Publisher's Synopsis
This book is for beginner chess players and chess instructors. It is written at the lowest possible reading levels so that the youngest chess players can benefit from it. It is written at a 3rd/4th grade reading level. It has over 700 chess puzzles, and over 750 diagrams. Also included are chess stories, jokes and strategies. Some strategies that are covered include checkmate in one move, checkmate in two moves, pins, skewers, forks, discovered attacks, discovered check, destroying defenders, and basic endgames such as ladder checkmate with two rooks. It also includes sample games played by world champions.
The book was written by two elementary school chess coaches.
The topics covered include:
Avoiding to stop Checkmate
Basic Endgames
Blocking to Stop Checkmate
Captures
Capturing to Stop Checkmate
Castling (special move with two pieces on same turn)
Check and Checkmate (including hundreds of checkmates in one move)
Destroying Defenders
Discovered Attack and Discovered Check
En Passant (special pawn capture)
En Prise / Hanging Pieces
End Games With One Rook, Two Rooks, And Queen And Rook
Forks
Ladder Checkmate
Center Game
Openings
Pawn Game and Pawn Promotion
Piece Movement
Piece Values
Pins
Puzzles
Reading And Writing Moves (Algebraic Notation)
Skewers
Stalemate
Starting Position
Strategy and Tactics
Tie Games
Chapter One covers the board, the initial starting position, the object of the game, how kings and rooks move, check, checkmate, very basic checkmates in one move, and stalemate.
Chapter Two goes over how queens, bishops, knights, and pawns move; it also has puzzles that ask whether the position is check, checkmate, stalemate, or none of these.
Part Two concerns strategy.
Chapter Three begins more in depth discussion of strategy. It starts out with the three ways to avoid checkmate (avoiding the check, blocking the check, or capturing the checking piece). It has checkmate in one move puzzles.
Chapter Four begins discussion of tactics including pins, skewers, and hanging pieces. There are many puzzles for each tactic.
Chapter Five continues the tactics theme and covers discovered check and destroying defenders.
Chapter Six includes how to write moves (algebraic notation), some openings, and it begins positional discussion regarding the center.
Chapter Seven concerns castling and en passant. as well as some end game methods including ladder checkmate, It has checkmate in one puzzles.
Chapter Eight is about tie games including stalemate, draws, and repetition.
Part Three is a 300+ question chess test that reinforces the topics covered so far.
Part Four is more than 15 games of world champion chess players.
