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A Fabulous Chess Teaching Tool! Highest Recommendations!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: May 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Chess in not an easy game to teach, to learn or to play well. But it is a terrific game for children because it is fun, and it teaches logic and reasoning. My cousin's seven year-old recently expressed an interest in chess, and was fascinated as I introduced the pieces to him, explained their functions and took him through some basic moves. I was so enthused by his enthusiasm, that I bought the "Learn to Play Chess with Fritz and Chesster" software, by Viva Media, which came highly recommended. His mother has been complaining ever since, that she cannot drag him away from the PC. He is addicted and I cannot figure out if this is a plus or a minus. Anyway, I have been challenged to a game next weekend, and I had better brush up.

This is excellent software for true beginners. The player, (or two), is engaged from the outset with an animated adventure storyline and simple, but entertaining, arcade games which introduce chess basics before moving on to a more advanced level. The plot features the wise King White and his Queen, who go to the seashore for a brief holiday. Their son, Prince Fritz, and his cousin Bianca, stand-in for the monarchs. Evil King Black seizes this opportunity to challenge the boy to a duel while his parents are away. Children put Fritz and Bianca through their paces at the Intelligym while they train their brains for the upcoming confrontation.

First, however, six training games must be mastered. These games teach the move concepts for all of the chess pieces. After basic training, the player goes through three additional levels of chess activities using each of the pieces. When mastery of these levels is achieved, the player can move on to simulated games.

Individual players are able to continue at their own pace. It is possible to move back, practice activities and brush-up on skills, although you cannot move forward without successfully completing each level.

All games, even serious ones like chess, should be fun. The powerful "brain" behind all this entertainment is the well known Fritz chess engine, used by grandmasters to train for tournaments. Winner of the 2003 Bologna New Media Prize, the program is very easy to install and navigate and is perfect for all ages, especially age 7 and up, (depending on the child).
The software program comes with free access to the (...) Website, where players can participate in games for one year.

This has been a most rewarding purchase. Not only is a little boy I love learning to play an extraordinary game, but I have gained another chess partner.
JANA

Learn to Play Chess with Fritz and Chesster

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: October 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I wanted a game that helped my 6 year old advance his interest in chess and this did the trick. He learned about how the pieces moved, their names, how to write the codes for the moves and had a great time doing it. If you never played chess or just want a game to learn more about strategies and technique - this is it.

Disappointing chess product

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 21
Date: July 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I was extremely disappointed with this chess software. With my newest PC I bought this year, the program is buggy when it comes to sound and music, which they do acknowledge in their manual.

The product also lacks knowledge of what keeps a child's interest. For an adult or child, the dialog and some exercises were lengthy, and uninteresting.

There were a couple of fun exercises, but really not worth the price as a whole.

If your a chess player, I suggest you teach your kid yourself, or
find another chess program.

There's got to be something better than this.

Love it!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: May 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

Great Games

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: March 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

PROS:
My kids loved it. I believe they now know how to play chess.
Kids had a lot of fun learning the game.
It puts the "Fun" back into playing chess
Easy to follow - even my seven year old llearned on his own.

CONS:
It seems to be addictive, because I can't stop my kids from playing it.
I not sure if this game has multiplayer mode, because my kids are always fighting over it.....

Better then playing X-Box

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: May 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

My 6 year old son learned to play chess so well using this game that he is challenging me. He says it is more fun than playing a video game on X-Box. This CD uses "games" to teach how each of the pieces move. The kids don't even realize they are learning to play chess! There is a grading system, and when the kids are ready, they can play a real game against the computer using the "characters" they just learned to move. You can adjust the skill level so anyone from beginner to advanced will enjoy it. I even like playing it!

Great for Beginners, Intermediate and Experts

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: August 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This was a great game for my 6 year old son. He's been playing chess for about 6 months and knows the basics. I wanted him to start to learn and understand strategy. This software reinforced the basic principles of the game, plus taught him some things that the book we checked out of the library didn't tell him. When he and I started playing regular games on his chess board, I was amazed at the strategies he was employing and the moves he was making based on what he learned from this computer game. Even my husband, who is a very good chess player, enjoyed playing the computer game and it gave father and son yet another fun activity to share. I highly recommend this product for young children at any level.

Learn to Play Chess with Fritz and Chesster

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: March 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

an excellent chess program for all ages. My 5 yo loves it. Shipping was fast and exactly as advertised.

This is what kids software is meant to be!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: August 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is amazing software. It starts simple, is fun without being irrelevant, and covers the very core of chess. I knew my 5 year old loved it, and played it for ages (up to an hour), and I knew that the software had infinite patience, unlike me when he chose to do things wrong over and over again. But when I heard him explaining the en-passant rule and why "a knight on the rim is ugly and dim" I realized just how good the software was!

After a few months of him playing this game a lot - but just when he felt like it - we are able to have a full game of chess together, me with only half of the pieces. I play as hard as I can and he regularly mates me with this set up, so I'll have to start adding some pieces back soon.

I did read that there is a correlation between playing chess and all sorts of mental and emotional development (unlike other games and activities), so I am very happy with this state of affairs.

Reader Rabbit is fine, and Winnie the Pooh etc, but they really just cover things that pre-school / kindergarten / reading to your child and just observing the world will handle. Software that can (over time) fully engage a very young child in chess is something else all together.

"Daddy, can I play Fritz and Chesster! And Bianca!"

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: January 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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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