The Magic of Parker the Pawn

I’ve had a number of great experiences with Dave’s chess books. But a very special one happened as I was getting ready to teach a group of 5- and 6-year-olds. As the kids were coming into the classroom, I noticed a 5-year-old girl who was exhibiting a lot of anxiety and didn’t want to play chess. She went into the corner and started crying and said she wanted to go home to her mother. I decided it would best for one of my team members to get the assistant principal.

In the meantime, I showed her a copy of Parker’s Chess Adventure, which not only has 100 chess puzzles, but more importantly in this case, a colorable story about Parker the Pawn. I gave her the book and some crayons and she started coloring. After she colored a while, her anxiety vanished and she no longer wanted to go home to her mom. My two assistants and the assistant principal were shocked at her turnaround. They couldn’t believe what had happened. When she was no longer upset, I asked her if she’d like to be my helper. She agreed and went on to really enjoy being part of the class. The bottom line is there’s now one more child that’s interested in a game that will benefit her for the rest of her life because of her experience with this book.

I’ve also had other positive experiences with Parker’s Chess Adventure. Some kids might start out not being excited about chess but they enjoy coloring the cartoon characters or reading Parker’s story. This opens the door, and bit by bit they get into the lessons in the book, which cover a wide range of chess tactics.

I’ve been teaching chess to kids for over 30 years and have hundreds of chess books. I could teach using almost any of them but I choose to use Dave’s books all the time.

Jim Della Selva
Two-time Rhode Island state chess champion and chess coach