Customer Reviews

Fast Paced Chess for Neophytes and Experts, February 21, 2007
Reviewer: Ben Ide "Webbed Legions" - See all my reviews

This is a good games and a really great concept. Game play is simple and fast paced. There is strategy involved, but it never bogs down the action. Using a scaled down board and just a handful of key chess pieces, this games succeeds where so many others have failed: It creates a great learning tool and introduction to chess while also leveling the field for experts and novices.

How is this possible? Simple. While the expert is trying to teach the beginner the rules and strategies of chess, the beginner is winning at a game she or he already knows -- tic tac toe. My nine-year-old son, for example, asked maybe 6 times "How does this piece move?" I'd tell him and maybe correct a few wrong moves, and then the little stinker would suddenly beat me. I'm playing chess, he's playing tic tac toe, all while we're both playing Tic Tac Chec and having a blast!

My only complaints about the game is the lightweight pieces skitter off the board too easily (heavier and maybe slight larger chess pieces would help)and the directions are a little vague ("pawns must cross the board before they can reverse direction", "you can't move if there are less than three of your pieces on the board", and "start with a blank board, taking turns placing pieces until you can start moving them" are helpful clarifications).