Tactics Time Simple Chess Puzzles for Kids anthea carson

There is a tremendous need for a tactics book that shows simple capture moves for kids and beginners. It
would be very difficult for a beginner to solve those puzzles if they are not able to see one move captures.
Usually a beginner can see the capture if you show nothing else on the board but the piece to be captured and
the piece that can capture it. A beginner might even say, “I already know how to capture pieces.” But if you
watch kids and beginners in real games they are missing undefended pieces all the time. These puzzles can
help beginners to see these undefended pieces in real games.
When Tim and I wrote Tactics Time, we noticed that there weren’t very many books that had tactics that were
just for kids and absolute beginners. There is no way to get better at chess that is better than solving tactics
problems. This book of tactics is simple for beginners. Most kids and beginners consistently miss undefended
pieces. These are sometimes referred to as hanging pieces. If a beginner just learns to capture undefended
pieces his chess ability will increase.
The ability to see and capture hanging pieces is something that the average chess player takes for granted. That
may be why there aren’t a lot of books with these kinds of puzzles. These kinds of puzzles wouldn’t even be
called tactics puzzles, since tactics mean skewers, forks, discoveries etc, and involve more than one move.
However, being able to capture loose or undefended pieces is really far more important to a beginner
than complex tactics. Without that ability even simple tactics wouldn’t even make sense.
As a chess coach, it is frustrating to stand back and watch kids miss opportunity after opportunity to capture a
piece. I also see kids leave their pieces undefended. It is as if the kids are just moving their pieces around the
board with no goals or purpose. In games like this, the kid who can notice and capture undefended pieces
will be king of the hill.