Chess book review, How to Beat Your Dad at Chess, Murray Chandler
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How to Beat Your Dad at Chess

4.75
4 ratings·2 reviews
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The subtitle "Including the 50 Deadly Checkmates" is the strength of the book, rather than the catchy name and illustration. The book has been important for me in two ways:

1) Introducing tactical patterns with illustrative examples and puzzles. At times, puzzles are broken into stages (part A and part B), where the first part sets up the checkmate pattern. In this way, longer sequences are sprinkled throughout the book. As they all focus on a checkmate pattern, it's a good introduction to calculation.

2) Terminology helps me understand commentary and puzzle solutions. It's easier for me to see tactics when I recognise the pattern, and recognising the pattern is easier when I can name it. If I say "Back rank mate", you might know exactly what I mean. What about "Boden's mate"? And if a streamer says "This allows Lolli's mate" I understand what they mean without needing to calculate.

The book has a set of test at the end with positions with one of the 50 mates, with the added difficulty that you don't know which mate it is. Hints and solutions are provided.

For completeness, there's a bit of introduction to chess (e.g., algebraic notation and example combinations), ideas for further study, and terminology. They are well-written and concise, but, in my opinion, they are not the primary strength of the book.

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“How to Beat Your Dad at Chess” by Murray Chandler

What we have here is an educational book where grandmaster Murray Chandler is teaching you 50 different checkmate patterns. The book is broken up into two sections. The first section is educational and teaches you 50 checkmate patterns. Murray Chandler spends a paragraph explaining the features of the particular checkmate and then brings it home with six instructive diagrams. The second section is located at the end of the book with ‘Test Positions’ where you have 35 puzzles testing your comprehension of the various learned mating patterns. This is not a magical book that will suddenly allow you to beat your parents. Overall it's a good educational book for teaching 50 different mating patterns.

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