Book picks similar to
Chess Rules of Thumb by Lev Alburt


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One Lonely Seahorse


Saxton Freymann - 2000
    Fantastic food sculptures tell the tale of a lonely seahorse whose friends arrive in progressively larger groups, proving with humor and flair that they can be counted on

Building a House


Byron Barton - 1981
    "You could almost do it yourself--by carefully noting the steps depicted in each bright, brisk, clearly delineated picture....With independently interesting pictures and a definite, sunny personality, a very fine piece of work indeed."--Kirkus Reviews

The Boy Who Wouldn't Share


Mike Reiss - 2008
    She cannot ride his rocking horse, hug his teddy bear, or even think about touching his Slinky."They're mine!"he says. That is, until one day when Edward finds himself stuck under his enormous pile of toys and can't move! With a little help from an unlikely ally, he learns that if he can share with others, they'll share right back with him.Mike Reiss's wickedly funny verse and David Catrow's remarkable gift for comic illustration make this one book you'll want to share—again and again!

Have You Filled a Bucket Today? / Fill a Bucket


Carol McCloud
    

All the Wrong Moves: A Memoir about Chess, Love, and Ruining Everything


Sasha Chapin - 2019
    Like countless amateurs before him--Albert Einstein, Humphrey Bogart, Marcel Duchamp--the game has consumed his life and his mind. First captivated by it as a member of his high school chess club, his passion was rekindled during an accidental encounter with chess hustlers on the streets of Kathmandu. In its aftermath, he forgot how to care about anything else. He played at all hours, for weeks at a time. Like a spurned lover, he tried to move on, but he found the game more seductive the more he resisted it.And so, he thought, if he can't defeat his obsession, he had to succumb to it. All the Wrong Moves traces Chapin's rollicking two-year journey around the globe in search of glory. He travels to tournaments in Bangkok and Hyderabad. He seeks out a mentor in St. Louis, a grandmaster whose personality is half rabbi and half monk, and who offers cryptic wisdom and caustic insults ("you're the best player in your chair"). His story builds toward the Los Angeles Open, where Chapin is clearly outmatched and yet no less determined not to lose.Along the way, he chronicles the highs and lows of his fixation, driven on this quest by lust, terror, and the elusive possibility of victory. Stylish, inventive, and laugh-out-loud funny, All the Wrong Moves is more than a work of history or autobiography. It's a celebration of the purity, violence, and beauty of the game.

Block City


Robert Louis Stevenson - 1988
    It is a joyous look at playtime that will encourage toddlers to build dreams all their own!

Home Sausage Making: How-To Techniques for Making and Enjoying 100 Sausages at Home


Susan Mahnke Peery - 2002
    With simple instructions for more than 100 recipes made from pork, beef, chicken, turkey, poultry, and fish — including classics like Kosher Salami and Italian Cotechino — you’re sure to find a sausage to suit your taste.

Chess for Kids


Michael Basman - 2000
    Chess board graphics illustrate different scenarios and support the text explanations so readers can visualize different moves and their potential outcomes as they go.Let Chess for Kids and International Master Michael Basman turn you into a champion chess player.

Dream Something Big


Dianna Hutts Aston - 2011
    National Landmark. Readers watch the towers rise from his little plot of land in Watts, California, through the eyes of a fictional girl as she grows and raises her own children. Chronicled in stunningly detailed collage that mimics Rodia's found-object art, this thirty-four-year journey becomes a mesmerizing testament to perseverance and possibility. A final, innovative "build-your-own-tower" activity makes this multicultural, intergenerational tribute a classroom natural and a perfect gift-sure to encourage kids to follow their own big dreams.

Mind Master: Winning Lessons from a Champion's Life


Viswanathan Anand - 2019
    1, bagged five World Championship titles and won tournaments across all formats of the game. A peerless ambassador of chess, his is one of the most revered names in the sport.In Mind Master, Vishy looks back on a lifetime of games played, opponents tackled and circumstances overcome, and draws from its depths significant tools that will help every reader navigate life’s challenges:What role do tactics and strategy play in the preparation for achieving a goal?How can emotions be harnessed to your advantage in tricky situations?What precautions should you take before you decide to leave your comfort zone and embrace risk?What do you need to do to stay relevant in the face of rapidly changing realities?Is unlearning really the only way to learn?These are just some of the nuggets Vishy touches upon with characteristic wit, easy wisdom and disarming candour in Mind Master – a delightful and invaluable exploration into the self that will thrill, inspire and motivate readers as few books have done before.

The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster


Tim Crothers - 2012
    Phiona has been out of school most of her life because her mother cannot afford it, so she is only now learning to read and write. Phiona Mutesi is also one of the best chess players in the world.One day in 2005, while searching for food, nine-year-old Phiona followed her brother to a dusty veranda where she met Robert Katende, who had also grown up in the Kampala slums. Katende, a war refugee turned missionary, had an improbable dream: to empower kids through chess—a game so foreign there is no word for it in their native language. Laying a chessboard in the dirt of the Katwe slum, Robert painstakingly taught the game each day. When he left at night, slum kids played on with bottlecaps on scraps of cardboard. At first they came for a free bowl of porridge, but many grew to love chess, a game that—like their daily lives—means persevering against great obstacles. Of these kids, one stood out as an immense talent: Phiona.By the age of eleven Phiona was her country’s junior champion and at fifteen, the national champion. In September 2010, she traveled to Siberia, a rare journey out of Katwe, to compete in the Chess Olympiad, the world’s most prestigious team-chess event. Phiona’s dream is to one day become a Grandmaster, the most elite title in chess. But to reach that goal, she must grapple with everyday life in one of the world’s most unstable countries, a place where girls are taught to be mothers, not dreamers, and the threats of AIDS, kidnapping, and starvation loom over the people.Like Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, The Queen of Katwe is an intimate and heartrending portrait of human life on the poor fringes of the twenty-first century.

The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine


Tom Standage - 2002
    Created by a Hungarian nobleman, the machine-man known as The Turk traveled Europe and America, made the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin, Catherine the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Edgar Allan Poe.

The Luzhin Defense


Vladimir Nabokov - 1929
    Luzhin, a distracted, withdrawn boy, takes up chess as a refuge from everyday life. As he rises to the heights of grandmaster, the game of chess gradually supplants the world of reality as he moves inexorably towards madness.

The Chess Machine


Robert Löhr - 2007
    But what the Habsburg court hails as the greatest innovation of the century is really nothing more than a brilliant illusion. The chess machine is secretly operated from inside by the Italian dwarf Tibor, a God-fearing social outcast whose chess-playing abilities and diminutive size make him the perfect accomplice in this grand hoax.Von Kempelen and his helpers tour his remarkable invention all around Europe to amaze and entertain the public, but despite many valiant attempts and close calls, no one is able to beat the extraordinary chess machine. The crowds all across Europe adore the Turk, and the success of Baron von Kempelen seems assured. But when a beautiful and seductive countess dies under mysterious circumstances in the presence of the automaton, the Mechanical Turk falls under a cloud of suspicion, and the machine and his inventor become the target of espionage, persecution, and aristocratic intrigue.

Worth Billions


Lexy Timms - 2018
    I left for college and never looked back. Ensconced in my luxurious, and lucrative, vineyard, I barely ever spare a thought for my old life. Until I got word that my self-declared 'godfather' had passed and put me in charge of his estate. Now I've got to go back to the town where the cows outnumber the people to put his affairs in order. I expected to see familiar faces, a little order, a lot worse for wear. What I didn't expect to see is the fresh-faced female who snuck into my bed, and who's trying to sneak into my heart. But can I trust her, or is she after my bank account and not my affection? Warning: This is a steamy romance story that includes adult content suitable for readers 18+ WORTH IT SERIES: Worth Billions Worth Every Cent Worth More Than Money Readers who love Billionaire Boss Series, Rags to Riches, and stories where love only comes around once in a lifetime, will enjoy this alpha bad boy story.