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Chessville
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The Great Pawn Hunter Chess Tutorial Stories, Poetry and Games Reviewed by Rick Kennedy
The Challenge… My assignment was to review Manus Patrick Fealy’s The Great Pawn Hunter Chess Tutorial. I could see it: stories, poetry and games from an Irishman who loves his whiskey… Ok, that was pushing it a bit. (I imagined Manny shaking a wry finger at me.) Fealy is an Irish American, although his folks came to America from Donegal and County Kerry Ireland. Oh, and the “whiskey” he loves – that’s Whiskey, his cat.
The author likes telling tall tales, as did his father (they loved swapping them), and he has enchanted chess players both young and old with stories of The Great Pawn Hunter, The Restless Knight, The Talker, The Bad Bishop, Morphy T. Bear and The Old Maestro, among other characters. The book in front of me had all that and even more: instructive chess battles and reflective and uplifting poems. [Editor: find a sampling of Manny Paddy Fealy's work here: The Great Pawn Hunter] Self-published chess books have always had a very special place in my heart, which is why I jumped ahead of the other Chessville reviewers for this one; but I was secretly worried about tackling The Great Pawn Hunter, because of its literary nature. Truth be told, my last English class had been during the early Richard Nixon years. I mentioned my misgivings to Jon, youngest of the Kennedy Kids. “Analyze a poem? How hard can that be?” he asked. Then he grabbed an old hardcover down from the hall bookshelf, opened it randomly, and announced “Watch – and learn!” My Anther… by Jon The Panther (by Ogden Nash) The panther1 is like a
leopard2,
A Sudden Realization… Well, that didn’t work out so well… More to the Point… by Mary Elizabeth I take chess lessons down at the Club. No offense to our Coach, but sometimes he goes on and on and on, and it’s hard for me to sit still and listen. One thing I have learned about Mr. Fealy is that he teaches chess to children in his hometown, at the local Library. He knows what I’m talking about, and he knows what he’s talking about, too. “I noticed that the children could only sit for so long at the chessboard before becoming fidgety. So, I read them a story or two and found that they really liked it and could sit still for another lesson.” (He wrote this in an email to my Dad.) What I like about Mr. Fealy’s book, The Great Pawn Hunter Chess Tutorial, is that his young characters have all these fun adventures. I especially liked the time when The Great Pawn Hunter went to a chess tournament with a note from his Coach with four good rules for play. Except The Great Pawn Hunter got them mixed up in his head – he was nervous, we all get nervous – and they came out (1) Push a pawn to the side of the board, (2) Castle to the center, (3) Touch the king a second time, and (4) When in doubt take a pawn! He tried these in the first round against his enemy, The Talker, and, OhMyGosh, he got a terrible game. But he won in three moves, anyway.
The Restless Knight played: 4. Ng5! to enter into the Fried Liver Attack. The Restless Knight’s heart was pounding harder than a drum! She was awaiting The Talker’s reply.
Some of the games are more complicated than this one, but each has teaching points for the student. And I’ll bet The Talker wishes he could play chess like a girl, too, now! Another Chance, Please?… by Jon Advanced Center! Alternating Threats! Backward Pawn! Centralization! Chess Psychology! Clearance Sacrifice! Decoy! Destroying Pawn Shield! Discovered Attack! Double Attack! Exchange Sacrifice! Who would have guessed that an index of the themes covered in The Great Pawn Hunter would be so exciting?? And I’m only getting started… That’s Enough For Now, Little Brother… by Matt Mr. Fealy has done a lot of work as a chess instructor, as can be seen by the resources on his web page http://members.aol.com/manusfealy. I recommend you make use of these as well as those within The Great Pawn Hunter. In the first months of the year Mr. Fealy can be found teaching chess to children on Saturday mornings at the Jamaica Plain branch (est. 1876) of the Boston Public Library (the first municipally funded library in the U.S.A.). As he wrote, “I would read them a story each week and the children would tell their parents that they can't wait for the day of chess class to come.” The tales he tells come from Mr. Fealy’s own adventures as a child. His poetry makes you think, it makes you smile, it makes you feel.
The Sleepy Sire’s Ending
The fight!
The edge without reason
How can one serve “Keep pushing them back!”
from his sleeping lips,
One king in the center
And his pawn wall is dreaming:
When from the other wing they heard And, his lordship’s lips became a frown.
(Friend, you can’t look up Checkmate is where it led him.
So, marshal your troops
Shhh, don’t wake him now.
The Great Pawn Hunter A Final Word… or Two Thirty eight stories. Thirty nine poems. Over two hundred diagrams (including a Knight’s Tour). Seventeen games covering eleven different openings. Opening Appendix, Player Appendix, Poem Appendix and Index. Mary… There’s a whole lot of everything in The Great Pawn Hunter. Jon… I love the chess battle between the spirit and the gravedigger – a Halloween humdinger! Matt… Mr. Fealy leads with his heart – and soul. And a Final Question:
What in the world is a “gippy”,
Manny, and why should I sharpen it?
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