The Batsford Book of Chess for Children E-Book

Sabrina Chevannes

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 109

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

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, foster the competitive instinct – and provide a lot of fun along the way. This cute, character-based book, aimed at children aged 7 and up, 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 more fun than the average children's chess book, The Batsford Book of Chess for Children should become an essential addition to any child's bookshelf.

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Chess

for

Children

About the Author

Sabrina Chevannes is an outstanding young chess player and teacher. She started playing chess at 8 years old and has won 10 British chess titles. She teaches chess in many schools in the London area, has coached the England junior chess team, and organises chess tournaments such as the National Girls’ Chess Championships, the English Women’s Rapidplay and the Richmond Rapidplay.

Chess

for

Children

Sabrina Chevannes

Contents

Introduction

The Battlefield

The Pawn

Pawn Wars

The Rook

Rampant Rooks

The Bishop

Busy Bishops

The Queen

Quirky Queens

The Knight

Hungry Horses

The King

Mine Alert

Trying to Kill the King

Getting Your King Safe

Setting Up the Board Correctly

Why We Should Castle

When You Can or Can’t Castle

Pawn Magic

Scoring Points

Playtime!

Chess Etiquette

Ways to Draw

Chess Tournaments

Tournament Play

Chess Language

Getting Off to a Good Start

Chess Maths

The Classic Trick

The Fork

The Pin

The Skewer

The Discovered Attack or Check

Removing the Defender

Walking the Dog

The Kiss of Death

Box them In

Puzzle Section 1

Puzzle Section 2

Master Game

Notation Sheet

Glossary

Index

Introduction

And we’re going to teach you everything we know about chess!

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!

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.

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 500AD, 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.

The Pawn

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?

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!

Pawn Wars

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.

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!

The Rook

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.

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 on g4, but couldn’t then move to h4 in the same go. He would have to stay on g4, but does get to remove the black pawn from the board.

Jamie: I like the rook. Did you know that, in many countries, the rook represents a chariot? Even in Chinese chess, there’s a piece that moves in a similar way to a rook, and it’s called a chariot!

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: