Winner of the 2003 Bologna New Media Prize, this innovative storybook adventure introduces children to the world of chess with innovative features that make it the best children's chess tutorial we've reviewed. The original version was in German (by Terzio), and we reviewed a localized version for the USA. The program starts with the story of how King White and his Queen have gone on holiday, and left their son, young Prince Fritz, in charge. But trouble is brewing. A rival, King Black, challenges Fritz to a chess duel. As a novice player, Fritz must seek out some quick brain training, and finds it scattered across the countryside in the form of clever games designed to explain each chess piece, along with common strategies and challenging practice sessions.
These exercises are fun to play, and we found ourselves and our testers sticking with the program for hours at a time. One game, for instance, has kids smashing toilets as they learn about diagonal moves. This, of course, rated highly with our kid testers. As you would expect for a chess tutorial, there's an incredible amount of content--this is not a one-time through program. Weaknesses include an inability to interrupt some of the narration, and our younger testers wanted to do without all the practice; but these are minor criticisms. All things considered, this is a delightful program that is especially well-suited to 8-13 year old children.
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