back!

You have three goals in this game:

1.      Capture the six pawns on a7, b7, c7, f7, g7 and h7.

2.      Capture the two pawns on d5 and e5 en passant.

3.      All of your pawns must end the game lined up next to each other on rank 7, like this:

Hudson is of the “Attitude is everything” school of thought (a point of view that requires frequent reinforcement, in my experience), but in One Move at a Time he is willing to hold the reader’s hand when a positive mental attitude isn’t enough:

As a beginner you’ll make lots of mistakes. You’ll get frustrated; you’ll get checkmated.

You’ll lose – and you’ll lose often.

And you may even wonder why you ever bothered reading this book.

But remember that all you have right now is education. What you don’t have, and what you need, is experience!

The simplest way to put this is: Education + Experience = Learning

You haven’t learned chess yet – and you won’t until you’ve played many games.

Another lesson, from the chessboard to life.

The layout of the book is very easy on the eye, with single column text and no more than two diagrams to the page.  The chapters have punchy titles (e.g. “Say Yes to Chess,”  “All the Right Moves” etc.) and the reading level seems to be at upper junior high to high school level.  I suspect that Hudson will sell many copies of his book through either his website or his personal appearances – I note my copy is already from a second printing.

One Move at a Time will likely be compared to Grandmaster Maurice Ashley’s Chess for Success (2005), although the two have a different enough focus (Ashley is writing more for parents and educators, Hudson for the individual player) for each to claim space on a book shelf.

There are any number of ways to introduce a child to chess.  For the middle- or high-schooler who is also in the midst of making daily decisions that will affect his or her future – think of the two students on the giant chessboard on the book’s cover – One Move at a Time could be a useful source of inspiration and guidance.
 

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