Batsford Book of Chess for Children Activity Book E-Book

Sabrina Chevannes

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: Batsford Book of
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 100

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

A follow up to Chess for Children, this is a very imaginative way of building up your children's knowledge and interest in chess through a series of fun chess games and activities. The same two cheeky children, Jess and Jamie, talk though the games in language that kids would relate to – and this time they are joined by their friends Harry and Marnie so that group chess games can be explored. The book includes puzzles and games, some easy 'variants' of chess, and a guess-the-next move section, along with 'revision' pages to help remind children of the chess basics. All are accompanied by easy-to-read chess boards and fun illustrations. Chess in schools and clubs is growing all the time and our author is a leading light in kids chess, teaching at many London schools, including Dulwich College. The book works well as a companion to the earlier book, Chess for Children, but also as a standalone activity book. Whether your child is just beginning to learn chess or already immersed in the subject, this book will help encourage their interest and love of the subject. A great book for both parents and teachers.   Suitable for children aged 7 and up.

Leseprobe

Contents

Introduction

REVISION TIME: The Pawn

Pawn Wars Strategy

REVISION TIME: Rooks, Bishops and Queens

Cops and Robbers Strategy

REVISION TIME: Knights

Hungry Horse Strategy

A Knight’s Tour

Chess Variants

Jesön Mor

REVISION TIME: The King

Mine Alert

Introduction to Strategy

STRATEGIZE: Knights vs. Bishops

REVISION TIME: Chess Notation

Co-ordinate Bingo

REVISION TIME: Check and Checkmate

Checkmate Challenge

PUZZLE TIME: Mate in One

Three Check Chess

Thinking Ahead

PUZZLE TIME: Mate in Two

Progressive Chess

REVISION TIME: Scoring Points

Chess Maths

Good Capture/Bad Capture?

Giveaway Chess

STRATEGIZE: Opening Principles

PUZZLE TIME: Yes, No or Maybe

REVISION TIME: Pins, Forks and Skewers

SPAF

REVISION TIME: More Tactics

Spot the Tactic

Spot the Threat, Stop the Threat

Walk the Dog Challenge

Shadow Mate Challenge

Box ’em in Challenge

GAME TIME: Guess the Move

Bughouse

Goodbye

Glossary

Index

Answers to Puzzles

Introduction

Jess: Hey Jamie!

Jamie: Hey Jess! It’s been a while!

Jess: I know! I haven’t seen you since we worked on our first book. How have you been?

Jamie: Great, thanks! I have been practising lots of chess and I think that I am even better at it now!

Jess: Yeah, me too. I really think that practice does make perfect.

Jamie: Especially with chess – there is a lot of pattern recognition involved.

Jess: Well, this is why I called you, Jamie. I would like to do some more chess training together in the form of fun puzzles.

Jamie: Oooh, that sounds like a great idea! I know so many fun games to help us get better at chess.

Jess: I know quite a few too, and I thought I’d invite our friends Marnie and Harry along too so we could all have fun playing together. Let’s put our ideas together and make a Chess Activity Book for everyone to join in and have fun with us together!

Jamie: Great idea... let’s get to work!

REVISION TIME:

The Pawn

Jamie: Since it has been a long time, I think we need to do a little bit of revision on everything we learned in our first book.

Jess: Well, I have been practicing a lot, so I think I remember everything but it can’t hurt to look over things again.

Jamie: Let’s start with the pawn!

Jess: Ah yes, these little guys are deceivingly complicated. Even though they are small, they do so many confusing things!

Jamie: Yes, they are the only pieces that move differently from the way they capture.

Jess: They move forwards, but capture diagonally, right?

Jamie: Yes, they only ever move one square forwards unless they are on their starting square, when they have the option of moving two squares forwards if they want to.

You see, the pawns highlighted in green can still move two squares as they have not yet been moved. The ones in red cannot move at all as they are blocked. The others can all move, but they can only move one square as they have already been moved.

Jess: I always move mine two squares if I am allowed to. Why would you only move one square?! Surely you want to advance as much as possible?

Jamie: Not necessarily… what if someone can capture you if you move two squares?

Jess: Oh yeah, that’s true. So that is why we get the option of moving one or two – it depends which is safer!

Jamie: Well, they may both be safe, but it means we have extra choices. I suppose it is to compensate for the fact that the pawn cannot move backwards.

Jess: Oh yeah, that is really annoying. I always have to think very carefully before I move a pawn, because I can’t move it back if it is a mistake.

Jamie: Exactly!

Jess: Then I have to take care when the pawns are diagonally next to each other, because they can take each other. It’s confusing as I just got used to them moving forwards.

Jamie: And with so many of them on the board, there are probably captures everywhere!

Look at all the captures that White can make in this position! He has seven different captures to choose from!

Jess: Yes, but if White can capture Black, then Black can capture White too! This position is crazy!

Jamie: Good point!

Jess: Don’t you remember we talked about Pawn Magic in our first book too? The pawn did some really cool extra stuff.

Jamie: Yeah, there were two extra special moves that the pawn made – Promotion and En Passant.

Jess: The promotion one was easy: if a pawn got to the end of the board, it could turn into a piece of its choice.

Jamie: That’s right. Well, anything except a king!

Jess: Or another pawn!

Jamie: Yeah, that would be silly if it just stayed as itself and couldn’t move anywhere considering it can’t move backwards!

Jess: What a waste of a promotion that would be!

Jamie: I would always choose a queen because it is the most valuable.

Jess: Me too… I love the queen!

Jamie: What about en passant though, Jess? Do you not remember that one?

Jess: I do, but sometimes I get confused. I swear I have played people and they have just cheated and said it’s en passant! So I am not sure what is right anymore!

Jamie: Oh, Jess! You can’t let people do that to you! You were the one who taught me last time and now you have gotten all confused yourself.

Jess: I know.

Jamie: It’s OK – I will explain it again. There are three main rules you need to remember about en passant:

1. Your pawn must be on its 5th rank, which is just past the halfway mark.

2. The pawn that you are to capture must be on the file next to that of your pawn and move from its starting square two squares, so that it sits next to your pawn.

3. You could then capture the pawn as if it only moved one square.

Jess: I thought that is what you do, but it is still confusing!

Jamie: Look!

If it is Black’s move in this position and White has just pushed his pawn to e4, then he can actually capture it!

Jess: Oh yes, because the black pawn on d4 is on its 5th rank and the white pawn is on the adjacent file having just moved two squares next to it.

Jamie: What if it only moved one square?

Jess: Then it wouldn’t be allowed to take it en passant, it would just capture it normally.

Jamie: Very good. The black pawn would end up on e3 and the white pawn would disappear from the board.

Jess: Here’s a question for you Jamie – if Black decided not to do that and he decided to push his pawn to b5, what do you think White would do?

Jamie: I know what you want me to say! White can take the black pawn by en passant if that happens! However, White doesn’t actually need to do that because he can just push the pawn to a6 and still win!

Jess: OK smarty pants, but en passant is still possible there.

Jamie: Indeed it is. En passant is not compulsory but in this case, it is definitely worth Black taking the e4 pawn!

Jess: I think I need to put these things into practice!

Jamie: Game of Pawn Wars?

Jess: Bring it on!

Pawn Wars Strategy

Jamie: We have played so many games of Pawn Wars and we beat each other all the time, but do you really know what you are doing?

Jess: Well, I do have a plan most of the time and I’ve developed a few cool ideas.

Jamie: Me too! Want to share?

Jess: Hmmm, I’m not sure, because then you may beat me!

Jamie: Just because I know some of your plans, doesn’t mean that I can stop them all!

Jess: That’s true. Plus, I’m going to keep a few of them a secret anyway.

Jamie: Fair enough. So what tricks have you got?

Jess: OK so we only have pawns, right? Since they don’t move backwards, I want to gain as much space as I can with them so generally I move them two squares forwards at a time whenever I can.

Jamie: But which pawns?

Jess: Well, I start with the centre pawns because controlling the centre of the board is a good idea.

Jamie: I do that too, but I don’t move the pawns two squares all the time. Sometimes it is unsafe, so I prepare a double push by pushing the pawn next to it one square.

Jess: What do you mean?

Jamie: Look:

I want to push my pawn to f4, but if do, the black pawn on e5 will just capture it for free, which is not good! So, if I push my pawn to g3 first, I can then push my pawn to f4 on the next go.

Jess: Oh yeah because then if I take you, you take me back and you have two pawns controlling central squares.

Jamie: Exactly! Good huh?

Jess: Well… if that’s what your plan is, I’m going to put my pawn on g5 and stop you!

Jamie: Grrr! That’s why I shouldn’t tell you my plans!

Jess: So that is what I am going to do whenever we play now; not just think about my plans, but work out what you are going to do and stop them.

Jamie: Well, yes. That’s a good idea in general, not just in Pawn Wars!

Jess: What about sacrifices though Jamie? I make quite a lot of those in this game.

Jamie: What were they again?

Jess: When you give up a piece in order to get something better back. So, in Pawn Wars, I would often sacrifice a pawn in order to sneak one of mine past to get to the end.

Here I would push my pawn to g6, as no matter which black pawn took it, it would create a path for one of mine to go through. If the h-pawn took it, I could play h6 and that would have a clear path to the end. If the f-pawn took it, then my e-pawn would have a clear path to the end. If neither pawn takes it, I can keep pushing the g-pawn!

Jamie: Oh that’s so sneaky! I will definitely be watching out now in case you offer me any ‘free gifts’.

Jess: It might be too late by the time you realize, so you’re going to have to try and get one step ahead of me.

Jamie: Ooooo this is going to be exciting now!

REVISION TIME:

Rooks, Bishops and Queens

Jess: Those games were intense! My head feels like it’s going to explode!

Jamie: Yeah, I think we overdid it a little bit. Let’s do something a bit more relaxing.

Jess: We should revise the line pieces.

Jamie: The line pieces?

Jess: Yeah, the ones which move in straight lines – the bishops, rooks and queen.

Jamie: Oooh, the line pieces. I suppose that does make sense!

Jess: They are nice and easy to remember. The bishop only moves diagonally, the rook goes forwards, backwards and sideways, then the queen does all of those things!

Jamie: Yeah, they are nice and simple. It is no wonder we have two of each of them!

Jess: We only have one queen!

Jamie: Unless we get a pawn to the end of the board.

Jess: Good point smarty pants!

Jamie: At least they can travel a lot faster than the pawns!

Jess: Which is why they are more fun.

Jamie: Let’s get some games of Cops and Robbers going so we can practise!

Jess: Definitely.

Cops and Robbers Strategy

Jess: