Teaching Chess, Step by Step: Teacher's Manual

by Igor Khmelnitsky, Michael Khodarkovsky, Michael Zadorozny

Few materials exist to help the classroom teacher who has never played chess or knows only some chess. This manual was designed to address this deficiency. It is written in a manner that allows the teacher to see how to present the material in his or her classroom. This manual will lead a group of beginning students from the rudiments of chess rules to the ability of playing a full game in a competent manner.

Genres: Chess

336 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

Reviews

[Nia Nymue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this as my primary text for learning chess and the portioning and sequencing of concepts in chess was good for a complete beginner like myself. I was able to skip a lot of parts in the other chess books I'm reading at the same time because this book already explained it sufficiently.

Because I was not using it for teaching, almost half the book was repetitive and unnecessary. After each lesson's summary, there would be a few pages for teachers to see the steps in teaching the concept for the lesson. Most could be skipped. The most useful ones for me were the ones for the openings, at the end of the book.

For a teacher to use this for teaching, however, is not completely straightforward. Bloom's Taxonomy was at the back, and there was some attempt to deconstruct the different parts of a concept in each lesson bit by bit. There is also a summary of key concepts for students to learn, at the start of each lesson, but this would have worked for self-learners too. I think what would help teachers is in more consistently (the book does this but more could be done!) sharing what common mistakes and misconceptions are.

This comes with an exercise book, and I think if you're getting this book, you must get the exercise book for practice. If just the exercise book (and you're familiar with chess), then not necessary to get this.

[Kim Neve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good guide for helping teachers in chess clubs or others in a private or group setting. I will keep this handy as a reference, since it provides a thorough lesson plan for teaching beginning chess and has many sample demonstrations to help the teacher.