Intended primarily for parents or educators whos kids are just beginning chess, and written at a level children themselves can find accessable, CHESS FOR SUCCESS is a unique kind of chess book. The book itself is not even shelved in the "chess" section of the bookstore.
The book is written as a kind of pean to the benefits of chess play for children, and Ashley lists the kinds of success chess has created for inner-city youth across the United States. There are testimonials (somewhat overdone), as well as sections where Ashley backs up these testimonials, citing specific studies. These studies include sections where Ashley regurgitates research on the psychology of "flow", as well as where Ashley presents digested explanations of chess's relationship to the "40 Developmental Assets" and to Bloom's taxonomy theory. With all the chearleading and feel-good stories, at times this book reads like a drawn-out Reader's Digest article, but the book has enough meat, however, to transcend that stereotype, and there are enough concepts repackaged and digested to make the reading worthwhile. Early in the book, Ashely presents the reader with a brief history of chess (presumably written to get the chess neophytes up to speed).
There is a well-written chapter on how to motivate young girls to play chess, and there is a final chapter where Ashley waxes philosophic about psychological aspects of chess play. This last chapter is the best, and reminds me of the interview Ashley gave in Chess Life, in 1999, right after he became a Grandmaster. In this last chapter, Ashley talks about how to handle "chaos" over the chessboard and how to "think like a child" again. The best written passage of the entire book is on the third to last page where Ashley describes how he (and I'm paraphrasing here) "saw a knight again for the first time." Compelling stuff.
If you're willing to plough through the feel-good testimonials and the
occasional typo and punctuation error, I recommend this book. This is a quick
read; Ashley is an inspiration.