Customer Reviews
Great Tactics Intro 
2007-01-09
This book is a very good introduction to a number of essential tactical concepts. For novice players looking to improve quickly, attention to the lessons in this book will be a big help. The lessons build from simple concepts to more complex motifs in a logical manner, which makes the material easy to grasp.
I recommend the book.
Chess tactics and combinations to make you a more powerful player quickly! 
2006-12-30
This is a great book that compliments "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess." It covers various chess tactics that come up or can be created to win material, gain positional advantages and impose checkmate.
Overall, the book is highly readable with good diagrams and easy to follow text. It is thorough in covering important and commonly used tactics, but not overwhelming for new players.
I think Chess Tactics for Kids is a misnomer in a sense since this book is appropriate for almost any adult and probably wouldn't be very useful to kids under 12 years old unless they have more than a casual interest in chess. However, younger kids could certainly grow into it as their interest peaks and they master more fundamental skills.
I've been playing chess for years and got a lot out of this book. I think it's perfect for teenagers and highly recommend it to adults who have not read seriously on chess and are somewhat intimidated or bored by move-by-move type chess books. I also recommend it to younger kids with more advanced chess skills or who are serious doing their homework to improve their skills.
I wish this book was available when I was learning to play chess. It would have saved me a lot of time learning things the hard way and wading through a lot of overly complicated move-by-move type books that I wasn't ready for.
Chess Tactics, Traps and Combination books - the best way to get better 2006-09-15
When you are a beginner there is nothing better than studying books on Tactics, Traps and Combinations in chess. This is because the mind of a beginner can certainly understand 1 + 1 = 2. The value of the pieces is clear and coming out ahead can be calculated. This is a point that is a first step in learning chess! Tactics, at any point of the game are important to learn. Knowing what they are, how they work and recognizing them at a glance is necessary if you are going to become a good chess player. "CHESS TACTICS FOR KIDS" works on the most important starting tactics by showing you what they are and giving brief examples. This is not a tactics workbook where you will find hundreds of examples (a good book to get after this) or a traps book (a book also good to get) where you can see the tactics arise from the first move of the game. It is a book where you will learn the "mechanics" of the tactics. The brief chapter on each tactic is a great way to get started!
Another awesome book for fast improvement 2006-06-16
A few years ago the author of this title wrote his How to Beat Your Dad at Chess, an original and popular book which taught checkmating patterns. In Chess Tactics for Kids the lessons are all about learning chess tactics which win material, for example winning a pawn or a piece.
The format is very similar to the DAD book and equally effective.
To improve at chess, the best chess teachers will tell you to study a variety of chess books. If you are interested in the opening stages, and are confused by all the choices, go for a book like Understanding the Chess Openings by Collins. This gives a useful overview of all openings.
If you want to study middlegames try a move-by-move book or study a collection of games played by a great player. But if tactics is your thing, you can't go wrong with Grandmaster Chandler's two books.
As a pair, How to Beat Your Dad at Chess and Chess Tactics for Kids cover all the basic tactical themes a chess player is likely to encounter. The motifs are grouped by, well, motif, and the concept of pattern recognition is introduced in a way that is easily understood.
There are several hundred diagram examples per book, including tests and puzzle positions to solve.
The best thing of all is how often these themes, tricks and traps occur. I found that I had been getting numerous opportunities to win in my own games, only I just didn't realize it! Chess Tactics for Kids teaches how to spot the patterns where a tactic is likely to be lurking.
It is amazing how quickly winning combinations can be found, once you know the patterns.
Aimed at children but good for adults too 2006-02-25
This is Murray Chandler's follow up to his highly successful "How To Beat Your Dad At Chess". The book presents 50 common tactical ideas - pins, skewers, forks, stalemate and many more - each one explained and illustrated in a double page spread. Only themes which occur fairly commonly in practice are included, and there are six diagrams per double page. The explanations are in simple language, and each diagram is accompanied by a brief commentary pointing out the salient features of the position. The continuations are very short (usually only one or two moves) so they can be followed easily without the need for a board.
Three or four examples are given of each tactical trick, with the aim of getting the reader to recognise certain patterns, and hopefully apply this newly acquired pattern recognition to his/her own games. To test how well the patterns have been absorbed there are 54 test positions for the reader to try. If the reader is unable to spot the continuation, a hint is given by way of a reference to the number of the tricky tactic that is being tested. So you can refresh your memory by looking back at the illustrated examples and then hopefully spot the same theme in the test position. All of the illustrative positions and test positions are taken from actual play (though there are no game references given), and there are no artificially composed positions.
Although the book is aimed at children in the first instance, it could be used equally profitably by adult beginners who wish to sharpen up their tactical awareness.
This review first appeared in the magazine En Passant.
A complete tactics course 2005-11-09
Chess enthusiasts of all ages and levels will find this book an instructive delight. In a simple, easy-to-understand format it explains how to bamboozle your chess opponents using commonly occurring tactical motifs. The illustrative positions, all taken from real games, show the 50 Tricky Tactics that experienced chess masters use to win their games. Recognising frequently-occurring tactical ideas is vital to success in chess. One of the fastest and most enjoyable ways to improve at chess is by learning these thematic manoeuvres. Beginners will benefit from the clear explanation of basic concepts, such as how to utilise a fork, pin, or skewer. Advanced players will delight in the many devious middlegame tricks - some classified here for the first time - which can catch out even grandmasters. Chess Tactics for Kids makes improving easy and fun, and is full of helpful explanations on how to approach chess games with confidence - and success.
Best book on Tactics 2005-10-28
If you are not already an experienced player, this neat little book will improve your game for sure. It's all about pattern recognition: spotting familiar clusters of pieces that alert strong players to the possibility of a combination. There are 50 different motifs covered, and all win material in one way or another.
All strong players know and use these patterns frequently. Learning them is essential if you want to improve. Chandler's book is clearly intended for the lower level player (though not only juniors), but it is an intelligent read, and often fun. The author is a grandmaster, and you can be sure he knows what he is talking about.
Layout is friendly and I like it that the book opens flat,a benefit of hardcover.
Chess Tactics for Everyone! 2005-10-28
This is a sequel to the book How to beat your Dad at Chess and once again Murray Chandler gives us an overlooked work of genius. This book is not just for kids, it's for all beginners to intermediate players who want to get ahead in the middlegame. This time instead of giving tactics leading to checkmate it allows you to gain material- from a pawn to a queen- or save a game by forcing stalemate. I think it should have been called Using Tactics to beat your Dad in chess.
The sub-title of this book is 50 Tricky Tactics to Outwit your Opponents, and it contains 50 tricky tactics that can get you out of a tough situation. While the beginning tactics teach the more basic tricks, like forks and pins, when you get deeper into the book, you'll find tricks that even grandmasters could miss. In the introduction, there is a great page that explains the algebraic notation which can help all chess players to read moves made in the book and enable them to write down moves in their own chess games. This isn't new information, but I like the concise way its explained and the symbols used through out the book.
How to beat your Dad at Chess was all about pattern recognition and this one is about motifs. Each tactic merits its own chapter. He breaks studying tactics into three steps. Step one is learn what the basic tactical motifs are and how they operate. He says there are 12 basic tactical motifs, which are: forks, pins, skewers, decoys, deflections, overloads, discovered attacks, discovered checks, double checks, desperado sacrifices, stalemates, zwischenzugs (in-between moves), perpetual checks, and breaking the pin. In the first chapters he teaches you what every one of those tactics are and how you can use them to crush your opponent's defenses.
Step two is recognizing typical patterns by seeing where piece formations make it possible to execute different tactics. Chandler gives three examples. I find this part the most difficult to identify because the tactic is often hidden from both yourself and opponent. When using tactics, you need to look ahead more than one move, and be intentional in your choices of strategy. You always have to look ahead. Once you see patterns often enough, it becomes easier to recognize. That's why you have to play a lot and study different games to be able to "site read" the formations and recognize patterns quickly.
In Step three, he combines tactics to out-calculate the opponent. This is also a very difficult step because instead of just having to recognize where one tactic can be used, you have to recognize other tactics to set up one ahead of time. An example is sacrificing a knight to pin the opponent's queen. I knew this before, however, Chandler gave me new distinctions by telling how to recognize that the sacrifice will gain material. Near the end of the book, he shows you how to use step three.
A great example of combining tactics is Tricky Tactic #13, The Rook-c8 and the Knight-e7 check Trick. Some hints to show you when you can use this tactic, or when your opponent can use it on you, are:
A White knight on d5 and a White rook on the open c-file;
A black queen on d8 and a black king on g8; and
Black's e7 square is undefended, except by the black queen.
I have fallen victim to this tactic several times before reading this book. What happens is the White rook comes down to the c8 square, using itself as a decoy sacrifice. The Black queen then takes that White rook putting herself in position for a knight fork. Then the knight on d5 jumps to the e7 square. This forks the Black king and queen and wins the Black queen for the White rook.
Once again, at the end of the book, there is a wonderful test to determine how much you've learned about tactics. First, you're tested on identifying the tactics, then on how well you can find and executive tactics.
I think that people should read Chess Tactics for Kids before reading How to beat your Dad at Chess because Chess Tactics for Kids helps you get to the middlegame and endgame positions where you can use the checkmates shown in How to beat your Dad at Chess. So even though Chandler may have written this second, I think it should read first. I recommend this book to beginner and intermediate players of all ages because it will help you defeat any opponent that comes at you or maybe even your poor old suffering Dad. It might even help your Dad if you let him read it!
Good way to improve your game 2005-10-25
Learning Tactics will help you win 90 percent of your games. I like this book because it covers a good variety of tactics ranging from forks to pins and more. Could probably use more problems but the problems it has are very good. [...]
Teaches all standard tactical ideas in a concise way 2005-08-27
This book is the companion volume to the popular training book How to beat your Dad at chess (which covers checkmating motifs) by the same author. Chess Tactics for Kids is presented in a very similar format,including hardcovers. As other reviewers have described this in detail,I won't cover it here,except to say there are 250 positions of varying levels of difficulty, all taken from international tournament games. The examples are very well-chosen, amd the content is a near perfect balance of text and chess moves. It is worth noting that both of these books have been selected for major scholastic packages,such as the one prepared by Susan Polgar, former women's world champion and owner of the Polgar Chess Center.
Where this book differs from its predecessor is that the themes covered deal with tactics which generally win material. The initial examples in the book begin with the usual suspects - knight forks,pins. Gradually the themes become more specific and detailed,to encompass Desperado Sacrifices,Perpetual Checks,and various thematic ways to trap the opposing queen. This is quality text-book material,presented in appealing fashion. If you loved the Beat Your Dad book, you'll love this one too.
