If you look at the Chess Heroes books you may notice they’re not written in the way most chess books are written.

I have very specific principles I use when writing for novices, some of which are chess specific, but some could be applied to other domains.

Every sentence and every position is there for a specific reason.

• Novice tuition – learning anything for the first time – requires repetition, reinforcement and feedback. Teach one thing at a time, only moving on once it is fully understood.
  
• Novice tuition should be fully structured with one thing leading on to another, gradually building knowledge and skill, step by step.
  
• Playing a proficient game of chess requires cognitive skills not generally associated with primary school children, so the books aren’t written for children of that age.
  
• Avoid distractions such as jokes and cartoons (they create attention problems, cognitive load problems etc).
  
• Use active rather than passive learning wherever possible: provide exercises to solve, positions to play out.
  
• Use simple language and grammar with full explanations and worked examples to aid comprehension.
  
• Understand that true mastery involves doing simple things well, not trying to do complex things badly, and that chess games are lost by playing bad moves, not won by playing brilliant moves.
  
• Take examples wherever possible from games played at your target level, not from games played at much higher levels.
  
• Avoid complications such as pages of quiz questions where the player to move varies randomly: test chess rather than attention.
  
• Be very careful to avoid any possible ambiguities and contextualisation errors.
  
• Technical terms are highlighted with reference to a glossary to ensure full comprehension and avoid misunderstandings.
  
• Chess requires specific cognitive skills as well as chess knowledge/skills, so attention is paid to how students might learn and develop these skills.