Board Games

How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (Gambit Chess)

This is not just a book for kids - for 'Dad' read any opponent who beats you regularly! This book teaches the 50 Deadly Checkmates - basic attacking patterns that occur repeatedly in games between players of all standards.

Each mating motif is carefully and simply explained, and several illustrative examples are given. A final test enables the reader to grade his pattern recognition abilities, and the last chapter explains what to do if your Dad is Garry Kasparov.

Fun, instructive - and guaranteed to improve your game.

Chess for Kids

International Master Michael Basman puts 20 years of experience teaching children how to play chess into this systematic, succinct, and thorough book.

Victorian Doll House

The Three-Dimensional Victorian Doll House is a beautifully illustrated carousel doll house with two stories and eight rooms. When you tie back the ribbons, the house stands on its own, revealing great decorative details and authentic-looking-pop-up period furniture - and press-out play dolls and accessories!

Starting Chess (First Skills)

Kids' Book of Chess and Chess Set

Illustrated Chess for Children was originally published in 1970. Now renamed, updated, newly illustrated, and presented with a custom-designed chess board and full set of chess pieces, the kids' book of chess and chess set introduces kids to the game that's inspired passion and challenge for over 900 years. Fantasy art captures the energy and excitement of chess's origins-the medieval battlefield-while a direct, lively text explains the game and its pieces in light of history. Readers are led through the fundamentals of beginning, middle, and end game, and shown winning strategies for offense and defense.

Selection of the Book-of-the-Month and Trumpet Book clubs. Suitable for ages 8-12. 792,000 copies in print. Illustrations by Kimberly Bulcken Root.

Chess for Juniors: A Complete Guide for the Beginner (Chess)

Robert Snyder, national chess master and noted teacher, introduces this timeless game to the young beginner. Snyder teaches the basic principles and then builds on students' knowledge, giving clear instructions on how to choose and employ opening, middle, and endgame strategies to win. In twenty graduated lessons, with over 275 diagrams, Chess for Juniors covers:

-- Basic Rules

-- Check, Checkmate, and Castling

-- Opening Systems, including the Ruy Lopez, the Sicilian Defense, the Nimzo-Indian, the Queen's Indian Defense.

-- Basic Endgame Strategy

-- Tactics such as the Hanging Piece, the Fork, and the Pin

-- And more.

Robert M. Snyder's students have included the 1989 and 1990 national elementary and junior high school champions. He is the founder of the Chess for Juniors chess club in Garden Grove, California, the country's largest club for young people, and his school seminars have been attended by a total of over 50,000 students.

The Book of Classic Board Games (Klutz)

Definitive rules for fifteen timeless games, each with a custom-designed playing board. Fifteen spreads, fifteen games. Beautifully illustrated, this book comes complete with playing pieces and dice.

Asked to name the best board games of all time, what would you say? Chances are your final list would be strikingly similar to the table of contents from The Book of Classic Board Games, which includes checkers, go, mancala, backgammon, nine men's morris, and 10 others.

The spiral-bound book is designed to lay flat when opened, instantly becoming a portable playing area. Each two-page spread features a game board on one side with the directions on the facing page, allowing you to play without having to fish around for a rule book (game pieces and dice are also included). There's also a brief history provided for many of the games. Best of all, the entire package is about a third the size of a single board-game box, allowing you to take this cornucopia of contests anywhere you'd like. --Matthew Baldwin

Maisy's First Game Book (Maisy)

Spin the spinner and see if you're a winner with this bright, bold book of simple, lively games. One more way to be crazy for Maisy!

Let the games begin! Join Maisy and her friends in a mad dash around the supermarket, collect the gold crowns in a terrific treasure hunt, and race for the finish line in a totally grand Grand Prix. With its built-in spinner and a selection of game pieces, MAISY'S FIRST GAME BOOK has everything preschoolers need to play five fantastic, fun-packed board games, Maisy-style.

The Cranium Ultimate Book of Fantastic Fun & Games: Share the Fun with Family and Friends (Cranium)

It's time to gather your family and friends together for some seriously fantastic fun! You'll act, sculpt, guess, draw, and laugh your way through every page of this rewritable book that's packed with games and activities you can play again and again. Turn your dining room into a game show with Wheel of Words! Move and groove around the house as you throw your own Dance Party! Sculpt a new 'do (or two!) with Hairdo Hilarity! With dozens of fun activities, the fantastic fun time is endless!

Here's all the cool Cranium stuff you'll find inside:

-Fold-out Cranium Fantastic Fun Game
-Cranium Super Spinner
-Two Flipper Frogs
-Deluxe Game Piece
-Huge tub of Cranium Clay
-100 Game Cards
-Erasable Marker
-Sand Timer

The Cranium Ultimate Book of Fantastic Fun & Games will provide hours of game-time fun for you and your family and friends!

The Chess Kid's Book of Tactics (Chess)

In chess, tactics are the tricks and techniques players use to get a quick advantage over their opponents. David MacEnulty, a former director of program development in New York City's award-winning Chess-in-the-Schools program, teaches students how to develop a tactical mindset. In The Chess Kid's Book of Tactics, he instructs 6-10-year-old players in how to recognize the basic chess patterns and how to apply those patterns to understand-and win-the game.