The two best rewards you’re likely to gain from concentrating on games of chess are simple: improved social life and improved intellectual capacity. Carelessly rushing through a chess game against a computer, however, is unlikely to help you much.

One Amazon customer-reviewer began her comment on a chess book this way:

Studies show that the study of chess increases your IQ, prevents Alzheimer’s, exercises both sides of the brain, increases your creativity, improves memory, increases problem-solving and reading skills, improves concentration, teaches planning and foresight, and more. Who doesn’t want that for themselves and their loved ones?

The grandmaster Susan Polgar has said, “According to research, test scores improved by 17.3% for students regularly engaged in chess classes, compared with only 4.6% for children participating in other forms of enriched activities.” Other research and testing, in a number of countries around the world, have given us similar results for the benefits of competing in the royal game.

The grandmaster Yasser Seirawan has said, in his chess book Winning Chess Strategies, “From the beginnings of human history, people have played games. And of all the games in the world, chess is aptly known as the Royal Game . . . Things survive the test of time because they are needed. . . . Tools like the spoon have survived. They have evolved to perfectly fit a need. . . . Chess is the perfect tool for developing the mind.”

If you have a chess club in your community, or in a nearby community, you know where to go to exercise your mind. Yet if you just know one person to keep company with, and that person would enjoy a game of chess, you know what to do.

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Chess Book for a Teenager

Many tens of thousands of books have been written about chess, over the centuries . . . These publications can be divided into several general types, including the following: Phase of  the game of chess (opening, middle game, end  game), Basic instruction (rules, tactics, strategy)

Chess Book for Beginners

Three reviews:

• How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (for more advanced players)
• Beat That Kid in Chess (for the beginner)
• Chess Tactics for Kids (for more advanced players)

The Best Chess Book for Beginners

“This is a book for the raw beginner, so we’ll not dive into handicapped  pawn structures, namely doubled pawns. Keeping to the basics . . .”

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