Customer Reviews

Learn Chess

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have completed 40% of the tutorial and have learned, practiced and enjoyed it all through. The player enters the game through the Palace door and from there goes to different tutorials and mini-games that teach the basics of Chess and some good tactics.

The beginning is a breeze, later it gets challenging. The mini-games get harder as you advance. They are real Chess game situations where some of the pieces have been removed. I found specially difficult the ones where you have to checkmate the opponents King with, 1. Your King and two Bishops, 2. Your King and two Rooks. The King can only move one space around him but he sure knows how to sneak on you with attacks or immediate escapes from your threats. Also the mini-games with only Pawns and Kings working towards a checkmate required a lot of thinking and practice. You have to find the solutions on your own, there are no hints or cheats.

The learning takes place within a little story. There is a ghost inhabiting the palace who has been robbed by a pirate of his Chess pieces. In order to recover them, he has to play Chess against the pirate and win. Since the ghost is bound to the castle he has to teach the game to someone else to enable him to take his place and defeat the pirate.

bought this for the family, including my 6 1/2 year old son (note the cover says for 6 and up). There are no hints and no way to get out of an exercise if you don't know how to complete it. E.g., capture the king with 2 pawns. Via the tutorial I (not a child) could complete the 1st of the 3 exercises required to move on to the next exercise, but neither I nor my husband could figure out to complete the 3rd exercise. There is no way out. You can't go forward, you can't skip, but absolutely the worst -- how can you learn if it won't show you what it is expecting (requiring!) you to do. I'm ready to toss it and the DS into the wall. As you might guess, it wasn't a big hit with my son.

I highly recommend this game for anyone who wants to learn chess -- or has played a few times in the past, but really didn't know more than the basic rules. I agree with everything Samuels "Melissa" said in her review, she completely summed up the game and the cute backstory.

The game quickly becomes challenging and there's the rub -- the marketing ploy of advertising this game as being for children 6 and over is a little misleading. Unless you have a budding chessmaster on your hands, I would not recommend this game for children younger than 10, and then only if they are on the mature/studious side.

I bought this for my son who is 7.5. He is having a great time with it. I gave it 4 stars instead of five because it as a bit frustrating for him at first. After I went over it a couple of times and showed him what the game wanted from him, he picked it right up.

He had a very rudimentary understanding of chess before the game. He plays a computer version, but did not truly understand how each piece moved.

This game has walked him through the steps piece by piece. It tells you how the piece moves and then give scenarios to play out using that piece. He's been playing for days and is really learning how to play.

My husband and I bought a chess set, and trying to learn how to play it with just a regular set wasn't really working out. I saw this game on goldbox and figured it would be a great way to learn such a complex game. At first, I thought it was going really well. There are good descriptions of what each piece does and a few exercises to practice with each piece. The problem, and the reason for such a low rating, is in the tutorial set-up for some end-game moves. I got stuck on one tutorial and there was no option to give up, hence no way to progress through the rest of the game. I really tried for hours to get through this stage. I think for a game targeted at those 6 and up, there should be a "give-up" or "hint" option when you get stuck.

We got this for our 10 (now 11) year old. He already knew the basics of chess when he got it, but over time this game has become like his own little secret weapon. It's taught him moves other people don't seem to know and he can beat just about everyone he plays now, including adults.

I agree this game can be frustrating (chess is not an easy game in and of itself) and I don't know that most young kids would enjoy it. Evidently it can be frustrating for adults too. It took my son months of playing this before he got good at it, but he's developed a real passion for chess as a result and plays chess almost on a daily basis now. He prefers to play on an actual board with another person (probably because they are easier to beat!) but if nobody is willing to play he still enjoys the DS game. That's really saying something because with most video games he conquers all the levels in a few weeks and then the game isn't that interesting anymore. But this one never seems to get old.

I am glad I spent the cash. I love the tutorials and ease of learning them plus the quiz on the rules right away makes it a lot better on someone who is learning to play at the age of 28! Okay, maybe this game is a little young, but it is not a difficult to absorb learning session. Learn Chess actually does focus my mind better than trying to learn it online like I have been off and since I was 15. I wish they would come out with Learn Go.

this has been the greatest tool yet in learning a tough game...it does take a lot of time and patience when going through the learning exercises.

I picked up this game for my 8-year-old son. I think it is excellent and he really enjoys it, but he has definitely struggled with some of the problems and scenarios, so I think he might get frustrated if he did not have adults around who can answer his questions. Fortunately, my wife plays fairly well and I am a chess expert (2000+ USCF), so we can handle any questions that arise and help him overcome obstacles. But I can definitely see how some kids would get frustrated by problems like checkmate with two Bishops, for example. Overall it is a fun game and the ghost scenario is perfect for his age. He has played through the entire Fritz & Chesster series, which is what I'd recommend for younger kids (and there is recently a Fritz & Chesster for DS). And he found Majestic Chess just a bit too mature for him (better for 10+ I'd say). This seems just right for kids who can read and know the basic rules already.

I liked this game at first. It has a few different options for difficulty level. I started on easy and found it challenging. I got to the point where I could win 2 out of 3 games, but then i got bored because you can only play as White. Also, the computer plays the Center Counter (Scandinavian Defense) every time. It would be nice to learn how to play against some other openings and to play against the computer as Black.