The Little Explorers library
Free books, for every family
Made so the chess a child meets in a session keeps going at home. Every move checked by computer. Free, for every family, no sign-up.
Why we make them
Made for home, not for class
These are not the books the programme is taught from. A session is live: a coach in the room and children playing, on a floor board or at tables, standing up or sitting down, whatever suits the group in front of us. The books exist so that what a child met in a session has somewhere to go afterwards: a story to be read to them, a puzzle to do with a parent, a page to colour.
We care a great deal about how children learn, and about what chess gives them beyond the game: attention, patience, a way of thinking before acting. A book is the simplest way to send that home in a form a family can hold. So each one is written with the same care as a session, every chess move in it is checked by computer against the rules before the PDF exists, and every one is free, for families in the programme and for families who are not.
Book 1 · Ages 4 to 8
The Little Explorers of Dublin
Pip is the smallest pawn in a box on a classroom shelf. One night he sets out for the far side of the board, and the board turns into Dublin. Phoenix Park, the Ha’penny Bridge, Christ Church, Dublin Castle, the Spire, the DART and the Poolbeg chimneys, and at every stop, one true thing about how a chess piece moves.
- 16 pages, A4, to read on a screen or print at home
- A real chessboard, beside every page of the story
- Every move checked, by computer against the rules
- A page to colour, at the end
Book 2 · Junior Infants to 2nd Class
First Moves
The infant programme, on paper. The board and the name of every square, the six pieces and how each one moves, taking, and fourteen puzzles with exactly one right answer each. Five minutes a page, read with a grown-up, answers at the back.
- 24 pages, one idea a page, in big type
- 14 puzzles, one right answer each, checked by computer
- Make your own, a blank board to invent a puzzle on
- A page to colour, the whole team
Book 3 · 3rd to 6th Class
Real Games
The ideas that win games at this age, each shown once in a real position and then practised: mate in one, taking what is free, the fork, the pin, the back rank, mate in two. The two endings every child should be able to finish, the opening in three rules, and the three questions to ask before every move. Sixty puzzles, all from real games.
- 28 pages, six chapters, two endings, one checklist
- 60 puzzles, from real games, every solution checked
- Answers in notation, explained on page 3 in two minutes
- The board turned round, whenever Black is to move
Private
Book 4 · For competitors in the programme
The Competitor’s Book
Openings explained rather than memorised, the endings that decide games, how to prepare for a tournament and how to think with a clock running. Written for the children in the programme who play competitively, and given to them directly.
- Private, not published
- For the programme, sent to competitors directly
Private. Given directly to competitors in the programme.
A question about the books?
A book you would like to see, or a mistake you have spotted: get in touch.