First of all, there is a wonderful article about “Chess and Children – A Guide for Educators” (Dr. Alexey Root) here.
Secondly, there is a review in the NY Times about the new book “The Immortal Game” by David Shenk.
Here is an excerpt:
For all the words written on the topic of chess — and there are entire libraries devoted to the subject — some fundamental mysteries persist: What exactly are the origins of the game? Why do so many world champions end up as lunatics? And why has chess endured well into the age of the Xbox, while thousands of other games have disappeared over the centuries?
David Shenk has no definitive answers but in his new book he explores chess as metaphor, chess as addiction, chess as a window into the workings of the human brain, even chess as a hope for humankind. He begins with the obligatory discussion of what is known about the beginnings of the game: Some 1,500 years ago in Persia, by way of India, there emerged a two-player war game called chatrang, played with a counselor where the queen now sits and elephants instead of bishops. Rather than being invented all at once “in a fit of inspiration by a single king, general, philosopher or court wizard,” the game we know today was “the result of years of tinkering by a large, decentralized group, a slow achievement of collective intelligence.” More recently, chess has made its way onto hundreds of Web sites, where buffs from around the world convene to play online and millions of games already played are archived and available for study.
Critics may point out that Shenk himself isn’t much of a chess player, as he readily admits. But a popular survey like this one doesn’t need a grandmaster, and Shenk, a spry writer who has also written books on Alzheimer’s disease, technology and other subjects, has a good sense of what might interest a general reader. Although the book’s subtitle promises a history of chess, its more interesting pages offer something closer to meditation, personal revelation and the exploration of what he calls “the deep history of chess’s entanglement with the human mind.”
You can read the rest of it here.
Since David Shenk and I have the same publisher, I am trying to get the publisher to arrange an exclusive interview. I’ll let you know if it can be done since he is on a nationwide book tour right now. In any case, my thanks to Dr. Anthony Saidy (IM) and Dr. Alexey Root (WIM) for alerting me about this book. 
This book received a very good review from National Public Raido (one of the few books I have heard reviewed there). The reporter, a regular on NPR who interviewed the author is also an avid chess player. We need more books like this one.
Thanx Susan! From the article I was able to get contact info for my old friends Doug and Alexey Root. I miss them since they moved from California.