The Triple A's Check It Out:

by Stephen Welch

Three children, Astra, Andrew and Annabel, who live on Mars, visit the Martian moon Phobos with their mother. Andrew enters a chess tournament there, while Astra and Annabel explore the moon. Phobos is like a city in space, with tunnels and subways all through it. It is also the main space station for the area. They make friends with an older boy called Mark and he asks for their help with a mystery he's involved in. As events unfold, they get drawn further and further into an exciting adventure, tracking down a gang of dangerous ice smugglers. Eventually they decide to try and catch the gang red handed using a trick chess opening called 'The Oh My God Trap'. The recomended age group is 8-14 years.

184 pages, Paperback

First published February 22, 2005

About the author

I studied maths at university, worked in a bookshop for a while then switched to a medical career in Scotland for a number of years.
Then I went back to college and studied computing. I'm currently a business analyst in the insurance industry.
I live in Kent near the Channel Tunnel and I have three children.
I have written and published two books, the first a children's science fiction book set on Mars and with a sub theme of chess running through it (age group 8 - 14) called "The Triple A's Check it Out".
The second is not a children's book, it's about our origins, including the big bang, evolution, how the mind works and many other topics. It's called "Stardust: Our Cosmic Origins".
I have a number of interests, including: Tennis, Badminton, Chess, Go, Bridge, Writing, Reading, Poetry, Clasical Music and Opera.

Reviews

[Deborah J Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining children's adventure story set in a space station around a chess tournament. I was pleased to see the "Oh my God Trap" is explained in words and pictures in Appendix 1 as I am not a chess player, but it isn't essential to understand chess to enjoy the story.

[Manny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, speaking for myself, all I can say is that this is unquestionably the best book I've ever read which features a junior chess tournament on one of Mars's moons.

But of course I'm not the target demographic, and it's by no means impossible that I would have liked it when I was the right age. I'm giving my copy to Sophie and Olivia, 13 and 10 respectively, who compete regularly in junior chess tournaments. I'll post their comments in due course.