Chess For Children Activity Book E-Book

Sabrina Chevannes

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: None
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 118

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Chess is fun! This follow-up to the bestselling Batsford Book of Chess for Children is a lively collection of chess puzzles, games and activities, guaranteed to increase your child's enjoyment of the game while improving their skills and deepening their understanding. In conversational text aimed at children aged 7 and up, meet our two chess-obsessed heroes Jess and Jamie as they address the reader in a straightforward and relatable way, and are this time joined by their friends Harry and Marnie, who love chess just as much as they do! Explore fun problems and puzzles such as the Box 'Em In Challenge, easy chess variants such as Three Check Chess and Progressive Chess, a heap of guess-the-next-move quizzes, and revision pages to help remind children of the chess basics. This book works well as a companion to Chess for Children but also as a standalone activity book. Whether your child is just beginning to learn chess or already gripped by the game, Chess for Children Activity Book will help you encourage their interest and make learning chess a real pleasure.

Leseprobe

Ches

s

for Child

ren

Activity Bo

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Ches

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Children

Sabrina Chevannes

Activity Bo

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Conte

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First published in the United Kingdom in 2013

This reillustrated edition first published in the United Kingdom

in 2024 by

Batsford

43 Great Ormond Street

London

WC1N 3HZ

An imprint of B. T. Batsford Holdings Limited

Copyright © B.T. Batsford Ltd 2024

Text copyright © Sabrina Chevannes 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

copied, displayed, extracted, reproduced, utilized, stored

in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise including but

not limited to photocopying, recording or scanning without

the prior written permission of the publishers.

eISBN 9781837330119

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from

the British Library.

Introduction

........................................

6

Revision Time: The Pawn

..... ..............

8

Pawn Wars Strategy

......... .................

12

Revision Time: Rooks, Bishops and

Queens

....... ...................................

16

Cops and Robbers Strategy

........ ......

18

Revision Time: Knights

....................

20

Hungry Horse Strategy

............ .......

22

A Knight’s Tour

.................................

24

Chess Variants

..................................

26

Jesön Mor

.........................................

28

Revision Time: The King

......... .........

30

Mine Alert

...... ..................................

32

Introduction to Strategy

....... ...........

34

Strategize: Knights vs. Bishops

........

36

Revision Time: Chess Notation

...... .

40

Co-ordinate Bingo

............................

44

Revision Time: Check and

Checkmate

....... ............................

48

Checkmate Challenge

......................

50

Puzzle Time: Mate in One

......... ......

52

Three Check Chess

.........................

54

Thinking Ahead

................................

56

Puzzle Time: Mate in Two

......... .......

58

Progressive Chess

.............................

60

Revision Time: Scoring Points

.... .....

62

Chess Maths

.. ...................................

64

Good Capture/Bad Capture?

...........

66

Giveaway Chess

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68

Strategize: Opening Principles

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70

Puzzle Time: Yes, No or Maybe

.... ...

74

Revision Time: Pins, Forks and

Skewers

.........................................

76

SPAF

.................................................

80

Revision Time: More Tactics

............

82

Spot the Tactic

.................................

86

Spot the Threat, Stop the Threat

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Walking the Dog Challenge

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Shadow Mate Challenge

...... ............

92

Box ’em in Challenge

........................

94

Game Time: Guess the Move

....... ...

96

Bughouse

........ ................................

106

Goodbye

..........................................

109

Glossary

.......... .................................

110

Index

....... .........................................

114

Answers to Puzzles

...... ....................

116

6

Chess for Children Activity Book

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

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.

Chess for Children Activity Book

7

Jamie

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!

Jamie:

Great idea... let’s get to work!

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Chess for Children Activity Book

REVISION T

IME:

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.

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Chess for Children Activity Book

9

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! There are

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

.

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Chess for Children Activity Book

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.

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Chess for Children Activity Book

11

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!

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 instead

decided to push their 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 they 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!

If it is Black’s move in this position and

White has just pushed their pawn to e4,

then Black 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.

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Chess for Children Activity Book

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?

Pawn W

ars

Stra

tegy

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?

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Chess for Children Activity Book

13

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 I 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?

14

Chess for Children Activity Book

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.

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Chess for Children Activity Book

15

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:

Oooh this is going to be exciting now!

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Chess for Children Activity Book

REVISION T

IME:

Ro

oks, Bi

shops

and Que

ens

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 that 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.