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Book ReviewsChess for Juniors : A Complete Guide for the Beginner (Mckay Chess Library) |
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Book: Chess for Juniors : A Complete Guide for the Beginner (Mckay Chess Library)
Written by: ROBERT M. SNYDER |
Publisher: Random House Puzzles & Games
Average Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5
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BEST INTRODUCTORY CHESS BOOK ON THE MARKET
Rating:
5 / 5
I collect chess books, owning over 1,000 volumes. Of these about 25 would qualify as books introducing chess to an absolute beginning and then taking a beginner to an elevated level. Included in my collection are "Chess for Dummys", "The Complete Idiots Guide to Chess", "Starting Chess" and "Chess For Children". I have carefully evaluated each of these books for clarity and consistency in the material they contain. These, along with "Chess For Juniors" (being ranked #1 on smazon.com) are the top selling introductory chess books on amazon.com. In addition to owning these books I also teach chess to children at three local elementary schools. I was a first class player in Europe some years back (equal to about 1900 USCF).
WHAT SETS "CHESS FOR JUNIORS" ABOVE THESE OTHER BOOKS IS THE EXTREME CLARITY AND LOGICAL PROGRESSION IN WHICH THE MATERIAL IS PRESENTED.
An elementary school student (grade 3 on up) can read and understand the material in "Chess For Juniors" without the help of an adult. And, for an adult "Chess For Juniors" is not a baby book that would be insulting. It is the perfect choice for all ages.
The author uses humor (directed at an elementary or junior high level) to keep up the young reader's interest.
"Chess For Juniors" uses a lesson plan approach making it a perfect classroom text book. Each lesson builds upon previous lessons.
The books starts out coving all of the basic rules with an emphasis on some of the rules that beginning students have difficulty with - often tackling them from more than one angle of explanation. In particular the most difficult piece, the Pawn is very well covered along with "en passant" and "castling". Then the most important types of draws (avoiding technical tournament draws involving the chess clock, which is covered in the author's "Winning Chess Tournaments for Juniors") are covered. Chess Notation is more clearly explained in "Chess For Juniors" than any of the other books mentioned.
The ideas behind opening development are covered before actually providing an basic opening system with detailed explanations behind the moves. The most important basic endgames are also covered along with the most important tactics and opening traps.
"Chess For Juniors" alone will cover enough material to keep a chess teacher busy for many months before having to even get another book.
Now an additional plus for "Chess For Juniors", once again making it stand out among the other books mentioned: It is part of a four book series, "Winning Chess Tournaments for Juniors", "Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors" and "More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors" that maintains total consistency providing growth easily to an expert level of play. When you finish "Chess For Juniors" you will want to get the rest of the CHESS FOR JUNIORS SERIES!
My father's last gift
Rating:
5 / 5
My father bought this book for me just before he died from cancer. I was very upset and very depressed. But this book picked up my spirits because it was so fun to read and helped me become much better at playing chess. My father asked me to read it while he was verysick. I am now in the 6th grade and have played in a couple of chess tournaments after reading Chess for Juniors. I won a trophy in both of the tournaments. I am so glad my father bought me this book and gave me such a nice gift.
A WONDERFUL READ FOR ALL AGES!
Rating:
5 / 5
This book is not just for kids! My 9 year old daughter, husband and and I have all read every page in CHESS FOR JUNIORS and agree hands down to give it a five star rating when writting this review. In fact, I have purchased the two follow-up (intermediate level) books in the CHESS FOR JUNIORS SERIES and we have found them equally as good. I want to thank Mr. Snyder for using his wonderful teaching talent to put his teachings on paper for the entire world to enjoy and learn from.
I will now go down a list of the 10 most important reasons why our family is in love with CHESS FOR JUNIORS,
1. It is written in simple and easy to understand language for a 9-year-old to grasp, while still containing the instructional material at a level that an adult will want to learn from.
2. It is fun and entertaining. It maintains a high interest level for children by using humor. You will certainly not become bored reading this book!
3. It logically progresses through a step by step lesson format that has each lesson build on the foundation that was previously completed. There are 20 chapters.
4. The extensive index in the back makes it so you can look up terms and materials found throughout the book. If you forget something it is easy to locate it again.
5. The book covers all of the basic rules in extreme detail. This book especially does a good job of telling about rules that both children and adults have difficulty in understanding (such as "en passant" just to name one). More advanced rules, needed for tournament play are covered in "WINNING CHESS TOURNAMENTS FOR JUNIORS".
6. The book builds a basic opening system and tells you move by move the reasons behind the moves. However, the book first covers the ideas behind opening strategy before going off into the system itself. The "WINNING CHESS TOURNAMENTS FOR JUNIORS" book continues to expand on the opening system in the "Chess Charts" while the "UNBEATABLE CHESS LESSONS FOR JUNIORS" book covers gives more details on the opening system telling the ideas behind the moves.
7. The endgames are excellent. It covers the Rook Roller, Rook and Queen checkmates and then covers the most basic Pawn endgames. The "WINNING CHESS TOURNAMENTS FOR JUNIORS" book continues with endgames where this book ends.
8. Lots and Lots of important tactics, opening traps and common weaknesses in Pawns are covered. There are plenty of problems to work on and the most important things (i.e. pins, forks, discoved checks and attacks, X-Ray attacks and most common things such as how to defend against the scholar's mate, Petrof's trap, etc...) needed by entry level students. "WINNING CHESS TOURNAMENTS FOR JUNIORS expands on the tactics and checkmate problems beyond CHESS FOR JUNIORS.
9. Two complete games make up chapters 18 & 19. The analysis of every move makes it so you are not left with questions as to what is going on. And, if you want 24 more games just like them then you get, "UNBEATABLE CHESS LESSONS FOR JUNIORS" in this series!
10. The final chapter, "Continuing to Improve" gives very useful advice and contacts to get involved with organized chess. It also introduces "descriptive" chess notation should you want to read some of the older books.
If you know nothing about chess, or know just the most basic rules and strategy then you cannot go wrong with CHESS FOR JUNIORS!
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