Charles Hertan - Power Chess for Kids: Learn How to Think Ahead and Become One of the Best Players in Your School

Power Chess for KidsCharles HertanPower Chess for Kids Learn How to Think Ahead and Become
One of the Best Players in Your School New In Chess 2011 2011 New In Chess Published by New In Chess, Alkmaar, The Netherlands www.newinchess.com This eBook edition was published in 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher. Photos: New In Chess Archives, Photo of the author (page 155): Jerry Rubin Cover design: Volken Beck Artwork: Zander Dekker Supervisor: Peter Boel Proofreading: Ren Olthof Production: Anton Schermer ISBN: 978-90-5691-444-8 Meet the Main Characters Four fun characters in this book will help you learn power moves and think ahead like a pro: Zort from Zugzwang Zort is a teenaged computer from the planet Zugzwang. His favorite hobbies are chess, facebook and googling. Zort thinks his planet is boring, because only computers live there, they all look kind of alike, and they arent much fun. Zort was googling images of kids playing on planet Earth, and fell in love with these exotic creatures.

When he found out I was writing a kids book, he wanted to help. As luck would have it, there was one way he could help a lot. Thinking two moves ahead is hard for us humans, so I thought it was unfair that many kids books expect you to play through 5-move long variations! Hard for us, but easy for computers, who have a big advantage: a perfect picture of the board in their minds, after every move! Zort had a great idea: when a variation in the book is longer than two or three moves, he will use his computer board sight to show you the key positions. The Dinosaurs The Dinosaurs is a nickname for players in the first great chess tournaments, from the 1850s to the 1890s. Why do I call them that? Well, besides being old, they played like dinosaurs: awkward and crude, but also deadly! They didnt like draws, so they went for the kill every game, even in bad positions. This made for exciting chess, full of tactics and great power moves.

At first I worried some kids might find these old games boring, but Zort reminded me that most kids love dinosaurs. Plus, think how cool it is that you can look in a book or database and find games that were played 150 years ago! Wouldnt it be awesome if one of your games was in a book in the year 2159? If you study and practice hard enough, it really might be! Power Chess Kids Lots of kids chess books dont answer the questions kids really want to know! So you, the chess kids of the world, have a voice in this book to make comments and ask typical questions that kids of different ages ask when I teach these power moves. The Chess Professor The chess professor will help answer kids questions and give you important winning tips. Algebraic Notation The files are labeled a-h, and the ranks are labeled 1-8. So each square has its own name. The pieces are described as follows (pawns do not get a symbol, so if you see 1.e4 that means Whites first move was pawn e2 to e4):

Knight	= (N)
Bishop	= (B)
Rook	= (R)
Queen	= (Q)
King	= (K)

We also use the following symbols:

Check	= +
Checkmate	= #
Capture	= x
Castles kingside	= 0-0 queenside = 0-0-0
Good move	= !
Bad move	= ?

While many kids books use simplified diagrams, this book has the same diagrams used in adult chess books, which shows some additional information which is fun to know! The square next to each diagram indicates which colour is to move.

Above each diagram youll see a label like this: Del Pozo-Jauregui, Lima 1959 The first word (Del Pozo) is the last name of the player of the white pieces. Jauregui played black. This way you get to know the names of many famous players. They are followed by the city or country, and the year, in which the game was played. At the end of the game, the symbol 0-1 means Black won the game (or had a winning advantage), 1-0 means White won, and - means a draw. Introduction Three Skills You Need to Be One of the Best Players in Your School What are the first three things you should study to become a tiger at chess? The list might surprise you: 1.

Know the basic checkmates. 2. Learn the key master tactics for checkmate and winning material. 3. Work on thinking one and a half moves ahead. In this book we will work mostly on numbers two and three, but you will improve your skills on #1 too.

Why doesnt this book focus more on basic checkmates? Well, there are lots of good kids books on checkmate, but not many that teach all the power move tactics that help you think ahead and win games. Heres another secret: Learning master tactics is the best way to sharpen all three basic skills. How can learning tactics help me think ahead? Good question! Master tactics help you think ahead in two ways. You learn to recognize patterns that help you find winning moves quickly. Then you start calculating to see how you can make these patterns work in your games. White can win this position, but only if he knows master tactics and sees 1.5 power moves ahead! (one move in chess means your move, plus your opponents reply.

Your move only is called a half move). Most kids in your school wouldnt know what to do in the diagram. If theyve studied pins, they might look at 1.Ne7+ or 1.Nb4, to attack the pinned black knight. But 1.Ne7+?? loses to 1Nxe7 protecting the queen, and if 2.Qxe7 Qc1+ mates on the back rank. 1.Nb4 is a little better, but Black can escape the pin with, for example, 1Qe8!, threatening the same mate. After reading this book, you will be able to find the winning move in about five seconds:

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