The Chess Kid's Book of Checkmate [Large Print] [Paperback]

David MacEnulty (Author), Bruce Pandolfini (Foreword)

Book Description

Age Level: 6 and up | Series: Chess

The latest in the McKay Chess Library for Kids

Checkmate is the ultimate goal of chess. In The Chess Kid’s Book of Checkmate, chess teacher David MacEnulty teaches the rules of checkmate to players between the ages of 6 and 10. The big idea in The Chess Kid’s Book of Checkmate is that many checkmates fall into well-known patterns. The player who remembers common checkmate patterns will have an advantage over the one who doesn’t. Step-by-step, with more than 100 diagrams, The Chess Kid’s Book of Checkmate reveals:

·How to train the brain to recognize basic checkmate patterns
·Special circumstances involving checkmate with one piece acting alone
·How to come up with your own checkmate patterns

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David MacEnulty is the chess teacher at The Dalton School and the former director of program development at Chess-in-the-Schools in New York. His teams have won three National Champion titles and came in second four times. David and his chess teams have been featured nationally on CBS, CNN, in Chess Life magazine, and in many local television and print news stories.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Random House Puzzles & Games; large type edition edition (July 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812935942
• ISBN-13: 978-0812935943
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,523,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not detaled enough and has serious flaws, March 27, 2005

By 

Gavin George (Las Vegas, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Chess Kid's Book of Checkmate (Paperback)

I am reviewing several books that teach checkmates including Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, Art of Checkmate and 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate.
I am placing this book side by side Fischer's book. The Chess Kids Book of Checkmate at least attempts or organize the types of checkmates by pattern. There is simply not enough explanation to go along with the examples. There is not enough material to cover the most important types of checkmates in a comprehensive matter.
Most sadley the book doesn't always show the most efficient way to checkmate. For example: taking a look at the King and Queen versus lone King mate. The book takes about twice as long as neccessary to do this simple checkmate! In an endgame the King should be used as an active fighting piece. Instead the Queen does the work then the King is brought in at the end. When the actual material being covered is incorrect then there is a serious problem. It is a wonder why someone didn't point these flaws out before it got into print.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just don't like it, September 1, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Chess Kid's Book of Checkmate (Paperback)

I agree with the other reveiwers. I have some big issues with the way the writer of the "Checkmate" covers the material (which is lacking for starters). As a 4 grader and a good player at my school chess club I got this book to help me. But, I became confussed by the explaining of things. I did read the other reviews and it is absolutely true that the writer does not know how to checkmate with the King and the Queen against a lone Queen properly - he doesn't teach using the king to make it fast. I could teach this to the writer of this book and improve it. The writer must learn to play chess good before trying to teach kids or he will teach kids wrong like he does in the book. I looked the writer up on the chess federations website and he is not a master or even a chess expert. Very sad and probabably one reason why there are so many mistakes in the book. Chess books should be writen by good players. You should not buy this book and make the same mistake I did.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a good book and I will tell you why, July 23, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Chess Kid's Book of Checkmate (Paperback)

My father and I both have been using this book for about one week. I have found so many mistakes in the way it is set up - I am an advanced beginner I would say - rated about 700 by the United States Chess Federation.
I will start by saying that I learned to use my King in the endgame. The books shows me how to move the Queen a Knights move away to force checkmate without the King. This takes me much longer. The checkmate with the Rook boxes in the King in the book - I learned to line up the Kings and check with my Rook from my chess teacher which is so much better.
I also spotted that the same positions were reapeated two times in the book (see pages 7 Diagram B and page 46) a big mistake.
The sample moves for games sometimes shows where the mistake was made and sometimes it doesn't. I want to know where the player when wrong in the opening moves that allowed the checkmate and know what should have been done. This is not covered.
My favorite book covering checkmates called ART OF THE CHECKMATE is much, much better (though it used the old form of chess notation). Talking about notation of moves this book suddenly starts using a long form of chess notation toward the end of the book when they should have kept it the same.
I cannot help joking and saying I will give this book away to a player at our school who is good and challenges me, so he can learn the mistakes in the book and then I can beat him! I am sorry to put this book down (this is a pun) but I must be honest in my review.