How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (Chess for Kids)

My 5 year old grandson is learning how to play chess from his Dad. They read about chess moves and then use those moves while playing. He is not only playing chess,but also learning to read. A win win !

I am a US Chess expert who teaches as a volunteer for the Chicago Chess Center, and I often (sheepishly) give a copy of this book to my ADULT students after their first lesson. Why? Illustrations aside, it's a wonderful book for teaching the most common checkmating patterns. Recognizing these patterns is only a small part of the tactical competency that beginners need to acquire in order to become strong amateurs. But it's an essential component, the exercises are beautiful (not boring) and fun. Because checkmate is our goal, we can make forcing moves that would otherwise be ridiculous if they didn't achieve our goal. Hey, checkmate ends the game. Many experienced adult players at the Class D level (competent tournament players) will be able to solve 60% of the exercises on sight. But most of these players can progress to solving 95%+ on sight. That's meaningful progress! This is NOT AT ALL the best book for absolute beginners. Chess for Children (co-authored by Chandler & Helen Milligan) fits that bill, and Coakley's WInning Chess Strategy for Kids is a great second book. (The more absolute beginner books a beginner reads—or works through with a parent or coach—the better!) Most young players probably shouldn't read it until they've been playing for at least six months (your mileage may vary). But it is a great book for those who are ready for it. Tactics is of course much more than mating combinations, but there's a lot to learn about mating combinations themselves. Henkin's 1000 Checkmate Combinations and Reinfeld's 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate are both good follow-ups to Chandler.

I bought this book based on coach Andrea's recommendation. I'm an adult improver so I like books that make learning simple and easy to digest. My first impression of the book was very good. It is bound well and will open up and stay open on your table. The book is of good quality in that regard. The printing and diagrams are very clear and easy to look at and understand. It's a book about mating patterns and drives home the point how important it is to internalize the patterns and become aware of them in your games. I have the Chess King app which is excellent for learning patterns as well but there is something about a book that appeals to me. So I'm glad I have this to reference as well. There are some really good examples and explanations that are broken down into distinct steps. It's easy to understand without using a chess board to set up the positions. What I didn't like is finding an error in the notation. With chess books, math books, or anything that demands precision, you don't want errors in notation. This is just not acceptable and the reason why I knocked off a star from the rating. The good news is, the error is not so bad that the reader could see that it was a mistake and reason for themselves what the correct squares are supposed to be. For example on pg.15 move 2 references Qxg4! when it should have been Qxf4! Good grief. In spite of the error, I still would highly recommend getting this book and drilling your self on all of the patterns until they become second nature to recognize. You're going to have a lot more fun playing chess. My favorite mating pattern is one of the oldest but still is awesome when you get it, the Arabian mate with the rook and knight. One last thing. Makes sure you envision each of the patterns from both white and black perspective as the each of the patterns can work for both players. They mention this in the beginning of the book, but I believe this point to be important enough to repeat it here.

This is a review for "How to Beat your Dad at Chess" book. My husband and son love playing chess. They are both very competitive too. My husband has been studying and playing chess for over 10 years while our son just recently got into it. To help our son learn and understand the game, we bought this book for him. Our son says it has been really helpful. Prior to giving it to him, I looked through it. There is a lot of information for both the beginner and the more advanced player. This book will help any playe take their game to the next level.

This is a good book that also works as a checkmate patterns encyclopedia. A lot of adults have never learned some of the checkmates and sequences inside this book! To be honest, me and my sister have reviewed 1/4 of the book and there’s nothing so far that makes it seem like this book was written for children. Sure, they refer to a “dad” being your opponent, but they could have replaced all the times they said it with any other word: villain, enemy, rival, and suddenly it would have been a “chess book for adults” It’s a great book overall! This book is 100% tactical. Which is exciting for everyone to see, not just for kids. It will not teach you opening moves, or endgames. Which is not a problem since entire books are written for those topics too.

The mating patterns described in this book are very complex. It is not for children. Unless your child was named Bobby Fischer.

This was a gift and the young man loves it and is learning all kinds of strategies and putting up a good match for any challenger! He would recommend this book, and so do I.

This book is a gem I saw a master reading it and made a joke because of the book name then he showed me the book it has over 40 mating patterns some which I had never seen the book reminds me of the part of Vladimar Vukovic's Art of attack in chess mating patterns section but I gives the names and info such as ( Anastasia's mate, Philidor's Legacy, The Petrosian Draw). The is not a find the mate book or a white to move find the move book or a what would a play book it shows mating pattern and gives you help and tips on how to see these pattern easier. It is a book for 1100-1800 Rated players a easy read and many board pictures so can be read without a board! So in closing the book could easily sell for $20 plus if it didn't have a stupid name and even worst cover that most player won't take seriously just as I did but to my advantage because of this I got it for a $1 plus shipping! All serious players its a must have and like I said I found out about it from a Master over 2200

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The Best chess book, this is clear, and provides exercises and answers so you can really train to recognise a winning tactic. Every beginner should have this book.

I won't be using it but my son was very happy with it. Soon, my grandchildren will be beating me at chess

A quick read that introduces the most important motifs in chess tactics. Don't let the title deceive you: it can be read by any beginner, not only kids.

Perfect book! My son, 11, recently got into chess. He played his dad and was totally discouraged by losing. When I saw the title, it was a perfect fit. The book is full of clear directions and strategy. Along with images to help him understand. A great book for beginners, especially younger readers who appreciate the pictures to help them understand.