Kevin's Blog
2007 Jan 29 2006 Sep 26 I received the 3rd proof copy of "Chess Puzzles for the Casual Player, Volume 1" and it looks great! I'll release it within the next couple of hours!
2006 Sep 22 I see that the 3rd proof copy of my book "Chess Puzzles for the Casual player, Volume 1" has shipped. It's shipping via USPS Media Mail. This is the cheapest shipping method but so far I've been able to order and receive my books in about a week. That's fairly quick, as far as I'm concerned, and the price is much less than the other shipping methods.
My goal is to create a series of chess books that the average casual chess player can use to develop his or her tactical pattern recognition. At the casual level many chess games are won or lost due to a player's ability or inability to recognize short term tactical opportunities. This ability to recognize tactical opportunities can be improved by studying chess puzzles on a daily basis. These chess puzzles are designed specifically for the average casual chess player.
There is a famous saying in chess that goes something like this, “If you see a good move, look for a better one.” But for the casual player a better saying might be, “If you see a good move, look closer it might actually be a blunder.” Each puzzle starts with a move that may seem good (to the casual player anyway), but is actually bad. Your job as the puzzle solver is to figure out how to take advantage of the opponents blunder. All problems and solutions are fully illustrated move by move so the book can be read anywhere you might read a good novel without the need for a chess set.
2006 Sep 17 I received the 2nd printed copy of my book, Chess Puzzles for the Casual Player, Volume 1. I found some very minor problems with the appearance. It appears that Open Office generated PDFs do not render my chess diagrams flawlessly. The accuracy of the content is not affected and the diagram appearance flaws are hardly noticeable. However, I want my book to be as near perfect as possible. So I've recreated the PDF using lulu's converter. I'll order another printed copy to proof read. Hopefully this one will live up to my standards. I still hope to meet my self imposed deadline of September 30th 2006 for publication, but releasing a quality product is more important than meeting that deadline.
2006 Sep 12 I received the printed copy of my book, "Chess Puzzles for the Casual Player, Volume 1" and it looks wonderful. As expected, I found a few minor corrections that needed to be made. I made the corrections and ordered a new book. If the new book looks near perfect then I'll register the copyright with the Library of Congress. I'm proud to have created a chess puzzle book that allows one to study chess puzzles without having a chess board or computer close by. I've diagrammed almost every chess move so it's easy to follow. I consider this to be one of the most useful, stupendous, excellent, fantastic, greatest and best chess puzzle books ever written! But of course, I'm just a little biased. But really, I am quite please with it. I'll be posting some sample puzzles from the book at http://www.geocities.com/aachess/. So take a sneak peak and enjoy the puzzles. If you'd like to send me a comment go to http://www.lulu.com/aachess and click “Message this storefront owner” in the upper left hand corner. Happy chess puzzling!
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Download: $2.95 Chess puzzles for the Casual Player, Vol. 1 contains 50 highly
instructive puzzles illustrated by 776 move by move diagrams. Each
puzzle contains two parts (see sample puzzles at www.chesspuzzlebook.com
). First, you are shown a move that may seem good but is actually bad
and asked how to take advantage of it. Second, you are asked what a
better move would have been in the first place. This two part puzzle
training technique helps you learn how to take advantage of opponents'
blunders and also how to avoid them yourself. The positions come from
real games between average casual players. Every solution is generated
and verified by sophisticated professional chess analysis software. The
solution to every puzzle is fully illustrated, and explained with easy
to understand text.
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Print: $21.95 Chess puzzles for the Casual Player, Vol. 1 contains 50 highly
instructive puzzles illustrated by 776 move by move diagrams. Each
puzzle contains two parts (see sample puzzles at www.chesspuzzlebook.com
). First, you are shown a move that may seem good but is actually bad
and asked how to take advantage of it. Second, you are asked what a
better move would have been in the first place. This two part puzzle
training technique helps you learn how to take advantage of opponents'
blunders and also how to avoid them yourself. The positions come from
real games between average casual players. Every solution is generated
and verified by sophisticated professional chess analysis software. The
solution to every puzzle is fully illustrated, and explained with easy
to understand text.
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