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The Chess'n Math Association has had a great relationship with National Master Jeff Coakley for decades.
He has been the editor of "Scholar's Mate", Canada's National Scholastic Chess Magazine, for well over a decade. It is now available on-line for FREE at www.chess-math.org. It comes out 5 times a year.
We have also published 4 of his books for youngsters...all of which are incredibly popular.
His latest book is "Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids V 2"
This was a review which appeared on Amazon.com:
"5.0 out of 5 stars Coakley is by far the best writer of instructional material for children and chess teachers, September 2, 2010
By Elizabeth Zoe Vicary (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: Winning Chess Puzzles For Kids Volume 2 (Paperback)
I wrote this review as a blog post, which can be read with the diagrams here: [...]
Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids volume 2
I just got Jeff Coakley's newest book, Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids vol 2 (aka "the orange book" -- compare to the green book, the blue book, and the red book). I've written before about how much I love Coakley's work here and here, and with time my feelings have only deepened.
I was having a conversation with someone many years ago about the pricing of the New York Times Sunday paper, and my friend was saying it was so thick and brought him so much reading pleasure, that he would spend $10-15 dollars on it, if that's what it cost. Coakley's green book, I would probably pay $500 for it, if I had to. I don't have to, of course, but it's saved my life so many times as a chess teacher, it's really a gold mine.
The orange book is a sequel to the red book, with tactics sheets and checkmate problems mixed in with some more unusual types of puzzles. I don't want to repeat myself, so I refer you to my earlier blog post for some preliminary thoughts on some of Jeff's original problems, and why I find them so instructive.
A couple general observations:
*Jeff is quite a strong player, 2210 FIDE, and an experienced coach, so the chess in his books is generally both correct and relevant. (Lots of books have beautiful examples of things that never happen in kids' games.) This latest is a little more whimsical, but even the more fantastical problems tend to have some instructional value.
*The material gets slowly harder, so you can trust that the problems on the first few mate in 1 sheets are very do-able for the whole class, but that the later ones are tricky. Authors don't always take the time to order problems correctly, and that's frustrating when you give a homework without looking at it closely and only realize that night that half the problems are insanely hard.
*Positions are frequently grouped on the worksheets by similarity, which saves you precious setting-up time at the demo board. Some of the tactics problems ask a student to find 4 or 5 forks, which is obviously uber-efficient.
Two new things I love:
*This new book has 20 "checkology" sheets: nine problems, of which the first three are mate in 1, the next there mate in 2 and the last 3 mate in three. These are very useful for classroom teaching because kids are rarely all at the same ability level, and these are homeworks you can give to a large group: where everyone can do something and everyone gets a challenge.
*Lily's Puzzlers are fun, hands-on enrichment activities that students can do in a class period with a partner and a chess set:
1.(pg 9): Hi BOYS AND GIRLS!!
Here's a rook puzzle to keep you busy. Don't forget, a piece does not attack the square that it stands on, which means a second rook will have to attack any occupied squares. Good luck! Place 8 rooks on the board so that...
A. every square is attacked except the four in the center (d4, d5, e4, e5)
B. every square is attacked except the four corners (a1, a8, h1, h8)
C. every square is attacked except c3, c6, f3, f6.
D. the fewest squares are attacked.
2.(p159):
Here is another Sam Loyd puzzle. It's a real stumper.
Cut the board into four identical parts so that each part has one knight on it. (The kings should not be there. I had to add them in order to make the diagram in chessbase--EV) You don't need scissors. Just draw lines on the board to show the "cuts." The board must be split into four parts that are all exactly the same size and shape. Plus, there has to be exactly one knight on each of the 4 parts. Good luck!
3. (p. 131)
Did you ever notice how chess pieces sometimes get in each other's way? In this puzzler, the eight bishops have just eleven moves to get from A to B. Twelve moves is easy. but I think you will find 11 a real challenge.
Starting in the position above, make 11 moves (6 white 5 black) to reach the position below.
I will just repeat myself slightly to remind you of the two types of puzzles I love the most: double whammys, which teach the exact thinking method of checkmate planning: "I go there, and then I go there, and that's checkmate!", and switcheroos, which maybe aren't so instructive but are very amusing. Because I mention them in the earlier post, I give you two new ones that are more difficult than what I would use in the classroom.
double whammy: White makes two moves in a row to checkmate black. The first move may not be check. Either move may be a capture. Black does not get a turn.
switcheroo: Switch two pieces so that the black king stands in checkmate. Any two pieces can trade places. Colors do not matter. the resulting positon must be legal. No fair putting pawns on the first or last rank or placing both kings in check.
The book also has word searches (silly, I know, but kids love them), 17 pre-made tactics mini-lessons (aka Combo Mombo), math puzzles, helpmates, triple loyds, retrograde puzzles, mazes, puzzles where you move pieces to create mates, place pieces to create mates, maximize square control, and checkmate problems that work from all four 90 degree degree rotations of the chess board.
It's really a treasure trove of instruction and fun. If you are a chess teacher or the parent of a kid rated between 100 and 1600, you are insane not to buy it."
This book as well as the other books by Jeff Coakley (published by the Chess'n math Association) is available at www.strategygames.ca
Search for the Word "Winning" and you will find all his books. We have deals if you buy more than 1 of his books. These special prices will come to an end on Dec. 31, 2010.
He has been the editor of "Scholar's Mate", Canada's National Scholastic Chess Magazine, for well over a decade. It is now available on-line for FREE at www.chess-math.org. It comes out 5 times a year.
We have also published 4 of his books for youngsters...all of which are incredibly popular.
His latest book is "Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids V 2"
This was a review which appeared on Amazon.com:
"5.0 out of 5 stars Coakley is by far the best writer of instructional material for children and chess teachers, September 2, 2010
By Elizabeth Zoe Vicary (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: Winning Chess Puzzles For Kids Volume 2 (Paperback)
I wrote this review as a blog post, which can be read with the diagrams here: [...]
Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids volume 2
I just got Jeff Coakley's newest book, Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids vol 2 (aka "the orange book" -- compare to the green book, the blue book, and the red book). I've written before about how much I love Coakley's work here and here, and with time my feelings have only deepened.
I was having a conversation with someone many years ago about the pricing of the New York Times Sunday paper, and my friend was saying it was so thick and brought him so much reading pleasure, that he would spend $10-15 dollars on it, if that's what it cost. Coakley's green book, I would probably pay $500 for it, if I had to. I don't have to, of course, but it's saved my life so many times as a chess teacher, it's really a gold mine.
The orange book is a sequel to the red book, with tactics sheets and checkmate problems mixed in with some more unusual types of puzzles. I don't want to repeat myself, so I refer you to my earlier blog post for some preliminary thoughts on some of Jeff's original problems, and why I find them so instructive.
A couple general observations:
*Jeff is quite a strong player, 2210 FIDE, and an experienced coach, so the chess in his books is generally both correct and relevant. (Lots of books have beautiful examples of things that never happen in kids' games.) This latest is a little more whimsical, but even the more fantastical problems tend to have some instructional value.
*The material gets slowly harder, so you can trust that the problems on the first few mate in 1 sheets are very do-able for the whole class, but that the later ones are tricky. Authors don't always take the time to order problems correctly, and that's frustrating when you give a homework without looking at it closely and only realize that night that half the problems are insanely hard.
*Positions are frequently grouped on the worksheets by similarity, which saves you precious setting-up time at the demo board. Some of the tactics problems ask a student to find 4 or 5 forks, which is obviously uber-efficient.
Two new things I love:
*This new book has 20 "checkology" sheets: nine problems, of which the first three are mate in 1, the next there mate in 2 and the last 3 mate in three. These are very useful for classroom teaching because kids are rarely all at the same ability level, and these are homeworks you can give to a large group: where everyone can do something and everyone gets a challenge.
*Lily's Puzzlers are fun, hands-on enrichment activities that students can do in a class period with a partner and a chess set:
1.(pg 9): Hi BOYS AND GIRLS!!
Here's a rook puzzle to keep you busy. Don't forget, a piece does not attack the square that it stands on, which means a second rook will have to attack any occupied squares. Good luck! Place 8 rooks on the board so that...
A. every square is attacked except the four in the center (d4, d5, e4, e5)
B. every square is attacked except the four corners (a1, a8, h1, h8)
C. every square is attacked except c3, c6, f3, f6.
D. the fewest squares are attacked.
2.(p159):
Here is another Sam Loyd puzzle. It's a real stumper.
Cut the board into four identical parts so that each part has one knight on it. (The kings should not be there. I had to add them in order to make the diagram in chessbase--EV) You don't need scissors. Just draw lines on the board to show the "cuts." The board must be split into four parts that are all exactly the same size and shape. Plus, there has to be exactly one knight on each of the 4 parts. Good luck!
3. (p. 131)
Did you ever notice how chess pieces sometimes get in each other's way? In this puzzler, the eight bishops have just eleven moves to get from A to B. Twelve moves is easy. but I think you will find 11 a real challenge.
Starting in the position above, make 11 moves (6 white 5 black) to reach the position below.
I will just repeat myself slightly to remind you of the two types of puzzles I love the most: double whammys, which teach the exact thinking method of checkmate planning: "I go there, and then I go there, and that's checkmate!", and switcheroos, which maybe aren't so instructive but are very amusing. Because I mention them in the earlier post, I give you two new ones that are more difficult than what I would use in the classroom.
double whammy: White makes two moves in a row to checkmate black. The first move may not be check. Either move may be a capture. Black does not get a turn.
switcheroo: Switch two pieces so that the black king stands in checkmate. Any two pieces can trade places. Colors do not matter. the resulting positon must be legal. No fair putting pawns on the first or last rank or placing both kings in check.
The book also has word searches (silly, I know, but kids love them), 17 pre-made tactics mini-lessons (aka Combo Mombo), math puzzles, helpmates, triple loyds, retrograde puzzles, mazes, puzzles where you move pieces to create mates, place pieces to create mates, maximize square control, and checkmate problems that work from all four 90 degree degree rotations of the chess board.
It's really a treasure trove of instruction and fun. If you are a chess teacher or the parent of a kid rated between 100 and 1600, you are insane not to buy it."
This book as well as the other books by Jeff Coakley (published by the Chess'n math Association) is available at www.strategygames.ca
Search for the Word "Winning" and you will find all his books. We have deals if you buy more than 1 of his books. These special prices will come to an end on Dec. 31, 2010.
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