No Stress Chess
by Winning Moves
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Our Price: $12.28
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Category: Toy
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Product Summary
Manufacturer: Winning MovesBrand: Winning Moves
Release Date: 2006-05-22
Model: 1091
Product features:
- 2 sided game board, one side with hints, one without
- 16 Staunton chess pieces (ivory & black)
- 56 action cards, card tray and rules
- Learn while you play
Toys and Games Reviews of No Stress Chess
Customer Review: Another 4 year old plays chess!
Summary: 5 Stars
OUR RESULTS
I read the other review about how a 4 year old learned to play chess with this set, and was a bit skeptical. But, we put this on our child's wishlist, and a relative got it for 4th birthday. Sure enough, our child can now can play chess without the cards. It started about two weeks into playing, where our child wanted to move a piece other than the card drawn. Knew that the other piece would be a better move! We started phasing the cards out as noted below.
I still haven't taught en passant, but otherwise, playing full on chess. Not bad for four and a half! Yup, it's been six months and still plays. Asking *me* if I'd like to play it when I get home, not the other way around. Our games can take up to an hour to play. This is teaching great concentration skills, patience, and strategy!
Now, about once every other game, I get one of my pieces captured that I did not expect! Time for me to work on my game now!
Here's the review on the product itself:
INCREDIBLE idea!
Makes it easy to teach anyone chess! This is perhaps the easiest way to learn the basics of the game! The only problem I face now is trying to find a book on deeper concepts written for four year olds (forks, pins, basic strategies). I remember one that was good for 7 to 10 year olds written years ago when I was in middle school, but can't find it anywhere.
MATERIALS
Could be better. They should make a deluxe set with higher quality materials.
We both love the two sided board. One side shows where the pieces go, and suggest some opening moves. The other side is a normal board, which we now use. The board itself is a bit flimsy, but that's not my main complaint. It hasn't fallen apart in six months, which is pretty good considering that a four year old plays on it.
The card holder works for about 5 games. After which, the cards bend enough where it won't hold all of them very well. They start sliding out. It needs to be a bit deeper, and made with sturdier/thicker material. Cards are decent, but could be made of better material.
The chess pieces are run-of-the-mill hollow plastic pieces. No complaints. Sometimes our child will use a pawn on top of a bishop to represent an extra Queen on the board. Can't do that with wood pieces!
GAME PLAY
As noted in other reviews, there are various levels of game play. The first level has each player drawing only one card. If that piece can't move or has been captured, you lose a turn. Because of this type of restricted game play, you actually capture the king, instead of checkmate him. You also can do bold moves that would be really, really stupid in a standard game of chess. Because of this, shifting over to real chess takes a little while, but I still think this is the best way to learn chess.
Other game levels include holding more cards in your hand, giving you more options. The only problem with these game levels is it doesn't really describe what to do in end game, when often all of your cards cannot be used. Our solution: when no cards in your hand are usable, your turn is spent by discarding your hand & redrawing cards.
Rule Variations for you to try:
I didn't see rules on how to castle. In our variation, we wait until we have the King & Rook card then use them both and redraw two cards.
I'm the kind of dad that has a really hard time just letting my child win. I think deep down they can tell when I throw a match, and I think that part of growing up includes learning to lose gracefully and learning from your mistakes. But, I realize the need to win sometimes to not get completely discouraged. So, we came up with these variations to level the playing field:
Child has more cards (and options) than parent.
Child doesn't use cards, but parent does.
This started with me using one card (the most restrictive) and I kept increasing the number as our child got better.
Swap Sides:
Neither of us use the cards anymore, but our child can swap sides once per game. This worked for about 10 games until our child started sacrificing most pieces then swapped to have a major upper hand. Now can only swap if there at least five pieces and not in check. I'll keep raising this number and eventually phase out swapping.
I would recommend this product to anyone who hasn't played chess yet!
Description of No Stress Chess
With this revolutionary chess teacher, you'll be playing the world's greatest game in no time at all! Unlike any other chess teacher, No Stress Chess teaches you how to play using illustrated cards and an illustrated two-sided game board. Includes two-sided chess board, 17 charcoal pieces, 17 ivory pieces, 56 action cards, black plastic card tray and instructions. For two players.Board Games Toys
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