The first book in the series, Chess for Juniors, answers the question 'How do I play chess?'. The second and third books answer the questions 'How do I improve at chess?' and 'How do I play tournament chess?' The three books are all titles in the 'McKay Chess Library for Kids' published by Random House Puzzles & Games.

Which chess playing juniors would benefit the most from these books? A 'Kids Chess Meter' on the back cover of each book identifies the class of player targeted by the book. Chess for Juniors is aimed at the Beginner class ('Ready to learn how the pieces move'), while the other titles are for the Intermediate class ('Ready to learn about strategy and tactics, including openings and endgames').

We think the 'For Juniors' tag is somewhat misleading. Winning Chess Tournaments for Juniors mentions its two predecessors and says that Chess for Juniors is for players rated under 1000, while Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors is for players rated between 700 and 1800. This implies that Winning Chess Tournaments, written for the Intermediate class player, is also best suited for the 700-1800 rating range. Although the books are written with the junior player in mind, we are certain that the material is useful for any player of the suggested rating range.

One big advantage in following the 'Chess for Juniors' series from start to finish is that the material is not repeated from one book to the next, although the style is similar. The last two chapters of Chess for Juniors use the same format as Unbeatable Chess Lessons. A fourth book in the series is scheduled for publication later this year.

• More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors (2005)

Who is Robert M. Snyder? The back cover of Winning Chess Tournaments tells us

Robert M. Snyder, National Chess Master, is a highly-regarded chess educator whose teams have won the National Scholastic Championships ten times. His students have won first place 35 times (a national record) as individuals in championship sections at the National Scholastic Championships. He has introduced chess to more than 160,000 elementary and junior high school students. In 1983, he founded the Chess for Juniors club, now based in Fort Collins, Colorado.

For a link to the official site of the Chess for Juniors club, see the link box again.

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Snyder has been riding the chess boom in the United States and the following example shows why his books are so popular. This position in the diagram, from game 4 of Unbeatable Chess Lessons, is Capablanca - Steiner, Los Angeles 1933.

Steiner

Capablanca
After 9.Nf3-h4

Snyder wrote

As a general rule "Placing a Knight on the edge of the board is not good." However, this move has some good advantages in this case; it allows White to open his f-file later on by moving a Pawn to f4, and gives his Queen access to the Kingside along the d1-h5 diagonal. Later the f5 square may prove to be a good square to post the Knight on. If Black plays 9...Ng6 White can double Black's Pawns after 10.Nxg6.

Doubling Black's Pawns with 9.Bxf6 is not as good as it looks. After 9...gxf6 White must contend with two possibilities: First, Black has the possibility of undoubling his Pawns by attacking in the center with 10...f5; Secondly, Black has the plan of attacking Black's [sic] Bishop with 10...c6 followed by attacking in the center with 11...d5.

Note the mention of a well-known general rule ('a Knight on the edge of the board is not good') followed by a verbal explanation of the reasons explaining why the move 9.Nh4 can ignore that rule; master players know when to break a general rule. This is followed by a discussion of the alternative 9.Bxf6, which although conforming to another general rule (doubled Pawns are bad), is not a good move in the given position; master players know when general rules do not apply to specific positions.

There is a small error in the quoted paragraphs: 10...c6 attacks White's Bishop, not Black's. We found very few errors of this kind while we were reviewing the three books. One serious error worth mentioning is from game 16 of Unbeatable Chess Lessons. This discusses a game from the famous 1972 World Championship match ('The Final Game') that put chess on the map. The book says that the game is Fischer vs. Spassky. As the notes to the game correctly indicate, Spassky had the White pieces and Fischer the Black pieces. When Spassky resigned, Fischer won game, match, and World Championship title.

If Snyder's popularity continues, these errors will certainly be corrected in future editions of his books. We look forward to reviewing More Unbeatable Chess for Juniors.