Brooklyn Castle star teacher Elizabeth Vicary’s recommendations of books for advanced chess

players are at http://main.uschess.org/content/view/8552/468/ and her top 10 books for teaching

chess can be found at http://main.uschess.org/content/view/7776/381/

For more on Elizabeth Vicary’s teaching ideas, read Shahade, J. (2007, June 26) E.Vicary

on chess, girls and genius. Chess Life Online. Available:

http://main.uschess.org/content/view/6571/357/. This interview shares how Vicary organizes her

club and encourages girls to participate.

This annotated bibliography of resources for educators and parents is adapted by Dr.

Alexey Root from Root, A. (2009). Read, write, checkmate: Enrich literacy with chess activities.

Westport, CT: Teacher Ideas Press. For more about Alexey Root, see

http://www.amazon.com/Alexey-W.-Root/e/B001JP9XGW.

EDUCATORS

These books have classroom exercises or pages designed to be reproduced as worksheets and

forms for students. Therefore, they are suited for immediate use by educators.

Bain, J. (1994). Chess rules for students. Corvallis, OR: Learning Plus. Bain, J. (2002).

Checkmate! Ideas for students. Corvallis, OR: Learning Plus. These books are both available

from http://www.chessforstudents.com/. Instructional workbooks designed for beginning chess

students. Bain (1994) gives the movements of the pieces and algebraic notation. Bain (2002)

covers tactics that can lead into checkmates. Both books have reproducible worksheets and an

answer key.

Barber, D. (2003). A guide to scholastic chess. Anaheim, CA: American Chess

Equipment. Available: http://www.amchesseq.com/. This guide is available as a free download

from http://www.amchesseq.com/. Barber includes advice and forms for organizing a chess club

and for running chess tournaments.

Khmelnitsky, I., Khodarkovsky, M. & Zadorozny, M. (2006). Teaching chess step by

step. Montville, NJ: Kasparov Chess Foundation. Schools may order a complimentary set of

three books (1-Teacher’s Manual, 2-Exercises Manual, and 3-Activities) by following the

instructions at http://www.kasparovchessfoundation.org/. Book 1 has lesson plans for chess

beginners, and book 2 has reproducible worksheets.

MacEnulty, D. (2001). Let’s play chess: A kid’s guide to the royal game. New York:

Chess-in-the-Schools. This book was published by Chess-in-the-Schools,

http://www.chessintheschools.org/. Some of the same material can be found in the “teacher”

section of the Chess-in-the-Schools Web site.

Pelts, R. & Alburt, L. (1992). Comprehensive chess course: volumes I & II (3rd ed.).

New York: Chess Information and Research Center. Lesson plans for educators and tests with

answer keys. The three volumes take students from beginners to intermediate level and beyond.

Polgar, S. (2006). Chess training program for teachers. New York: Susan Polgar

Foundation. Free download; follow the instructions at http://www.susanpolgarfoundation.org/.

This .pdf document (62 pages) has lesson plans covering the rules of chess and basic strategies.

Root, A. W. (2006). Children and chess: A guide for educators. Westport, CT: Teacher

Ideas Press. This book has several chapters that give curricular reasons for educators to include

chess. The latter part of the book has lesson plans, worksheets, and connections to state

standards.

Root, A. W. (2008). Science, math, checkmate: 32 chess activities for inquiry and

problem solving. Westport, CT: Teacher Ideas Press. This book has 32 plans organized by chess
level and grade level (either 3-5 or 6-8) that teach science, math, or interdisciplinary objectives

using chess.

Root, A. W. (2009). Read, write, checkmate: Enrich literacy with chess activities.

Westport, CT: Teacher Ideas Press. This book provides forms, directions, examples, worksheets,

and other guidance for completing a chess book-writing project with students.

Root, A. W. (2010). People, places, checkmates: Teaching social studies with chess.

Santa Barbara, CA: Teacher Ideas Press. This book has lesson plans linking chess and civics,

economics, history, the humanities, geography, government, political science, psychology, and

technology. Included are primary documents such as Benjamin Franklin’s essay The Morals of

Chess.

Root, A.W. (2011). The living chess game: Fine arts activities for kids 9-14. Santa

Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. This book provides music, art, dance, and theater activities

that teach fine arts objectives and chess. Options for staging a living chess game or a chess talent

show are given.

Shulman, Y. & Sethi, R. (2007). Chess! Lessons from a grandmaster. Rapid City, SD:

Spizzirri. Available from http://shulmanchess.com/, this book has lesson plans that include either

a suggested activity or a notated and annotated game or game fragment. All lessons are followed

homework problems, usually 10 per lesson. Most pages have 2-4 diagrams per page. Within the

book are 30 black-and-white photos of students playing chess. See Elizabeth Vicary’s review of

this book at http://main.uschess.org/content/view/9216/520/

PARENTS
The following books are designed for children to read on their own or with a parent’s help. There

are illustrations and photos. The reading level and content is appropriate for elementary school

students. After reading these books, children will know the rules of chess.

Kidder, H. (1990). The kids’ book of chess. New York: Workman. This book features

beautiful illustrations and tells the medieval history behind each of the chess figures.

King, D. (2000). Chess: From first moves to checkmate. Boston: Kingfisher. This book

features striking artwork and many chess diagrams. King teaches the history and the rules of

chess.

Nottingham, T., Wade, B., & Lawrence, A. (1993). Chess for children. New York:

Sterling. This book contains diagrams and photos of chess positions, stories about chess players,

and fiction about the roles of the pawns and pieces.