NickNick Thomas wrote:I've no idea if it's aged badly as I don't remember ever reading it although it seems unlikely that it hasn't aged somewhat in 30+ years. Reading the reviews worries me though as I get the impression that it's a basic opening book and I can't particularly see a use for that amongst the target buyer. I would think that most 7-11 yo beginners would be immediately put off by anything but the most brief chess notations and most won't need or want to learn chess theory. I'm also not clear whether the book was written for children.
I agree entirely, and have made the same observation elsewhere on the forum. As far as I know, and Stewart will correct me if I'm wrong, it was not written for young children. I suggested that, for example, the Tim Onions book on openings would have been a much more suitable choice for Primary Schools, while using Stewart's book for Secondary Schools.
I believe this to be symptomatic of what has been going wrong in Primary School chess for the past 20 years or so. Take the Right Move magazine, for example. It seems to me that the writing, analysis and production are all outstanding: but most of the content is way over the heads of 99% of Primary School chess players. It's quite understandable that strong players coming into Primary School chess clubs will prefer to focus on the top few players, and the others will fall by the wayside. Young children need to be taught the basics slowly, step by step, before being introduced to competitive chess, and, within the framework of a typical primary school chess club, this is not really possible. There is little understanding of the needs of those young beginners (the vast majority) who do not have a chess background at home, and little realisation of how hard it is for most of them to make progress beyond how the pieces move.
I spent 15 years myself helping to run Primary and Prep School chess clubs. Out of all the hundreds of children in those clubs, the number who made any further progress after the age of 11 could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and even those all dropped out of competitive chess during their teenage years. It was also clear to me that if the boy I was 50 years ago had gone to one of those clubs I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it, and I certainly wouldn't have had anything to do with chess as an adult.
There are several other, and, I think, better ways in which we can approach Primary School chess. The Dutch Steps course and the course used by AF4C in the US are two very different but equally well thought out approaches, and there are no doubt others of which I am unaware.