Dinosaur Chess: Learn to Play

by Convekta

Product Features

• A fun way for children to learn to play chess
• Over 20 mini games and puzzles
• Play simplified and full chess games against the dinosaurs
• Improve IQ scores. Increase concentration. Develops critical thinking skills
• Challenges gifted children. Helps to develop mental and abstract thinking in children

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• ASIN: B000MS6LLM
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 18, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,080 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)

Product Description

Sign up to Professor MacDinosaur's chess class. You will grow from a hatchling, fresh from the egg, to a huge dinosaur ready to take on the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The action takes you through different parts of the dinosaur's world from jungles to forests. Here you learn the chess skills thet will help you grow enough to defeat the other dinosaurs in battle. * A fun way for children to learn to play chess * Over 20 mini games and puzzles * Play simplified and full chess games against the dinosaurs * Entertaining and challenging Chess is Good for you! Playing chess gives brains of any age a good workout. Kids especially benefit from learning and playing the game. * Improve IQ scores * Increase concentration * Challenges gifted children * Helps developmental and abstract thinking in children * Potentially helps underachievers * Develops critical thinking skills SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Pentium III or equivalent, 128 MB, screen resolution of 1024X768, Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More on Dinosaur Chess, December 28, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Dinosaur Chess: Learn to Play (CD-ROM)

I have more to say about this great program. I tried out 3 childrens/beginners chess programs on my 5-year old daughter:
1. Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess
2. Fritz and Chesster 1 & 2
3. Dinosaur Chess

The first 2 programs were written for older children and were too difficult for my daughter to grasp. Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess is for beginners ages pre-teen to adult (10+). It's an excellent piece of software, but my daughter can't read just yet so it is way above her head. If I sit next to her and guide her through the program's mini-games and activities she can pick things up, but I definitely have to sit down next to her and navigate through it the whole time. The Fritz and Chesster series are also excellent chess software for kids. But even Part I is too advanced for my 5-year old. It targets children ages 8-13, and it really does not teach chess in a pedagogical way. One has to wade through a long narrative and some non-chess related activities to learn the game of chess.

Dinosaur Chess targets 4-7 year olds and teaches the game of chess in a standard pedagogical way, where chess knowledge is presented in bite-sized portions from the basic building blocks to the most complicated concepts. In addition, all of the mini-games and activities are directly related to chess. Most importantly, my daughter can go through the chess lessons without me being present. Dinosaur chess is the best chess software for younger kids.

Dadi Jonnson has written a splendid review on Dinosaur Chess on ChessOK Cafe that you should look up and read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Chess Tutor for a Six-Year Old, December 3, 2009

By 

Erol Esen (Liverpool, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dinosaur Chess: Learn to Play (CD-ROM)

My daughter, who is six-years old, seemed to like Chester, but she LOVES Dinosaur Chess. The lesson plans are very well designed and the exercises are magnificently creative. Let me give you an example: in order to teach how the knight moves an exercise entails little mice that can eat you up, so you better move fast to the square marked with an X. Super!

What makes this chess software different from others like Chessmaster is in its ability to gradually improve play strength as the student gets better. This is a very tricky problem. In other chess programs the chess engine either plays very strongly or very weakly. In Dinosaur Chess, while its internal chess engine gets calibrated for different labels, it adds another dimension to adjust strength: certain chess pieces are missing on the opponent's side depending on the level.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good children's software, December 15, 2007

By 

Andre L. Wilson (Bettendorf, Iowa USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dinosaur Chess: Learn to Play (CD-ROM)

Dinosaur Chess is the best chess software for children ages 4-7. It is much better than the Fritz and Chesster CD's for this age group. Dadi Jonnson wrote a splended review on this piece of software so I won't go into it in depth.

But I will say that I've tried several childrens/beginners chess programs with my 5-year old daughter:
1. Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess
2. Fritz and Chesster parts #1 and #2.
3. Dinosaur Chess
Dinosaur chess was by far the best program for my daughter. While using the other 2 programs I had to repeatedly guide my daughter through the mini-games and activities (and the narrative in the case of the Fritz and Chesster) because Maurice Ashley and Fritz and Chesster programs were above my daughter's head. Dinosaur Chess is written directly for my daughter's age range.