Chess Made Simple

Chess Made Simple by Milton L. Hanauer. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780923891268.

Chess Made Simple is one of the most useful and instructive chess books ever written. In spite of the title and the fact that is starts off with explaining the legal moves of the pieces, it is NOT a beginners book. It is a book for intermediate to advanced players. Even masters will find the exercises, problems and examples in this book useful and instructive. It has been used as a source book for generations of scholastic chess coaches and teachers. The author was one of the top chess players in the United States. He played in the US Championship four times, 1936, 1938, 1940 and 1951, defeating Grandmasters Reuben Fine and Isaac Kashdan in the process. He played on the US Team in the 1928 World Chess Olympiad in The Hague. He was Marshall Chess Club champion in 1950-51. There is an article featuring some of his games by Grandmaster Andy Soltis in the August 2008 issue of Chess Life magazine. Perhaps what makes this book so good is the fact that the author was a professional teacher. He became a public school principal and had an office in the New York City Board of Education on Jay Street. In Chess Made Simple, he goes through each of the phases of the game and provides instructive examples of each. The latter part of the book includes annotated games by grandmasters. His list of topics includes: The Powers of the Pieces Good Moves for the Pieces The Opening Gambits Attacks, Defense, Combinations, Counterattacks Checkmate and Stalemate The End Game The Middle Game The Openings of Champions The Laws of Chess One interesting feature of this book is it starts off using the algebraic notation, which was unusual for its time. This will be a great boon to todays youth, who are too stupid to learn descriptive notation.