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Summary: "Daddy, can I play Fritz and Chesster! And Bianca!"
Review: Fritz and Chesster was the holiday hit at our house. It lives up to all the reviews. I was a little nervous about unleashing a five year old on it, but my daughter is hooked on the game and has worked her way up the levels of challenge with an intensity that I haven't seen her put into other things. And Bianca, Fritz's queen, gives it a feminist angle.What I found most interesting was her ability (and interest) in going back to replay parts she hadn't quite mastered conceptually even though she understood what she was challenged to do. The learning approach is very thought out, and previous criticism of the game is accurate. It is clearly a "must buy" if you think your child might be interested in chess.
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Summary: 6.5 yr neice played chess in 1 week. CD IS COPY PROTECTED
Review: Got this for my six and a half yr. old neice for christmas. She played her first chess game on Jan 2nd. Great Software WARNING. This CD is copy protected. I was unable to make a backup copy of this CD. I tried 2 different copying programs, ruined 4 disks, same result. Six - Seven year olds are not very good at handling CDs. I am worried that we will lose this game if she causes a scratch on the CD. Also there is no indication on the CD that this is COPY Protected.
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Summary: Love it!
Review: I bought this game from a software club on a whim. My 7 and 8 year old boys were sort of interested in chess, and my husband's name is Fritz. So I thought if I was lucky, the software could help them learn some of the basics of chess. It has FAR surpassed my expectations. They love it, and have spent HOURS playing it. They know how all the pieces move, have learned some of the finer points such as "castling", and still keep playing. I hear them repeating the little rhymes that the program uses to help them remember different strategies...."a knight on the rim is ugly and dim"...."pawns are afraid of nothing; they move straight ahead", etc. In just a couple of weeks, they know WAY more than I know about chess. I would love to have this program in my middle school classroom, as I think my students there would enjoy it, as well.
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Summary: AWESOME tool to help teach your child CHESS!
Review: I have a five year old and my husband is teaching him how to play chess. We bought this game because he LOVES to play on the computer. This game is AWESOME! He played it for hours straight. It is a really fun way to learn the moves and strategies of the game. My husband even learned a few things he didn't know. I think it is one of those games that is definitely worth the money!
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Summary: Incredible Instructional Design
Review: I have been an instructional designer for 12 years,and I played chess in high school on the chess team. This is an absolutely amazing piece of instructional design, I have seen none better in my entire career. I would also highly recommend Majestic Chess, which also has brilliant instructional design. Between these two programs, you cannot possibly be intimidated by chess.
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Summary: Play against the Machine(Chesster the Rat). 5 stars.
Review: I searched around for a long time looking for a good chess game for kids. I wanted more than just another "chess" game that starts out with the board and you just make moves. I bought this one based on many positive reviews here and elsewhere.
This is by far one of the best games we own, and we own a lot. It has great graphics, sound, animation, and funny characters. It has lots of mini-games and strategy building sessions. As you complete sessions, you advance through the game and unlock rooms and harder players. Of course, you can always just play a great game of chess with it as well.
My 5 year old plays it by himself with no trouble at all. I find myself playing it as well after the kids go to sleep. It really is fun for all ages.
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Summary: Great Chess Instruction, Clever, Funny and addictive!
Review: My 5 year old wanted to learn how to play chess. I taught him, but I knew having reinforcement would help....furthermore, I didn't/don't know ALL there is to know about chess so I really wanted the help. I did a search and ran into this gem of a program...and I couldn't be happier. With a story line, arcade like games, mazes, mini chess lessons and Chester the rat (who happens to be a chess master and your mentor) it doesn't get any better than this....Yes, there are flaws, but none worth mentioning, because they don't take away from the beauty and value of this program. My son has already applied much of what he's learned...and he hasn't even finished his "training" with Chester yet! Moreover, the games you play with Chester (in preparation to face the evil king) can be set at vairious levels of difficulty. And that means it's going to take a while to grow out of this program (it'll challenge mom and dad easily!) Truly a parents dream when it comes to software. I played it first to check it out, and I really didn't have to. This is a purchase you won't regret.
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Summary: Wonderful!
Review: My daughter is 8 and I recently bought this for her. She's never played chess before and her attention span can be somewhat limited at times. I played this game for a little while before letting her play (she had chores to finish and so I could see if it was something she'd be able to do). At first I was a little worried, some of the arcade games seemed to me to be too hard and not have enough instructions. At any rate I loaded it up and let her play, and she spent over 6 hours in one weekend totally absorbed and loving every minute of it. Some of the arcade games were too hard so she just skipped those, I don't know if it will have any negative effect on her later game play, but so far so good! Anything that is educational and can keep a child absorbed for so long is well worth the money. I hope she finishes the game so she and I can play chess together!
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Summary: Wonderful teaching tool
Review: My daughter is 8 and she's wanted to learn to play chess for a while. So, I got out the board and attempted to teach her. But it is just one of those things -- I can play better than I can teach. Needless to say, we didn't get far that way. Several weeks ago I was looking at something online and noticed a review on another site for this game. I investigated more and couldn't find a single negative review of it on any site. Think how rare that is! So I purchased it for my daughter. After she installed it, she played it almost non-stop for hours. This went on for a few days. Since I didn't spend a lot of time looking over her shoulder I asked her how she felt about the game. She thinks this game is a winner. The way they break down the game so you become intimate with the characteristics of each piece is wonderful. They also spend time getting a child to be able to understand certain strategies and I think they do it well. Their mini-games are just right, in my opinion. She's now playing chess against the game and winning some and losing some, depending on the level she plays. But she feels good having learned the game and I think it actually helped her confidence a bit, too. I guess it feels good to be 8 and able to say, "Why yes, I play chess."
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Summary: Very nice!
Review: My daughter is going to be 5 next month and she loves chess a lot. We started with Chessmaster's training but it frequently required a lot of assistance from us to sit with her as Chessmaster's UI (9000) is buggy in a lot of respects (So adults can figure around some of them but kids may have difficulty). A week or so back, I got this one (when it was released) and since then, my daughter has already done a number of the puzzles in it and really enjoys it. If you want your child to do chess, I would definitely recommend it.
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