Chess pin

[howarthe]

My son is working on the Chess pin. One of the requirements is to read about a famous chess player. Bobby Fischer is famous enough that I have heard of him, and I don't even like chess. Does anyone have any books they could recommend for a second grader who doesn't like to read.

[drmbear]

This is easy. Put Bobby Fischer in Google, open the Wikopedia entry (which probably includes all you really need to read about a famous chess player), and toward the bottom is a list of writings and books, including a book about the 10 greatest chess players of all time. Seems like there is something useful there.

[Fehler]

Does "Famous Chess Player" mean "A person famous for playing chess (Bobby Fischer)" or "A famous person who plays chess (Ben Franklin)"?

[Stosh]

There's always someone out there that can take a simple request on this forum and turn it into a heated debate on interpretation of rules!!!!

 

Love it!

 

Stosh

[ScoutNut]

There is no need for your 2nd grader, who does not like to read, to read an entire book. Reading an article on the internet with the info needed would work.

 

There are a lot of sites out there on chess players. I would even take the famous person who plays chess route if it sparks your son's interest.

[SeattlePioneer]

I used to play tournament chess in high school, and was a chess organizer in college.

 

Quite a few elementary schools around here have chess clubs. If I had the time, I might try visiting one of those and trying out a method I think would be good for teaching chess to young players especially.

 

Rather than playing an entire game, I'd start by setting up stock chess positions -- King and rook vs king, pawn and king vs king and so on, letting youth learn how pieces move and how end game strategies leads to wins.

 

I'd think that would lead to winning and losing a lot of games rapidly, which would be fun, and also learning something about the how the game works.

 

After that try some games with all the pieces on the board and see how that works.

[packsaddle]

For some reason, this guy always captured my imagination back when I was active:

http://www.chesscorner.com/worldchamps/capablanca/capablanca.htm

 

And he was a much nicer person than Bobby.

[howarthe]

"In September 1913 Capablanca secured a job in the Cuban Foreign Office. He had no specific duties but to play chess."

 

Awesome! I like this guy, too.

[NJCubScouter]

Although Bobby Fischer was NOT a very nice person, and late in life was a real (choose your epithet here), he did have a Scouting connection. I remember reading his chess columns in Boys Life magazine when I was a kid. I just found a link to a page that, amazingly, summarizes ALL of his Boys Life columns and has a sample page of his column. I love the Internet.

[NJCubScouter]

Oops, here is the link:

 

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fischer2.html(This message has been edited by Njcubscouter)