Product Description

This Chess Teacher is a learning set for the beginner. Have you always wanted to learn how to play chess' The Chess Teacher easily shows how many spaces each piece can move and in which directions. No reading required. Complete with deluxe 15" x 15" chess board. For two players.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4771 in Toys & Games
• Brand: Cardinal Industries
• Model: 245
• Dimensions: 10.75" h x 10.75" w x 2.12" l, 1.34 pounds

Features

• For two players
• Perfect learning set for chess beginners
• Chess pieces are marked with arrows to teach the player what direction the chess pieces can move
• Pieces are large enough for little hands to grasp
• 6 Years + Up

Editorial Review
In an age that seems convinced high tech is always better, it's nice to see such an intelligently low-tech approach to teaching the world's greatest board game. This is simply a standard plastic Staunton-style chess set--with one big difference. Each piece is marked with its name, its value, and the directions in which it can legally move when moving or taking. The large (2-inch), hollow pieces are lightweight and feel pretty flimsy, but in fact they're sturdy and their extra-wide bases give them the stability that small, clumsy fingers need. A folding board and instructions are included with the set. The instructions, unfortunately, are weak; they're best used as an aid to memory by someone who has already had the game explained. --Richard Farr

From the Manufacturer
Cardinal Industries Chess Teacher comes in a deluxe 15" x 15" chess board. It’s the perfect learning set for the chess beginners. It easily shows how many spaces each piece can move and in which direction. Game is for two players. Chess pieces are marked with arrows to teach the player what direction the chess pieces can move. Pieces are large enough for little hands to grasp.

Customer Reviews

perfect for the beginner!! (just get better instructions!!)
Chess is one of those very rare games that takes minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master. It's never played the same way twice, even among grandmasters and close friends. It requires (and encourages!!) the ability to think ahead and plan carefully, and is enjoyed by people as young as 5 and as old as 125. It's a complicated game where you have to mange and plan the moves of your own 16 pieces while keeping a sharp lookout on your opponent's 16 pieces.

Learning the moves is usually the first difficult step that beginners take. All the different pieces move in different ways and have different rules to their movement, so this set has pieces with large bases with the most pertinent information stamped on it. The piece's name, how many spaces it can move at one time and the directions of movement are stamped on the base. As another reviewer noted, the numbers do NOT correspond to a piece's inherent point value in the game, so a player will have to think before setting up for a capture: is it worth risking a rook for a knight?? Maybe not.

Strategies like this are also missing from the instruction booklet that is amazingly thin and poorly written for what is supposed to be an educator chess set. I would recommend getting another book on introductory chess altogether if there are two beginners coming to the board. I've found this board to be the MOST helpful when an experienced player is teaching a beginner the rules and movements of the pieces. That way, the experienced player can point out difficulties or poor moves ("uh, you don't want to move there because you'll open yourself up to check"), while the beginner can get a better feel for the pieces and their movements.

A strategy that is rarely (if ever!) suggested outside of children's chess clubs and that is also missing here in the instruction book is to begin slowly. When I teach chess, especially with children, I begin with only a few pieces on the board, like rooks and bishops and the king, so the learner can get an idea how the pieces move and to better understand the GOAL of the game, which is checkmate (checkmate confuses a lot of children who think the goal of the game is to CAPTURE the king, not make it impossible for the king to make a legal move). As the learner gets better, I substitute or add additional pieces to the game until eventually we have the standard board setup. It's at this stage, especially, that an educator set is helpful--LOTS of stuff is on that board and it's pretty cluttered by midgame. By knowing how your OWN pieces move (and how far they can move), you can understand how your opponent's pieces move.

I had a set like this when I was a child and the pieces were much more stylized back then-the knight didn't look so much like a horse as a weird, squished mask-like thing. I'm pleased to see that the manufacturer has revamped the design of the pieces themselves, and would encourage them to revamp their instructions as well.

Helpful to learn moves, but instructions are very weak
My 6 yr old son really enjoys checkers, so I thought he would like this game too. He does, but after just playing a few times we have run into a couple of situations where I was unsure of the rules, and the rule booklet did not help at all (i.e. my son's move inadvertently left his king open and put it in check, the rules do not say what to do in this situation). I had to look to the internet for the answers. The diagrams for the possible moves are quite helpful for my son (I have very basic knowledge) and he really enjoys the game, so I would recommend it, but I wish the manufacturer would improve the rule booklet.

Teacher needs a teacher
In general, I would support Mr. Farr's product review.

I would add the following observations: First, the photograph of the set shows an illegal position. It is not very helpful for the beginner player to be misled in this way.

Second, Mr. Farr's review indicates that the pieces are labelled with their "value". Actually, it appears that they are marked with the number of squares that they may move. The piece value or strength would actually be much more valuable information for the beginner. It would be more helpful to know that you were about to make a bad trade of a Queen (Val:9) for a Rook (Val:5) instead of an apparently equal trade of a Queen (Moves:7) for a Rook (Moves:7).

Nonetheless, this set may be helpful for the player who insists that they cannot remember how the pieces move. But only for a short time.