“How to Beat Your Dad at Chess”

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Introduction to the Book Review

How can I objectively evaluate How to Beat Your Dad at Chess? I, Jonathan Whitcomb, have written a chess book with a similar cover: Beat That Kid in Chess. Both have cartoon characters on the cover and have the word “beat” in the title. But these books differ greatly on the inside: They’re for different readers. And that difference makes it possible for me to be objective in this brief review.

I wrote mine for the raw beginner who knows how to play chess but who always loses (or almost always) for lack of knowledge and skill in competing. How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (HBYDC), on the other hand, is much more useful for more advanced players, those who have had more experience than the low-level beginner.

Murray Chandler's book on chess

“Including the 50 Deadly Checkmates” – subtitle

Who Most Benefits From Chandler’s Chess Book?

Although Murray Chandler is a grandmaster, the book is not most useful to masters or even experts, at least when compared with how much the average tournament competitor and chess club player can benefit from it. Nevertheless, the range of skill of players who most need this chess book is huge: at least in the range of 700-1700 in USCF ratings (or equivalent strength in unrated persons). Those outside that range may benefit from a disciplined study and practice of what’s in this book but are not as likely to improve as much in their playing strength as those within that range.

Who should benefit the absolute most from How to Beat Your Dad at Chess? Not necessarily the player who competes against his or her father, in spite of the title. It may be the person who has played a few dozen games of chess and learned how to avoid throwing away material for free (most of the time) and learned how to take advantage of blunders made by opponents who throw away material. That’s the player who has learned much from experience but who has not yet studied checkmating tactics outside of that over-the-board experience. We should add that this player has also learned to attack his opponent’s king but has not always been successful in forcing checkmate.

What Does This Chess Book Contain?

It’s 125+ instructional pages contain 50 mini-chapters and a test section (with solutions to the chess puzzles). These are very important for tournament players to master, truly practical tactical motifs. To be completely accurate, let’s consider the fine print at the bottom of the Introduction in the book:

. . . there are 47 checkmating strategies. Number 11 shows how to save a difficult game with perpetual check, and Numbers 10 and 12 are themes to win material.

In other words, 94% of these patterns of tactics end in checkmate, the ultimate competitive goal of the game of chess.

What About Beginners?

This chess book, however, is far from ideal for most beginners. In particular, most raw beginners would improve much faster by the study of other publications on the royal game. For those who know the rules of play but little else about the game, I recommend my own book, Beat That Kid in Chess. It is precisely created for such players.

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Book How to Beat Your Dad at Chess

Comparing two chess books – a brief review of both

Two chess books reviewed

Beat That Kid in Chess (BTKC) is for the early beginner, who knows the rules of the game but little or nothing else, who would like to win but has little idea how. How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (HBYDC) is best for the more experienced player, who has won some games but wants to win more . . .

Best chess book for novice / beginners

Different kinds of chess books and their various purposes for the reader

Chess Tutor in Utah

For most students (children, teenagers, or adults), a lesson will be for one hour. With some younger children, however, it may be advisable to have a shorter lesson, suitable to the attention span of those youngsters. The tutor, Jonathan Whitcomb, is open to discussing it with a parent or guardian, when the student is very young.

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