Chess For Students

In my younger days I was a tournament player. As a parent of young children—ages 4 and 7 years old, I am having a wonderful time teaching and sharing the game with my kids—and I started a chess program at their school. Your books have been a wonderful resource for us. My older child has gone through your books and is playing at a fairly sophisticated level. My younger child is just starting on “Checkmate! Ideas For Students.” She is having fun with the problems. They present a good level for her.

I just bought additional copies of “Checkmate” and “Chess Tactics” to give to a friend of my children for a birthday present—a youngster who is just starting to play and has really taken to the game. Hopefully his family will enjoy your books and get as much out of them as we have. I just wanted to pass on a quick note to say thank you and well done!

Chess Tactics For Students was the first tactics book that my son used. I was a complete novice at the time so we both learned a ton from your book. He’s had a top 10 rating (for his class) each of the past two years in Washington state, so it must have helped! Thanks again.

We use Chess Tactics For Students as our official club book at my school, Greenbriar West Elementary School. In our second year of using the book, the school became the Virginia state champions for K–3 and K–5. It is a great book for kids.

I have been using your books in our elementary school chess club for several years. They are the only workbooks I’ve found that allow for different levels of students to progress at their own pace and are both challenging at those levels as well as being easy for the students to understand in terms of directions and goals. We have around 90 students in our chess club ranging from kindergarteners (who use the books with assistance), to fifth graders (many of whom who have been in the chess club since kindergarten).

I just received yesterday your fine book and I find it terrific. It is so clearly explained and thoroughly designed, that it is really a pleasure studying it. I bought it through a local store (Sandi Bookstore)! I am learning the game and I can hardly wait to point other people in the right direction from the very first steps. I bought the book thanks to the advise from Mr. Dan Heisman—he knows of what he advises!

Along with me, my two kids (7 & 11 years old ) are also learning the Royal Game, so having acquired Chess Tactics for Students is worth three times the price, which by itself is worth three times its price compared to other books!

I had been using other books on tactics but they have only minimal explanations to the tactics and none of them has the school-like, professional presentation CTFS has.

By all means, I recommend your book for the intended audience.

I THINK YOUR BOOKS ARE OUTSTANDING!!!

I’m not just saying that either, because I am very critical when it comes to education and kids, being an educator myself. I have to see the benefit of the book myself from a child’s perspective before I recommend it.

I went through your books, and immediately saw how I can implement them into my chess club program at my school. Each book is a different level, so I can hold different classes. I tried to write a similar beginner’s guide before, and didn’t do well. I used Pawn & Queen by USCF one year, and it did little for my program.

These 3 books (Chess Rules, Checkmate! and Chess Tactics) will be the premier focus whenever I travel to clubs, or people ask me how to get their kids started with chess (so many do!).

Thank you sincerely. You have given me the tools I was looking for to enhance chess in Chicago.

Just about any chess teacher will tell you that beginners (rating lower than 1600) need to learn three things: tactics, tactics, tactics! Positional knowledge, opening books, and endgame theory won’t help you much if you blunder into letting your opponent fork you or if you miss opportunities to do the same.

Having said that, Chess Tactics For Students is a great way to start to practice seeing tactical motifs (mostly forms of a double attack: pins, forks, skewers, and so on). It is divided into chapters with each chapter focused on a different kind of tactic. After a very brief explanation about what the tactic is, there are a number of exercises in which you have to find the tactic for yourself. There are also hints if you are stuck. I found it helpful to make a little cut-out from some paper to cover the hints and only show the board instead. It is too easy to inadvertently see the hints and ruin the challenge.

Chess Tactics For Students has some very useful advice about how to study: do the first few exercises of each chapter to get an overview of all the tactical motifs. This will help you start to use and see them in your games. Later, go back and do each chapter thoroughly. Also, chapters are arranged in order of importance; motifs that occur most frequently are handled first.

A Kid’s Review -

I really like the “large” (about 8" x 11") workbooks that I have gotten on basic tactics (Chess Tactics for Students). The print is big and easy to see with big diagrams. I don’t like books with tiny little print and diagrams so small you need a magnifying glass—should be included with the book! I don’t have a seeing problem, but I just like my tactics and trap workbooks in the large print format. Chess Tactics for Students was my starting tactics book. It is good for beginners. My only small gripe is I wish it had more puzzles to work on—but maybe that is a plus! This is a good book for a beginner after they learn how the pieces move.

I feel like a different player after reading Chess Tactics For Students. A much better player at that! Don’t let the title fool you; this book will benefit players of ALL ages including 30-yr old farts like myself.

Although Chess Tactics For Students was field-tested with elementary, middle school, and high school students, this book is not just for younger students. I’m an adult just beginning to study tactics and I found this workbook format engaging. There are two problems per page, and each problem has a couple of kinds of hints—a direction line and fill-in-the blank move listings that indicate checks and variants. You can cover up these hints if you want more of a challenge.

The sequencing of this book is well thought out. Each chapter focuses on a different kind of tactic (such as discovered check, double attacks, zugzwang, removing the defender, and so on), and the problems often are paired so that once you’ve solved one problem in 2 moves, the next one is a related problem in 3 moves that might have seemed unsolvable before. A final chapter combines all the tactics and asks students to figure out what approach is the best for a given position.

I took about a week to complete this book, but I enjoyed filling it in. The Answer Key included in the back of the book was easy to use, as it reproduces the move sequences in their entirety, rather than just providing the answers to the blanks.

After Chess Tactics For Students, I immediately played a game where I was able to move a knight into a royal fork that was simultaneously a discovered check. I don’t think I would have “seen” this possibility before reading this book. Worth the money for beginners of any age!

I won’t repeat what other reviewers have said, but merely add my advice: please don’t start by thinking you can read Chess Tactics For Students once and then move forward.

Let me ask you a question. What’s 4 times 8? What’s 6 times 7? Chances are you didn’t have to “think” about the answers. The numbers 32 and 42 just popped into your head. Right? That’s what Chess Tactics For Students should be to you.

To get the best value out of Chess Tactics For Students you need to MEMORIZE these positions until you are sick to death of looking at them. Although you may not encounter them at first: Trust me - these positions will occur in your games.

I suggest going through the book once in 10 days, then take 8 days, then 7, then 5, then 3, then 2 days and finally do all 400 exercises in 1 day! By that stage, completing the book in one sitting should take no more than two hours.

This will increase a beginner’s rating by 200 points MIMIMUM and cost no more than the price of the book and a month of 20 minute-a-day practice. Try it if you don’t believe me. Or forget my advice, and I hope to play you one day. Prepare yourself for a thrashing! ;)

A Kid’s Review -

Now I feel tactics are one of the most important things for new students to improve their game. Getting some tactics workbooks and opening chess traps books are a good way to accomplish improving over all tactics. Chess Tactics for Students book will still help you get started!

This is a good book for students.

A Kid’s Review -

Chess Tactics For Students provides some good exercises for kids to go over. It is well organized.

Beginner through 1600. Chess Tactics For Students is one of the BEST books for improving your tactical eye. I like the fact that the author reinforces important ideas by using related problems. The KEY is to ANALYSE your OWN GAMES. Finally, review these positions so that you know them like the back of your hand. Discipline yourself and good luck!

This is a very good introduction to chess tactics.