Chess for Children

A great book in a good condition, a gift for a child

Bought this for my first grade grandson who want to joint the chess team! His mother reports that he is fascinated with the book and very focused on the diagrams.

Considering the target audience, the book, complete with illustrations, serves as a nice primer for a child who is a stranger to chess. Murray Chandler compresses a lot of information in a concise, clear way. I'm all for anything to get children interested in chess. My only two gripes -- and they are minor -- is that, considering the target age group, using "i.e." instead of "that is" isn't wise. And when one considers part of the goal of the book is to teach children to write in algebraic notation, using the infernal figurine style now popular in textbooks is counter-productive and unnecessary. That said, a parent could easily overlook those two small issues and buy this book with confidence.

I am using this book to teach my two older children (6 and 4) and my wife (who never learned) how to play chess. It is WELL done at having bite sized lessons followed by exercises. (I add some additional ones of my own.) I was concerned about the algebraic chess notation lesson with my four year old, but he did great! The best part about this book is that it isn't just a "here are the rules" book. Last night we went through the lesson on the value of pieces and talking about whether a swap is good or not. Some other really good lessons are the ones showing common checkmates, that talk about what to do when in check, and the chapter on forks, pins, and skewers. This is a great book, but understand that it is for the absolute beginner. I think it is going MUCH better using this book than if I had tried to teach the kids just by myself.

I want to teach my nine year old granddaughter to play chess but I haven't played myself since high school, so I needed my own refresher in order to be able to instruct her correctly. This book teaches the game so much better than I could do on my own. It introduces the moves of the different pieces and the game strategy in small bites; never more than a young person can grasp at once. And it has abundant illustrations, so your young player can visualize the concept being introduced. And the sequence of new material makes perfect sense. So logical! Really glad I found this book. It's a bargain, and fun to boot. Highly recommend.

I started teaching my son chess when he was almost 4 and got this after his 4th birthday. It's fun, easy to follow and perfect for a beginner since it starts with the very basics and then goes into more complicated topics all while maintaining a light, conversational tone that is not intimidating for a child. In fact, I think that this is also a good book for any adult who is not familiar with the game since so many instructional chess books are unbearably dry and dull.

First let me say that overall this book is well-geared for children and adults alike. The content is excellent. HOWEVER there are HUGE printing errors that are massively confusing for one who actually reads the book and the moves closely. In the board depictions about taking the king the black king on the board is consistently illustrated as a white king in the move instructions. Particularly for young players still trying to figure out the notation system, this is highly confusing. I had to go through the book with a black pen and meticulously color-in the white king references that should have been black king references in the move instructions so that my grandsons wouldn't have whiplash from trying to figure out the book. This book has been in print since 2004. I am utterly shocked this has not been fully edited in the 2017 printing since this is the 12th reprinting of the book. Possibly this is a new error only in the 2017 re-print, but since I ordered this in December of 2017, it certainly seems someone would have noticed this and corrected it before...unless adults buy this book for kids to read and then wonder why the kids seem confused or turned off. The author or publisher definitely needs to address this problem. If the rest of the book wasn't really good or if I was not willing to go through and take about an hour to color in the move depictions, the best place for this book is the trash bin. The last thing I want to do for my grandchildren is to get them confused about chess if they take the time to read this book carefully. Very counter-productive. That said, with better key editing, this could be a very good book for kids.

This is a great book for children learning to play chess. I have a 7 and a 4 year old. The tests in the book keeps my 7 year old motivated to learn the lessons and earn "points" (That's how the book structures it). My 4 year old isn't old enough for the in-depth lessons, but is captured by the cartooned portions of the book as he learns basic names and moves. My 7 y/o will likely continue to learn strategy from this book for several months as he practices what he learns. All in all this is a great book that will help them advance over at least a year, if not more if they are younger. I recommend it.

The content is very good to me, however I am amateur (around 1700). The book could only be better is the illustrations were in color.

Lo considero ottimo per il mio nipotino (6 anni) che è di lingua inglese ed al quale cerco di trasmettere la mia passione per gli scacchi.

I live in London, bought this book for my nephew in Paris. He was extremely happy with the book. Very convenient and highly recommended. Amazon FR worried about the postage etc, I just clicked the button and paid. The book was received in perfect condition.

very important book, as i believe chilrdren should learn to how to play chess and practice same. it forms them to think!

Excelente libro. Mi hija lo usa para golpearme.