How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (Gambit Chess) by Murray Chandler
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Book Reviews of How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (Gambit Chess)
Book Review: Genuinely helpful book...a pleasant surprise!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book teaches all the important attacking patterns that arise near the enemy king, usually after it has castled. Because it is possible to win with sacrifices from lots of these positions it almost seems like a traps book, but that is misleading. It is actually a book about "motifs", tactical patterns that occur again and again, IF you know how to spot them.
One of the great strengths of this book is the careful selection of positions - each very slightly different than the previous one. You learn that very slight changes can decide whether an attack will succeed and fail, and that both "intuition" and precise caculation are critically important.
With intuition - really knowledge of similar positions - the book explains that you get to know when a brilliant combination MIGHT be possible. The next step is then to spend time calculating the tactics to see if it does.
My local club does introductory sessions on Thursday evenings, and the two standard books they use for lessons on tactics are this one, and CHESS TACTICS FOR KIDS.
Near the end of this Dad book, there is a test section with the heading "what to do if you Dad is Gary Kasparov" which contains 6 pages of puzzles (36 diagram positions). These are useful to test if you can identify the different patterns from the book.
I can see this has become rather a long review, but I am smitten with book. HOW TO BEAT YOUR DAD AT CHESS is a real surprise between the covers.
I'm so glad I discovered this book.. it is so easy to read you don't even realise how much you are learning!
Book Review: Amazing book for wannabe attacking players
Summary: 5 Stars
Before reading this book, I played chess like a scared chipmunk, obsessing about little details like whether pushing this pawn would weaken my position by a picounit. This book helped me see that the way to win games at the amateur level is to attack, to be aggressive, to go after the enemy king like he is your nemesis, to crank open his position like a sardine can and commit regicide.
The book's title is somewhat misleading in that the book is very narrow in scope (a full book on how to beat dad would have to include discussion of openings, endgames, and more general chess strategy and tactics). Rather, it contains fifty practical checkmating patterns that frequently come up in real games. If the basic mating patterns (e.g., how to mate with a King and Queen versus a lone King) are the alphabet of checkmate, this book is the grammer of checkmate. The patterns consist of beautiful 3-5 move combinations that you will have opportunities to apply in many of your games.
If you are looking for a beginner chess book, get the Idiot's Guide to Chess. That is the best place to start from square one. Then learn some very basic tactics (e.g., Pandolfini's Beginning Chess). Then get and read this book. Over and over. With these patterns ingrained in your mind, you will spot them in the far distance during games, aim for them, and go in for the kill. Sure, sometimes you will crash and burn, but that will only make you more prepared for the next game.
Thanks to Chandler for writing this book. It has made chess fun for me again.
Book Review: Really nice format - don't judge book by the cover
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw this book at a display by a chess book vendor at a large chess tournament that was being held in Denver last year. I am an adult active tournament player, currently with a 1570 USCF rating. A friend was walking out and said he had bought a book. As a joke I said "How to beat you dad at chess"? and everyone laughed, since my friend was also an experienced player.A few months later one of the people who was with me when I made that joke told me he had looked at the book at a store, and was really impressed, and bought it. He said that I would really like it. I had a gift certificate to amazon.com, so I decided to buy it also.
It turns out that my joke was not really as funny as I thought it was! This book is not really for people who want to learn how the pieces move. It is a collection of mating patterns.
While most of the material was not new to me, I really liked how the book was laid out. You can read it in little chunks, which is really nice. Each mating pattern is about 2 pages, so it is easily digestable. You can also read it without a board setup, which is really nice too, when you are on a plane, or just want to lay on the couch.
I would recommend this to players from about 1000-1500 USCF strenght, or those that want to brush up on their mating patterns. Again, not for people just learning the game. It might look a little embarrassing if you are an adult, and leave it out on the coffee table, but just remember to "not judge the book by its cover". I am glad I didn't!
Book Review: Perfect book to teach checkmate tactics
Summary: 5 Stars
This book teaches mating tactics in so many ways!
* 50 patterns, 2 pages each
* For each pattern, a brief description of the elements which must be present. (This is similar to more advanced checkmate books, but at a very simple level.)
* Then, a couple of diagrams with arrows, showing the motion of the key pieces, with the moves written below. Very good for improving visualization, so you might spot the pattern later.
* Then another similar pattern, with 2 diagrams.
* Then a couple of positions for you to work out yourself, with solutions directly underneath.
* And finally, near the back of the book, a set of a few dozen positions. They include theme numbers for you to use as hints if necessary. Solutions are separate. This reinforces the learning.
These are all attacks on the castled king, not How To Take Advantage of Opening Blunders, or How To Solve Unlikely Chess Positions. These positions can actually occur in your games, even Fischerandom. The attacks are simple, but not obvious. Some are even by the Black pieces!
Nice hardcover for a thin book. Large diagrams. Feels great in your hands. Very well-designed.
Do one theme (two pages) per day. In two months you'll have actually finished an entire chessbook, and you'll miss it! You will find yourself improving your own defenses because you'll know what to look out for. One of the few chess books you'll actually read cover to cover, and it's cheap for a hardcover.
Book Review: Purchased for my son but read it myself - great tactics book!
Summary: 5 Stars
I came across this super book on checkmates at an inter-school chess competition where it was being used for training by some of the coaches. Actually they had two books, as "Chess Tactics for Kids" is the companion volume, One of the coaches suggested I purchase both books. Although I felt my son might be a little on the young side, I decided to get the DAD book... he could always grow into it. Also I had previously had a good experience with a chess book by the same author.
This DAD purchase turned out to be an inspired decision, as I spent much of the remainder of the day completely engrossed (while waiting for my son to play his games). I play a bit of chess, but now I am fairly confident that if my Dad does play me, he will have no chance!
The checkmate examples in "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess" are just brilliant, and the book is so easy to follow. Best of all, the themes occur time and time again, and so it is certain you will get a chance to play many of the combinations.
This book teaches how to spot weak spots in various defensive formations, and how to exploit those weaknesses with thematic and often very beautiful combinations.
From what the coaches were saying, and from my own reading, it is clear that this book makes a first-class training course. It may be presented for the kids market, but as it assumes a bright and inquisitive reader, it can profitably be read by adults too.