ITEMS OF INTEREST

Queensland Junior Ratings for March 2004

We now have in stock three exciting new beginner chess books, ideal for students and school libraries. Gardiner Chess has obtained the sole Australian rights to these three best-selling books which have been written for beginners and developing chess students.

The Chess Tactics Workbook - Al Woolum

Al Woolum is a classroom teacher.

The worksheets take a student from the fundamentals of mate, to the basic tactical elements, through more advanced tactical concepts and into mating attacks and combinations that employ those elements and concepts.

Materials in this book have been arranged to teach chess tactics in a progressive fashion. An emphasis is placed on the concept of mate and the ability to search for good moves. Young students need to learn how to add layers to the depth and width of their search, hence the orderly increase in difficulty of the problems presented.

Price $21 (10% discount for schools, 20% discount for orders of 10+)

Chess Tactics for Students - John A Bain

John Bain is a teacher specialising in curriculum design.

This is a one-of-a-kind instructional workbook designed to help beginners acquire the skills of strong intermediate players. This workbook introduces thirteen basic chess tactics in a variety of frequently encountered positional patterns. With hints to guide them, students solve tactical problems and use algebraic notation to record their moves on large easy-to-correct worksheets.

Chess Tactics for Students is based on sound educational principles and was field-tested extensively before publication during a four-year period with elementary, middle-school, and high-school students. Ten years after publication, Chess Tactics for Students has risen to the top of chess coaches' and parents' recommendation lists. This new edition is ideal for both classroom instruction and chess clubs.

Key features:

224 pages of worksheets

434 carefully selected problems

instruction sequenced in order of most frequently encountered tactics
versatile format, enabling both independent study and group instruction

separate answers booklet included

Price $27 (10% discount for schools, 20% discount for orders of 10+)

Begin Chess - Manuel Aaron

Written by the father figure, and first International Master of Indian chess, Manuel Aaron.

This book is a collection of articles for beginners written in the monthly Indian national magazine, Chess Mate during 1989-1997. The object of these articles is to make the beginner more knowledgeable and a better player. They show the beginner how to avoid common mistakes and to give him/her a good understanding of the Laws of Chess.

Each article in a particular month does not necessarily concentrate on one particular theme, as a book usually does. For example, in one article there might be explanations and illustrations of the pin motif in chess. That same article might also contain a small feature on the pawn ending or queen ending. The idea behind each article is to give the beginner different and interesting things to examine in chess so that the player's interest is heightened so that chess is not viewed as a dull and tedious game.

After going through this book, no player will remain a beginner. The basic principle of the opening, the middle-game motifs and various endings explained in different sectors of this book will ensure that he or she plays a decent game and makes moves after logical thinking.

The idea behind the book is to offer a newcomer fundamentals in openings, tactics, middlegame themes and endgames in one single volume. Most of the positions are from over-the-board play and the illustrations are juicy and to the point.

Price $25 (10% discount for schools, 20% discount for orders of 10+)

Gold Coast Chess Club AGM

The Annual General Meeting of the chess club was held at the centre on Wednesday 3 September. The following committee was elected for the 2003/2004 year:

President: Peter Haron
Vice President: David Richards
Secretary: Sue Kimura
Treasurer: Jenny Beckett
Committee Members: Joel Beckett, Remi Broadway, Graeme Gardiner, Justine Jule, Linda Layton, Fred Rosenow, Bernard Saavedra, Ingrid Thompson, Nell Van De Graaff.

After the meeting, the AGM Lightning was held resulting in a victory to Kelvin Finke who defeated Bernie Saavedra in a play-off after both finished on 6/7. Results are here.

Junior Ratings for March

Check here for the latest Queensland Junior ratings and find out who are the fastest ladder climbers.

Gardiner Chess Bulletins

Each month we send a bulletin to more than 600 email addresses on our database. This gives up-to-the-minute chess news, upcoming events, and so on. If you wish to be added to the list of recipients, please email us at ggardiner@gardinerchess.com. Otherwise, just have a look at our bulletin archive here.