The Batsford Book of Chess for Children New Edition E-Book

Sabrina Chevannes

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 128

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

'A friendly and approachable book on a game which can often seem quite daunting ... An excellent book, highly recommended.' – Parents in Touch 'With Sabrina as writer, no basic points are omitted … This might make an excellent present.' – James Pratt, British Chess Magazine A brand new edition of this international chess classic, with all-new illustrations. Aimed at children aged 7 and up, this character-based book is a complete guide to chess for those starting out in the game. In straightforward, animated language, Jess and Jamie – two rough-and-tumble kids who are obsessed with chess – explain everything you need to know, from first sitting down at the board to sneaky tricks to help you beat your opponents. The book explains who the pieces are and how they move (and that we're talking about pawns, not prawns), how to reach checkmate (or, in Jess's words, 'how to kill the king'), and the concept of the opening, middlegame and endgame. It also introduces the idea of chess etiquette – and explains why sometimes no one wins and a game ends in stalemate. Friendlier and funnier than the average children's chess book, The Batsford Book of Chess for Children is an essential addition to any child's bookshelf. Chess is experiencing a new wave of popularity in schools, and it's educational too. Organisations like Chess in Schools are promoting it as the perfect way to develop analytical thinking skills, increase resilience, foster the competitive instinct – and provide a lot of fun along the way.

Leseprobe

Ches

s

for Child

ren

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Ches

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for

Children

Sabrina Chevannes

Contents

First published in the United Kingdom in 2013

This reillustrated edition first published in the United Kingdom

in 2022 by

B. T. Batsford Ltd

43 Great Ormond Street

London

WC1N 3HZ

An imprint of B. T. Batsford Holdings Limited

Copyright © B.T. Batsford Ltd 2022

Text copyright © Sabrina Chevannes 2022

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.

ISBN 978 1 84994 820 3

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from

the British Library.

Digital Editor: Renata Jukic

Illustrations by Naomi Wilkinson

Introduction

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

6

The Battlefield

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

10

The Pawn

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

14

Pawn Wars

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

17

The Rook

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

18

Rampant Rooks

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

20

The Bishop

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

22

Busy Bishops

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

25

The Queen

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

26

Quirky Queens

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

28

The Knight

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

30

Hungry Horses

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

34

The King

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

36

Mine Alert

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

39

Trying to Kill the King

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

40

Getting Your King Safe

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

44

Setting Up the Board Correctly

......

46

Why We Should Castle

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

50

When You Can or Can’t

Castle

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

52

Pawn Magic

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

54

Scoring Points

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

60

Playtime!

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

62

Chess Etiquette

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

64

Ways to Draw

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

66

Chess Tournaments

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

72

Tournament Play

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

73

Chess Language

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

76

Getting Off to a Good Start

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

78

Chess Maths

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

81

The Classic Trick

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

82

The Fork

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

88

The Pin

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

90

The Skewer

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

92

The Discovered Attack

or Check

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

94

Removing the Defender

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

96

Walking the Dog

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

98

The Kiss of Death

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

104

Box them In

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

108

Puzzle Section 1

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

110

Puzzle Section 2

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

114

Master Game

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

118

Notation Sheet

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

124

Glossary

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

125

Index

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

128

6 Introduction

Introduction

And we’re going to teach

you everything we know

about chess!

Hi, my name

is Jess!

Hi, my name

is Jamie!

Introduction 7

Jamie:

Chess is our favourite game in the

world, and we want everyone to learn how

to play so they can play with us. So, in this

book, we’ll tell you everything we know

about chess and, by the time you finish

reading, you will be as good at it as us!

Jess:

I love chess because it’s a game that lots

of really clever people play. So everyone says

I’m really clever because I’m good at chess.

Jamie:

I love chess because I like fighting

games. I know it’s not nice to fight with

other people, so I fight over the chessboard!

Jess:

Chess helps me

to calculate and think

properly, so it also helps me

with my schoolwork! My memory has got

much better since playing chess, and I can

work out problems in a much better way

now, too!

Jamie:

I just like to win! Winning makes

me feel good. Since chess is a battle of the

minds, if I beat someone at chess, it makes

me feel like I’m cleverer than them, and

that’s a good feeling!

8 Introduction

Jamie:

Oh, I keep forgetting that!

Shhhhhhhh!

Jess:

Chess has been around for hundreds

and hundreds of years and still has never

been mastered. This is one of the things

that makes the game so fantastic!

Jamie:

Chess originated in India before

500

AD

, then the Persians heard about it

and started playing it, too. Chess didn’t

make its way over to Europe until about the

12th century, and then we started playing

competitive chess only in the 1800s.

Jess:

Chess is a battle game between

two armies – the white and black

armies. They have to fight against each

other in order to trap the other army’s

king and take over their kingdom.

Jamie:

Yeah, and the person who does

this first gets to shout ‘CHECKMATE’

and they win the game!

Jess:

But we don’t shout, though, Jamie,

remember? Chess is supposed to be a

quiet game.

Introduction 9

Wow! You know

a lot about the

history of chess,

Jamie!

Well, it is my

favourite game!

Let’s learn

more about the

battlefield.

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The Battlefield 11

Jamie:

Yeah, they are called rows.

Jess:

No they are not. You can

call

them rows,

but in chess, we use special names for them.

The ones that go up and down the board are

called

files

and are named after letters.

Jamie:

I’ve heard that word before. When the

teachers tell us to line up outside, they ask

us to stand in single file!

Jess:

Yes, exactly. You see the one

highlighted here? This one is called the

e-file, because it is all the squares above the

letter e on the chessboard.

Jamie:

Ah yes, because we have letters and

numbers on the sides of our chessboards to

help us name the squares.

Jess:

We’ll get to that in a minute, Jamie,

but do you know what the rows across the

chessboard are called?

Jamie:

No! I thought they were just called

rows.

Jess:

No, they are called

ranks

and they are

named after numbers.

Jamie:

So the rank in the diagram is called

the 4th rank, because the squares that

are highlighted are all on the row with the

number 4 by it.

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12 The Battlefield

Jess:

Exactly – nice and easy! There’s

another line on the chessboard we often

describe. This one goes at an angle and

is called a

diagonal

.

Jamie:

They are the names of

the squares! Each square has

its own name, represented by

one letter and one number,

which are called the co-

ordinates. In this diagram,

to work out which square is

highlighted, first I’d look at

the bottom of the board to

see which letter the square is

above. Then I’d follow the row

to the side of the board

to see which number row

it is, and would discover that

the co-ordinate of the square

is e4.

Jamie:

And we call this diagonal

the a1–h8 diagonal because

of the squares that it passes

through.

Jess:

What do you mean a1–h8?

Why this?

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The Battlefield 13

Jess:

Ah yes, I remember now! They’re like

the postcodes of each of the squares. I think

of the squares as little homes for the pieces,

and that their co-ordinate is their address.

Jamie:

Whatever works for you, Jess!

Just remember that it’s important to be

able to understand chess co-ordinates,

because this is how all games are recorded

and how chess professionals talk to each

other. So you must be able to master chess

co-ordinates if you want to understand what

these people mean!

Jess:

All of this terminology – rank, file,

diagonal, the co-ordinates, is

chess

language

. We’ll use these terms throughout

the book.

Jamie:

What about how

we set up the board?

I want to know how to

do that before we start.

Jess:

Well, we’ll come to

that later. We don’t know

what all the pieces are yet!

Jamie:

OK, but I’m going to

include a diagram of what

the starting position looks

like, just in case we need it.

14 The Pawn

The Pawn

How much do

you know about how

the pawns move,

Jamie?

Everything!

Go on then,

tell us what you

know!

OK!

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The Pawn 15

Jamie:

The pawn is the smallest soldier in our

chess army. He doesn’t get to move very

far, and can only go forward. He usually

only moves one square at a time, but on his

very first move, he can choose to move two

squares if he wants to. Once he has moved, he

can definitely only go one square at a time

after that. Look:

You see that the white pawn hasn’t moved

yet, because he’s on his starting position.

Well, he can choose to move either one

square or two squares – to either d3 or d4.

But the black pawn has already moved, so

he doesn’t have a choice and can only move

forward by one square.

Jess:

Why is the black pawn going

backward? I thought you said they

can only go forward?!

Jamie:

It IS going forward! Remember, the

two armies play toward each other, so the

black army will be going forward toward the

1st rank, and the white army will be going

forward toward the 8th rank.

Jess:

Oh, OK, I get it now! However, I think

you’ve forgotten something, Jamie…

Jamie:

No I haven’t! That’s

everything

about how the pawns move.

Jess:

No it’s not – I know something else:

Even though the pawns are very small, they

are quite complicated because they move

differently from the way they capture. If they

want to capture another piece, they have to do

so

diagonally

, and only one square diagonally.

Jamie:

What are you talking about, Jess?!

Jess:

Look:

Imagine this situation – the white

pawn is right next to three black

pawns that are all right in front of

it. Which one can it take?

16 The Pawn

Jamie:

The one on d5, of course – because

it can only move forward.

Jess:

Wrong! The pawn captures differently

from the way it moves, remember! The

pawn can capture any opposing pawn that

is diagonally one square away from him.

So he can choose to take either the pawn

on c5 or e5, but

not

the one on d5!

Jamie:

Wow, pawns

are

complicated! Thanks

Jess. Now I really do know everything about

how the pawn moves.

Jess:

Not quite, Jamie. There’s more, but I’ll

talk about that later in the book. For now, I’ll

just remind you that we attach a points value

to the pieces – and pawns are considered

to be worth the least out of all of the army,

since they are the smallest.

Jamie:

How many points are

the pawns worth then, Jess?

Jess:

Only one point. They

can only go forward, never

backward, and they can only

move a limited number

of squares.

Jamie:

Wow, that’s

harsh! But we have eight pawns

at the beginning of the game.

Now that’s a lot of pawns!

Jess:

Exactly! There’s strength in numbers.

So the whole army of pawns is worth eight

points, but alone they are only worth one.

Pawns, not

Prawns!

Remember – these little soldiers are great

warriors that will be loyal to your army and

protect their fellow men whenever they

can. They are NOT little crustaceans that

spice up your soup or salad. I do NOT want

to see you eating the pawns!

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Pawn Wars 17

Jamie:

There’s a really

cool game that I like

to play with the pawns

called

Pawn Wars

.

Jess:

That sounds cool!

How do you play?

Jamie:

First of all, you set up all

the pawns on the correct squares, where

they start at the beginning of the game.

The white pawns must all line up on the

2nd rank

and the black pawns must all line

up on the

7th rank

.

Pawn

Wars

The rules of the game are then quite easy.

White goes first, since White always moves

first in a game of chess. You can win in three

different ways:

1.

Get a pawn to the end of the board

before your opponent.

2.

Capture all of your opponent’s pawns.

3.

Make your opponent run out of moves.

The third way is the hardest because if you

try to stop your opponent from moving, you

may block your own pawns, so be careful!

Jess:

That sounds like a great way to

practise our pawn moves. Let’s have a

game now!

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18 The Rook

The Ro

ok

Jamie:

I want to learn about a faster piece now.

The pawns were too slow for me.

Luckily we have eight of them to play with!

Jess:

Well, the rook is a much faster piece than

the pawn. He can move as many squares as he

likes, as long as nothing is in his way.

Jamie:

Wow, that sounds much better!

Can he move in any direction he likes?

Jess:

No, he must move in straight lines only.

He can go forward, backward and sideways –

not diagonally.

Jamie:

He makes a sort of a ‘plus’

sign with his moves, like in maths.

Jess:

Yes, but he can’t change direction

when he moves – he must choose which

direction he is to go in. He can go forward

or backward or left or right, not a mixture.

Jamie:

Does he capture differently from

the way he moves, like the pawns do?

Jess:

No, it’s only the pawns that do that.

The rest of the pieces capture the same

way as they move.

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The Rook 19

Jess:

Yes, but I think in most European

countries, the rook represents a tower,

which is why our piece looks the way it does.

Jamie:

And why some people call it a castle!

Jess:

Exactly! We must remember not to call

it a castle, though, and use its real name –

rook. Even though it does look a bit like

a castle!

Jamie:

Phew! That makes it a lot

easier to learn then.

Jess:

Yes, if the rook lands on a piece

of the opposing team, then it can

capture it, but it can’t keep moving

past that piece.

So, in this position, if the rook was

to capture the pawn, it would land