Chess Made Easy

by Milton L. Hanauer

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087980016X
• ISBN13: 9780879800161
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: Wilshire Book Company
• Length: 154 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Useful book from an obscure author

(Don't worry about my giving it 5 stars. I'm obliged to rate it in order to review it.) Long ago, in the late stages of my initial infatuation with chess, I came across Hanauer's Chess Made Simple (which is not an earlier edition of his Chess Made Easy). CMS was different from other chess books I had seen. It gave instruction on very specific but extremely common situations, such as what to do when in a pin, or to provoke one, or to get out of a fork, etc. The recipes seemed obvious, but were worth being spelled out anyway. Though its author is obscure, I was quite impressed with CMS, which is why I ordered CME. CMS was more of an instruction book, while CME is more of an exercise book, with four diagrams on odd-numbered pages and solutions (and instruction) overleaf. In addition to the approx. 180 exercises in CME, there are a few pages explaining the moves and notation and some 45 pages on the opening. I did the exercises in this book and skipped the rest. CME focuses on the same specific situations as CMS. It uses an archaic form of algebraic notation (examples, 1. P d4 (or even P d2 - d4) rather than simply 1. d4 nowadays; uses Kt instead of today's N for knight), but this is better than descriptive. If I remember correctly, CMS used the same notation. The positions are often extremely simple, but can be very deceptive. In rushing through some of them, I would often miss a point. Some positions would have points, counterpoints and counter-counterpoints. These are particularly good for exercising one's calculating skills. I like the book's approach (and that of CMS), because it gives situations that are readily categorized directly from the position rather than from some post hoc thematic conclusion, as is all too common in chess books. I recommend it. CME (it is the 1961 edition, btw) is for beginners up to 1500, but it served as a useful review for me though my tactical ability is around 2000. It's small and inexpensive, has many diagrams and was very pleasant and instructive bedside reading. Note that the great Mikhail Tal recommended revisiting beginners' books regularly. Following is the table of contents. A beginner who learns the lessons well will likely have an efficient foundation for progress. More advanced players might consider it a useful tune-up. PROLOGUE THE ELEMENTS (following are the exercises; four per entry - JB) The King Forking checks Values The fork More complicated forks Queen forks Defenses to forking checks King move plus threat (in reply to a forking check) Checkmates and Stalemates Checkmate Checkmate by the Queen Material needed to effect Checkmate King and Queen against King King and Rook against King "Hurdle" checks (nowadays called the X-ray - JB) Defense to check by interposition Discovered check Double check The pin Attacking pinned pieces Use of pin to check and mate Defenses to the pin: by capture Defenses to the pin: by interposition Defenses to the pin: by moving the King Defenses to the pin: by prot