Customer Reviews

Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors [McKay Chess Library for Kids]

5 star:		(109)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. Snyder two books, "Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors" and then the sequel "More Unbeatable Chess For Juniors" take you through 24 complete games per book. These are turned into excellent lessons (used by Mr. Snyder in his private lessons through the internet and face to face for many years) where each move is analyzed. A nice focus is the TECHNIQUE used to accomplish victory. When called for the actual plans are broken down in the analysis pointing out weakness and then a step by step analysis of the planning process. Lets take a look an a major example taken from an endgame in one of the games titled "Planning Ahead" - the author writes,

"White's plan consists of the following ideas (not necessarily in the exact order that they are caried out),"
1. Whie will make sure that his KIngside Pawns are secure against any threats by Black's Bishop. This may require placing the Kingside Pawns on the same color as his Bishop, which may be a drawback; however, it will prevent Black's Bishop from attacking then in the absence of White's King.
2. White will move his King towaard Black's weak isolated Queenside Pawns. The King can easily threatn them from the White squares and can aid in the creation and support of a White Queenside passed Pawn.
The author goes on with two more (3. & 4.) parts of his step by step ideas behind the planns as well. This is just a small example of the detail and quality of the lessons you will find in Mr. Snyder's books. Mr. Snyder is not one of these authors who has a new book coming out every couple of months. His recent books have only come out at the rate of about one a year, showing he puts in the time for a quality job.

Within the games you will be asked to "find the best move here". This forces the reader to get the old brain working and think! A nice aspect of the writing style.

Some of the themes in the games covered are:
ATTACK AND DEFENSE OF AN EXPOSED KING (the King Hunt!)
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A WEAK OPENING
OPENING UP LINES AGAINST THE CASTLED KING
PLANNING AHEAD (setting things up well in advance)
BUILDING A KINGSIDE ATTACK
UNDERSTANDING THE OPENING
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF AN UNSOUND SACRIFICE
OPENING STUDY: RUY LOPEZ
AWESOME USE OF MINOR PIECES
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF BLUNDERS (MASTERS BLUNDER TOO!)
USE OF PINS
SACRIFICING AGAINST THE CASTLED KING
FISCHER-SPASSKY - WINNING IN THE ENDGAME
THE WRONG ROOK (a common mistake!)
USE OF THE OUTPOST, TAKING ADVANTAGE OF WEAK WHITE SQUARES, USE OF THE 7TH RANK, ARABIAN MATE, SMOTHERED MATE, OPENING UP AND TAKING ADVANTAGE OF AN EXPOSED KING - ALL IN ONE GAME!!!
MASSIVE PAWN CENTER
WEAK PAWNS
DEEP POSITIONAL SACRIFICE (for long term pressure)
QUEENSIDE PAWN MAJORITY
DOUBLE SACRIFICE (exposing a King)
EFFECTIVE USE OF THE BISHOP PAIR

You will learn how to plan ahead, learn improtant patterns both for tactical play and positional play and you will learn TECHNIQUE in chess!!! And, when you are done with "Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors" you can then move on to the more advanced "More Unbeatable Chess For Juniors" to get more!

I have learned a lot and really improved my game from these two books.

I am an experienced scholastic chess player who has been playing and studying chess for some years now. I have a large collection of chess books (numbering in the hundreds) and have read every one of them from cover to cover (I must point out that I have a life outside of chess as well - though chess is my number one thing).
Out of every single book I can say that UNBEATABLE CHESS LESSONS FOR JUNIORS is my absolute favorite. Now to why I rank it at the top of my list (I cannot wait for Robert Snyder's MORE UNBEATABLE CHESS FOR JUNIORS to be released):
#1) The games are selected for instructional purposes based on many years of teachings by the author (this is why there are no recent games in the book - which is just fine with me). Robert Snyder having produced a record number of national champions has a great insight into the mind of the player and consistantly answers questions on a "comment on every move" basis (he hits the spot much better than other books using the same concept such as "Logical Chess" and "Understanding Chess"). UNBEATABLE CHESS LESSONS FOR JUNIORS avoids the unecessary repetion found in "Logical Chess" and the long complex analysis which loses the reader found in "Understanding Chess" which are supposed to be for the Intermediate Player.
#2) General Rules are outlined as they are applied in each game. Also, where the exceptions to the rules are pointed out as well.
#3) Find the best move! Robert Snyder challenges you to find the best move a critical junctures and many points throughout each game (making a game collection book have many of the advantages of a problem solving book!).
#4) Critical Opening Lines are covered throughout the book with some new improvements over previously published books on openings.
#5) Accurate Analysis - I haven't found a single analytical mistake in the book (a couple very small easy to figure out typos - but far less than most other chess books). Robert Snyder has a 2405 International Rating and 2306 USCF rating and has obviously put in the time to avoid inaccuracies often found in other chess books.
#6) Part of a great series - If you are a beginner Robert Snyder's CHESS FOR JUNIORS (the number one best selling chess book on amazon.com) will get your started. His "Winning Chess Tournaments for Juniors" is also an excellent book and a must read for anyone who is serious about doing well in chess. His next book "More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors" will be the follow-up to UNBEATABLE CHESS LESSONS FOR JUNIORS.
#7) Planning in Chess - This book will tell you at critical points of the game what the plans are before they are executed!
#8) Robert Snyder is an awesome World Class Correspondence Player (games in this book were played before computers could be used to play correspondence games) and his games in this book are as good as if not better than many of the top players in the world today.
If you want to really improve your game and would like to learn to analyze and plan ahead and be a winner then get UNBEATABLE CHESS LESOSNS FOR JUNIORS.

For a kid who already knows how to play chess this is a a very good book to learn more from. I can easily understand everything that it covers.
It has 24 complete games played by different players. The the author (Robert M. Snyder) tells you what is going on with each move. Here are some of the important things I learned from this book:

1. How to plan an attack using such things as manuvering your pieces to build it up, using open files and weak points for sacrificing to penetrate a castled position.

2. Setting up and using combinations in a variety of positions to accomplish different things like winning material or reaching a won endgame by leaving your opponent with Pawn weaknesses.

3. How different combinations of pieces are to be used as an advantage such as using the Bishop Pair and when to double Rooks and to nutralize your opponents rooks on open files.

4. Lots of examples of different openings. The important lines and variations with what is good and how to take advantage of weak openings. The games are arranged in the book by type of openings to help you learn them in a good order. The table of contents gives you the names of them to find an opening you might want to study.

5. I counted three games with good endgames to learn from. Not all the games are just on openings and middlegames.

6. Exposing and attacking a King before he has castled along with how to defend a difficult position (the first game is just like that and very helpful).

These are just a few examples of what I learned from this book. What I like about it over the other books with games is that when I go over them the author tells what is going on in a way that doesn't leaving me constantly asking, "well what if this was played, or that?". In other words the author knows the common questions that would be asked and answers them automatically. Very few books are good at that! I have played in some chess tournaments and a year ago when I got this book I was rated about 800 in the US Chess Federation. Now (1 year later after reading the book) I am rated over 1100. This book was the number 1 helper for me going up over 300 rating points quickly.
I really hope you get this book as long as you are not going to get it and then play me! But chances of us playing are very small out of thousands of kids that play chess in tournaments.

I really enjoyed reading Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors. I felt that I gained a lot of knowledge especially in the following areas,
a) Learning how to build an attack. The placement of your pieces and planning aheady.
b) Learning how to use sacrifices and to recognize when they work and do not work.
c) Positional play - manuvering your pieces and planning the use of Pawn structures.
d) Many tactical ideas were covered.
e) Learning the openings. The openings in the complete games are well covered with important opening lines being show. The games are organized by the type of openings being used. This makes it easy to study openings. The lines being shown are up to date and very accurate.
f) There are not a lot of endgames but the ones covered are very instructive. What I like is to see how plans were made to get to the winning endgame right from the opening! This book then gives a step by step explaination of how to win the endgame.
Some special features I liked about Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors,
a) You are asked to find the best move. This forces you to think and makes for fun problems to solve out of games. This is much different than most books.
b) All the moves are analyzed.
c) General rules are pointed out. But, what makes it really nice is when the exceptions to the general rules happen, they are pointed out.
I like the nice easy flowing style of the author. For a person who already knows the very basic stuff about chess this book is just right. This is because there is both a review of important ideas and a depth of analysis making this book interesting for a more advanced player as well. The author uses a lot of his own game where he has used them in chess lessons with his own students. This makes the explaination very clear and things that only an experienced chess teacher knows need to be covered are right there. I have read some of the other reviews which have been helpful to me in being able to point out some of things that I agree with.
If you really love chess and like to study to improve this book is good for any age. But it is written so a 6th grader can understand it.
I understand that this book is going through a new printing correcting any typos and may be hard to get for a while. It would be worth waiting for if you cannot get it now or even getting a used copy for now.

SNATCH THE CHESS PIECE FROM MY HAND GRASSHOPPER!

You will find that each of the twenty-four chess games have been turned into first rate lessons designed to install great chess knowledge in the reader's brain! The basic learning tools are games selected first and foremost for their instructional value. This isn't the first book written forming lessons from games with every move analyzed - but one thing is for sure, this is the best book for a player just beyond having learned the very basics or a player with moderate playing ability using this learning method (it is in a class by itself - way above it's closest competitor, "Logical Chess Move by Move"). And, when combined with the follow-up companion book "More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors" you have a total of 48 lessons, which outclasses "Understanding Chess Move by Move". Why?

* Understanding of the inner workings of the thinking process by the author allows him to put on paper what a player needs to know. He gained this through the actual use of the lessons for over 30 years training players from beginner to the 36 national championship title winners. There is an uncanny knack by the author to know in advance the questions you will have about the positions - and they are addressed! What a resource!

** General rules pointed out when they apply to given situations and uniquely often it is pointed out when they don't apply! This helps you create structured guidelines for practical use.

*** Important opening lines are provided to help you learn your openings. The analysis will not lose you in a maze of variations in this book, however, the follow-up book has very deep opening analysis designed for it's intended audience (a more advanced level player who has already grasped the concepts covered in "Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors"). Games are arranged by opening and the table of contents in the front allows for quick and easy reference - including the main concepts being learned in most of the games.

**** The book will test you and make you think! Throughout the games/lessons you will be asked to find the best move. This is unique to this author's books. It helps maintain the interest of younger readers while making it challenging and fun for every age.

***** Key Words Why this book is FIVE STARS and TWO THUMBS UP! - EASE of Understanding, CLARITY of thought and writing style, COMPLETENESS in explanations and covering what is important, ACCURACY in the quality of analysis, SPACING of diagrams is excellent (lots of diagrams to verify the positions or help you follow if you are good enough to go over the games without a board), LACK of unnecessary repetition - you will not find the author wasting your time and money with ongoing repetition.

The games are interesting and entertaining in addition to being instructive. The author was a world-class correspondence player, strong master and includes his most instructive games along with those of players like Fischer, Spassky and Karpov.

There is vast knowledge contained within the covers of this book! "Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors" and "More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors" is the right path to follow "Grasshopper".
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This is a wonderful book! Twenty games have been turned into lessons with all of the moves analyzed. Just as with "Chess For Juniors" the same author has written a book that is very readable and is clear and easy to understand.

The games, taken from the author's lessons, were picked for instructiveness. However, the games themselves are interesting.
As I have read in some of the other reviews, and fully agree, there is an exceptional insight into covering the aspects of chess that an intermediate chess player needs to know.

In "Chess For Juniors" the author provided two games forming the basis for the 24 more games found in "Unbeatable Chess Lessons For Juniors" (following this book is "More Unbeatable Chess For Juniors").

I also recommend this author's "Winning Chess Tournaments For Juniors" for an intermediate player.

A great book that will help any intermediate player grasp many important concepts!

Going over complete games covering all parts of chess has been my most useful and favorite way of improving my ability to play chess. The planning ahead part of chess using "general rules" which is covered throughout Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors teaches you what is important to know. You also learn when and why there are exceptions to the general rules, making this book much different than the other books I have seen that tell you about every move in the games.
I have also improved my openings. The games are arranged by type of opening and there are 24 entire games. The important variations of the openings in the games are told. I counted three very helpful endgames. The Bishop of opposite color with doubled pawns endgame was the best.
I also learned a bunch of stuff about sacrificing on weak squares and how to attack against the castled and the uncastled king. One of my favorite lessons was the first one where the king was chased around the board. It was helpful because it teaches about how to attack and how to defend all in one game.
I will be getting the second book after this one called More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors for christmas.

This is a book with style. Chernev in "Logical Chess, Move by Move" was the first book to popularize the idea of making a comment on every move on selected games for instruction. Now that book has become a bit dated. Snyder in "Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors" and the book that follows this, "More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors" takes the wonderful learning method started by Chernev and greatly improves on it.
The improvements consist of,
a) Not using space to repeat itself when the same opening moves are in one game,
b) There are some games, especially in the second book, that are more up to date. The analysis of the openings is completely up to date,
c) I couldn't find any errors in the analysis.
d) A "find the best move" approach is used - challenging the student to find the best moves. This makes the book more interesting.
e) There are actually some endgames using this teaching method (most games cannot be too long reaching endgames, because of the space needed to comment on every move!). These are contained in excellent games from opening to endgame.
Now for the actual games used. These games were used by the author in actual lessons given to students prior to be placed in the book(s). Mr. Snyder fully understands what needs to be pointed out. This provides an extremely high quality of instruction. When a GENERAL RULE applies, it is clearly pointed out! The book is loaded with plenty of diagrams to make following the games and analysis run smoothly.
Of special interest are the author's games. They are very instructive and excellent games! I saw in another review that there are improvements in Bobby Fischer's analysis, so I looked up the two Fischer games in "My 60 Memorable Games". Snyder's analysis blows away Fischer's and points out some nice improvements (i.e. Fischer overlooks a superior sacrifice, and the analysis is much more clear overall - Fischer writes for the advanced player, Snyder reaches the lower rated or average tournament player, but is suitable for higher rated players as well). Book "Unbeatable" books are excellent ways of improving your openings. But how to plan ahead, and the thinking process in several games given, step by step is excellent. The clear thinking with the years of teaching experience that went into Snyder's books are simply amazing.

My middle school has this chess book as part of the chess club. We are given assignments to go over assigned games to study at home. That is why I know this book well.
The GENERAL RULES when they apply and don't apply to positions are shown so that students can learn principles of all parts of the game.
I like using Guioco Piano and some of the games are just perfect. I also like knowing what to do against the French and Caro Kann Defenses and these are covered well in the games in the book. The use of the NimzoIndian is very affective in meeting 1 d4 and there are several good games using that.
The setting up of tactics and attacks are covered in the middle game parts of most of the games. Planning ahead with outlining the plans step by step is a good part of some of the games.
This is a very good book to learn from. I have learned a lot from it and the games are fun types of games to study.

Certainly if you are a beginner, start with "Chess for Juniors" first, then move on to this book.

"Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors" (and, then "More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors" to follow up on) is in my mind do doubt the best game collection book ever written for INSTRUCTIONAL PURPOSES. Secondly the games are very interesting - a nice mix of world championship level games along with games played by expert/master players (the author's games are exceptionally instructive and interesting!). The pointing of of "general rules" is extensive (and when they don't apply is unique). You are challenged to find the best moves making this book an enjoyable read (like the other book I recommend, "Chess Exam" where Igor K. does a fantastic job covering important patterns - also good is "Winning Chess tournaments for Juniors" with a vast number of unique pointers and material for study).

Simply the best game collection book using games forming lessons with comments on every move!