My 10 year old daughter could use a program to help her learn chess. She knows how to set up a board and a few basics but is still at the stage where she’s learning how the pieces move.
While I am playing with her often she does love her computer… is there a game, esp. one on Steam, that is particularly suited to teaching a child how to play chess? If a Chessmaster or whatever has such a function that’s great. Price is no object.
I had a copy of Chessmaster some 15 years ago and it had a very good teaching mode, and could be tuned for the very beginner. It was not designed for children per se, but a 10 year old who is interested in learning chess should follow it just fine.
– Jose Raul Capablanca
I don’t know if it’s still available but check out Lego Chess. There’s a tutorial where a king teaches you how to play and three campaigns (knights, cowboys, and pirates) that are interesting with cool videos and progressively tougher opponents. Plus cute videos that make playing rewarding for young kids.
Fritz and Chesster is pretty good, though maybe a bit young in its presentation for a ten-year-old.
Chessmaster has some good lessons and instructional stuff, but I don’t think new versions have been released recently (like for 8 years), so there might be compatibility issues.
Lichess.com is a great free site for playing, and it has puzzles and other features. It also has a “kid mode” described here.
Chess.com has a large number of instructional videos and articles, and they run ChessKid.com, which has similar content but geared for kids/beginners, with restrictions on the chat etc.
There are many good YouTube channels for chess. I like PowerPlayChess, but it’s more for established players rather than beginners.
Dinosaur Chess I have heard is very good - and specifically designed for complete beginner young children - in particular 4 to 8 year olds.
So this only tangentelly on topic, but I have to ask.
When I was a kid (I’m talking a little over 20 years ago) my family had a chess game on our old computer, and I would love to know if anyone remembers it.
The sides of the board were red vs. blue, they were the same pieces for both colors, and when you made a move, the pieces would come alive and walk to the space. Then, when you took out a piece, it played a little animation of them fighting.
Here are two things I distinctly remember:
Can anyone tell me the title of this old game?
That was Battle Chess.
Haha that was it!
Thanks!