Customer Reviews

Checkmate!: My First Chess Book (Everyman Chess)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been researching for months to find a good 'starter' book to begin a chess club. I have searched online and made many stops at book stores and even asked many questions. Some of the books out there are excellent, but the cost was a little more than I wanted to spend as I am starting the club for homeschoolers and wanted to do it more as a ministry than a money-making enterprise.
To me, a great technician doesn't always translate to a great teacher. No doubt Kasparov was the former, but after reading this book he is definitely the latter as well. I believe it is an excellent book for beginners and even intermediates will find clear and colorful information here. It is also fun to read (a great quality especially for young people). The contents are:
1) the basics
2) the pieces and their moves
3) notation
4) winning and drawing
5) more about the pieces
6) tactical play
7) checkmate
8) opening play
9) endgame play
10) solutions to puzzles
11) glossary

For my needs it clearly achieves a 5 star rating. It is an inexpensive way to start a club or even to teach children. Not only that, but I will be teaching my wife tonight using this very book.
Thanks Gary!

In my first week of the fourth grade, the teacher announced that everyone in the class was going to learn how to play chess. She believed that it was the best game to be incorporated into an educational scheme and she was right. We all learned and certain times each week were set aside for games of chess. It was a very popular time, as playing any game was preferable to doing other things like spelling and writing practice.
I am in complete agreement with this philosophy, firmly believing that everyone should learn to play chess. This book is an excellent way to start, which is what you would expect, given that Kasparov is considered the best chess player ever. He starts with a description of the pieces, how they can move and their power rankings. From this, he sets up the game and explains the basic goal of the game as well as the algebraic notation used to represent the movement of the pieces. Kasparov uses a series of situations to illustrate problems, such as how to force a (stale)mate from a specific orientation. Solutions to these problems are given at the end and many of them are nontrivial. You are really required to think hard before finding the answer to some of them.
Basic strategies such as classical openings, defenses, the pin, a skewer and back rank mating options are covered. The illustrations are very high quality and it could have been used as the textbook for my fourth grade class, where I first learned how to play. Adult beginners will also find it an excellent way to learn.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.

For a beginning player, the graphics are well done. Geared to a younger audience, the rules are explained so as to enhance retention. The examples in the back are well known to experienced players, but help the novice to more easily get up to speed.

Normally, someone of Kasparov's calibre is too far removed from the beginning level to explain things easily. This isn't the case here. I put this in our middle school library to help budding players get started. I've recommended it to others and will do so again for aspiring chess players.

This book is perfect as a child's first book of chess. The colorful layout and bullet points plus more in-depth discussion really draw a reader in. Kasparov explains the concepts well. My 11 year old daughter has barely put the book down since receiving it.

I found this book great and easy for learning the moves, and also the idea behind the game. Strategy is a little beyond this book but, good learning tool, "you gotta crawl before you walk!"

Yesterday I took a magnetic chess board I bought on Amazon to my weekly visit with an 86 year old friend who had stated a desire to try learning chess again. (We had both played with little skill or knowledge when we were younger.) I went online to find us the basics so we could stumble our way through our first game. I had this book when I got home and started reading it. I have already found three important moves we did not know about. (Granted, we were too impatient to read all the way through the online instruction!) Castling, pawns capturing pawns "en passant", and promoting pawns that reach the far side of the board will certainly make chess even more challenging!

I think the typeface will be easy for Nelda to read, and the graphical board representations are easier to see than some other books I paged through. The "3D" images may be harder for her to make out; that remains to be seen. I think the hardback format will also be easier for her to handle than a paperback, even if they typeface in the paperbacks were not too hard to read.

You don't need to be a child to appreciate this book. At 56 I am not ashamed to say I am finding it quite useful.

This book was bought as a gift for a child who says that it is a great book. I would recommend it based on it's ease of reading and understanding and great illustrations

Very well laid out and clear, but my eight year old and five year old need it explained to them as we go along and only get some of it.

This is a great book! I ordered two, one for myself and one for our grandchildren. The 6-year-old was telling me about learning to play chess at school I asked her to teach me so we can play together. She was doing a good of telling me about it but there was so much to remember I decided I needed a book. Other reviews about this particular book convinced me it was the one to order....and they were right on the money....you couldn't ask for a better tool for learning chess.

Perfect book for my 9-yr-old who just got into chess. I looked at many promising books that ended up too detailed and too full of algebra notation--she is an advanced reader, but c'mon, she's still only nine! This book starts with board setup and rules, then goes into tactics with diagrams and explanation that are clear yet simple, giving my daughter plenty to think about and experiment with to develop her game. If she's still playing a few years from now, she will be ready to decipher some of those other books.