Reddit mentions: The best children board games books

I think I understand what you are trying to experiment. You are asking if 2 beginners start playing chess while reading different beginner books, how will their play styles and understanding of the game change? I think this is a very interesting idea, and although I hypothesize that "no matter how different the books are, the difference will be because of the players, not the books" I will gladly suggest some ideas for your experiment.

There are plenty of chess books that are written by classical GMs that many people still find amazingly helpful.

"Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals" is still a very good for learning strong end game and good idea of how pieces work together. His end games are still considered some of the cleanest. He was somebody who could take puzzling situations and make them simple. It's very satisfying to following his games.

"My System" by GM Nimzowitsch is a bit different. Where as Capablanca relied more on classical openings and simplified situations with strong piece control, Nizomwitisch was of the hypermodern school which focused more on challenging the old classical fundamental beliefs and positional superiority.

If both of you start with one of each book, it'd be interesting to see how both of you end up playing. But honestly as beginners, (I'm a low level asshole myself aka patzer) some of the higher level things we're talking about here may not even mean anything for a long time.

Honestly, everybody in life has a certain chess style. Some play for the tactics, some for positions, some for the calculations, while others for the pattern recognition, some play sharp while some play loose, some play meek while some play aggressively. It really depends on you as a player, and I think that in the end, no matter which book you start with, you will end up the player you are going to be anyway.

As for other books that may be of interest for both of you, as they always say in chess "tactics, tactics, tactics": it may be a good idea to supplement both of your books with a tactical book such as https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Tactics-Everyman/dp/1857443861 or https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Tactics-Champions-step-step/dp/081293671X or this https://www.amazon.com/Predator-At-Chessboard-Field-Tactics/dp/1430308001

and also supplement tactics with mating motifs like this: https://www.amazon.com/How-Beat-Your-Chess-Gambit/dp/1901983056

I hope you and your friend have a lot of fun playing and learning together. I have definitely enjoyed playing with my work mates. If you guys haven't chosen an online platform already, I suggest lichess.org or chess.com. Both are very great sites for playing chess for free. One is absolutely free and offers some very cool features for self analysis and community study material, while the other has paid premium memberships which offer a breadth of learning material in videos and articles.

> I know the general rules of chess, but I am inexperienced in the different tactics and openings and what not.

Zeroth, make sure you know all the rules of chess. In particular, en passant, stalemate, pawn promotion, and castling, since these four rules are the four rules most misunderstood or not known by beginners.

First, don't concentrate on openings. Openings usually only give you a very small advantage, which beginners won't understand how to utilize.

Second, the only tactics you should really be focusing on are hanging piece tactics, ones where you can take a piece for free. They're as simple as tactics get, are a good way to train your board vision if you're a beginner, and are very simple to check for. Most games at your level will be decided by one player hanging a bunch of their pieces, so be prepared to punish your opponent for doing so. At the same time, make sure you don't hang your own pieces.

Augmenting this, you'll want to learn about the (rough) values of each piece. This will tell you what piece trades are favourable. It's no good trading a queen for a pawn since a pawn is worth less than a queen, for example.

Third, learn your basic endgame mates. Just the first three will do for now; if you think you're up to it, you can also learn KBBvK. It's no use being ahead two rooks and a queen if you can't finish your opponent off, because the goal of chess is to checkmate your opponent, not to get the most material. Like I said, most beginner games are decided by one person having lots of material, so you had better make sure you know how to win when you have lots of material (and how to make it as difficult as possible for your opponent should you be on the losing side!).

Finally, play as much as you can! Practice is very important; you can't just become a Grandmaster without ever having played a single game in the same way that you can't just get a PhD in mathematics without having ever actually proved any theorems (cough cough, /u/math238).

> Is there any resources or books you would recommend to someone trying to become good at chess?

Resources include ChessTempo (you should probably sign up, and you'll probably have to fail a lot of tactics before you're given the easy stuff) and ChessCademy. You can play chess against others on Lichess.org or Chess.com. (Chess.com also offers a good amount of resources but they're behind a paywall and can usually be found elsewhere.)

Books include How To Beat Your Dad At Chess (I've heard good things about it but haven't read it) and Logical Chess, Move By Move (which is a bit more advanced but explained very well).

I'll agree with these.

I'll add going to a local chess club is a really good thing. They play long games against other humans, you'll get tips and pointers from stronger players, and possibly find area coaches who might be better at teaching than the godfather. Also you'll probably meet other "Chess Parents" who might direct you to things in your area.

Regardless going over the kid's games with a stronger player, asking why they played certain moves, asking if they could redo specific moves, what would they choose can be a big help. Also going over game collections can be useful. Things like Zurich 1953 or "best endgames of Capablanca". Going over those with a strong player is also helpful.

Biggest thing though is to play long games, and review them with strong players.

As for the scorecard something that size should be fine, if the places your kid is playing doesn't even have space for that, I don't know what to tell you. There isn't an easy way to take and scan the handwritten scorecards into a computer. There are devices that allow you to enter in the moves directly, but they are expensive and something you would need to check is FIDE/National Chess federation approved.

Lol. This is perfect then!

Winning Chess Exercises for Kids https://www.amazon.com/dp/1895525101/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_VlvazbH83HJYC


It has a rediculous amount of puzzles, like 2000, and has great info all the way through. It's also very engaging and kids love it!

This may or may not do: https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Notebook-Maria-J-Cuesta/dp/154040868X

It seems to have a mix of pages that are blank except for a decorative chess piece, pages that have a diagram on the top and blank space to write on the bottom, and pages of scoresheets, but I don't see anything that says how many of each it has. The total is 160 pages.

This has more diagrams, but they are smaller: https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Match-Log-Book-Positions/dp/1440406251/

Your best bet is probably to take /u/Funless' advice and print out something yourself. You can probably get a bunch of copies printed and bound nicely at a copy center for not too much.

Maybe a book of scoresheets would work? Some of these have a diagram per game. They usually don't have any space intended for notes, but you could use the space meant for moves for that. Here are a couple of examples:

https://www.regencychess.co.uk/hardback-chess-scorebook-100-games-p-1090.html

https://www.wholesalechess.com/shop/chess-supplies/chess-scorebooks/softcover-quality-scorebook

The diagrams are a little small in both of those, and the second has shading on the columns that would make the move space cramped for notes, but maybe you can find better.

Here's another: https://www.amazon.com/The-Chess-Store-Scorebook/dp/B0093O9XJ8/

The description says it has a diagram per game, but there's no photo of the layout so I have no idea how useful it would be.

Unfortunately, since adjournments are no longer used in tournaments or matches there is much less need for a diagram on a scoresheet so most scoresheet makers have dropped them in favor or more room moves. Looking at my old scorebooks from the '80s and '90s, some of them had a big diagram about 1/3 the size of the page on the back of each page, and I even have one that had two diagrams on the back of each page.

I was not able to turn up any still doing this in my brief Googling. The little diagrams in the ones linked above were all I found, but maybe you'll have better luck.

I'd recommend going over Murray Chandler's Chess for Children with your son. It's a fun book to read along with a child and to do the 'tricky tests' together and is his great illustrations for children. You can take a look at it here

If your son is still keen after that you can try Chess Tactics for Kids and How to beat your Dad at chess by the same author are also good.

>They could be useful if all the game was posted with analysis so that we could see the preparation of the tactic.

This is precisely why I think studying complete games is more useful, or at least very useful in conjunction with, solving tactics. There are even books of complete games with the focus being on combinations. Here is one such from a couple years ago:

https://www.amazon.com/Instructive-Chess-Miniatures-Alper-Ataman-ebook/dp/B01HC23ZVO/

Lots of tactics.

This book is good for beginners

https://www.amazon.com/Chess-5334-Problems-Combinations-Games/dp/1579125549

This one is also very good (and better IMO), a bit more advanced but still good for beginners.

https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Chess-Exercises-Kids-Coakley/dp/1895525101

My son likes this book, How to Beat your Dad at Chess. There are tons of kid friendly books. He likes taking his book with him to Chess Club.

I have really enjoyed the book how to beat your dad at chess as a departure from the "norm" of chess books. This book is much more focused on teaching you pattern recognition than just drilling you over and over and over, which you can get from any tactics trainer online or one of those giant puzzle books. Don't let the title fool you, it's not a book aimed at children (obviously would be fine for an ambitious youth, just mean that it's not a "kids" chess book per se).

One of the Books that got me back into chess was How to beat your Dad at Chess, which is just a great book of 50 checkmating patterns really clearly explained.

Got this book off one of those scholastic newsletters in elementary school. Taught me how to play and how to Scholar's mate. So many wins, so little learned.

My parents got me this amazing book of board games - it was spiral bound on thick card and each page was a board for a different game. It came with a wallet of playing pieces. It was super convenient for taking on holiday too as it was fifteen different games but one small book.

Found it on Amazon! Might re-buy it. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Classic-Board-Games-Klutz/dp/0932592945

How to beat your Dad at chess - Murray Chandler is the book I have used to learn a bunch of common mating patterns, I've still not got all the way through the book but it's certainly helping a lot.

I recommend Chess Steps. It's a program geared towards kids that'll take them from beginner to A/B level.

Murray Chandler's Chess for Children is also a good book.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Beat-Your-Chess-Gambit/dp/1901983056

How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (Gambit Chess) Hardcover – October 1, 1998

You are welcome.

Because you had chess items and children's books. Maybe these to go with this as well.

Nobody in this sub ever seems to mention studying complete master games. Here is a book of master "miniature" games solved in the end by tactics: https://www.amazon.com/Instructive-Chess-Miniatures-Alper-Ataman/dp/1910093882/ It's going to be hard, but you will get the full context from which the tactics arise.

My dad never let me win in chess, not once. My dad was an air traffic controller and thats all they did every day at work. They controlled planes for an hour, went to the break room and played chess for an hour, then controlled airplanes for an hour, then back to chess for a quarter a game. He used to come home with his pockets full of quarters after a midnight shift.

I went years and years before I could beat him but one time he slipped up and left his queen in front of his king on the white diagonal line, I can still picture that to this day. I didn't dare brag though. I was 99-1. I practiced hard, I put chess on my phone, I read booksI joined the college chess team, all to get back that feeling of seeing his queen lined up in front of his king. I still try to get together with him once a month and eat lunch and play chess. I know someday he will pass away and I don't want to ever miss a month eating BBQ and playing chess with him. Even though he beats me two out of every three games. Every damn time.

This book comes to mind, How to Beat Your Dad at Chess

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beat-Your-Chess-Gambit-chess/dp/1901983056 ?

https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Children-Worlds-Popular-Board/dp/1904600069

I have just the book for you.

A few questions, if you don't mind.

> an hour a day of chesstempo problems

Do you prefer ChessTempo (and similar sites) over a tactics book, e.g. Bain's at low levels or Coakley's blue book for a more intermediate player? Or maybe a combination of the two?

> starting with the fundamentals (Jesus de la Villa's "100 Endgames you must know" covers a very wide audience, and studying it should be about 100 rating points worth in your case)

How would you compare this to Silman's Complete Endgame Course? I have Silman and it has exploded my endgame knowledge.

> an hour a day of working through Jeremy Silman's "The Amateur Mind" or a similar book

At what rating do you think it's worth starting this book? I've read suggestions to not start until 1800, and another that said 1400.

How to Beat Your Dad at Chess

>This is not just a book for kids - for 'Dad' read any opponent who beats you regularly! This book teaches the 50 Deadly Checkmates - basic attacking patterns that occur repeatedly in games between players of all standards.