No Stress Chess by Winning Moves Games USA, Celebrating 20 Years as the Chess Teaching Game Using Innovative Action Cards, for 2 Players, Ages 7+ (1091)

Bottom line: you could make your own set of six directional cards for each piece. No Stress Chess provides several advantages for anyone new to the game--including me. I purchased this No Stress Chess set to introduce my grandchildren to the game. So far, it is the four-year old who likes to play it. The older ones prefer checkers, though they do like to put the chess pieces on top of the checkers to liven up the game. ( Note to other adults with a similar goal, I wish I'd introduced chess to the others by at least five years of age.) After two games, my granddaughter could correctly arrange the pieces on the board and by the fifth game she decided to challenge herself and use the standard or "grown-up" side of the board without referring to the picture on the back of the box. From the beginning, we used the cards to see which way a piece could move. At first, we each got a set of cards consisting one each of a rook, a knight, a bishop, the king, the queen and a pawn. Later she decided we could share one set which she would line up off to the side of the board. Each card has the name of the piece at the top, a clear picture of the piece, and another picture of a small chessboard with arrows that show the direction the piece may move. Initially, the most helpful card was for the pawn, because it clearly shows that it can move twice the first time, once afterwards, and can only take another piece with a diagonal move. Without the card, this would have been difficult to explain.--we're still working on the "horsie." We found all the directional cards quite useful. Actually, imo, these directional cards are the best part of this game. Being able to refer to them allowed my granddaughter to be much more independent while learning. The cards provide visual aids that make the basic concepts much easier to grasp than verbal instructions alone. She didn't have to ask me about the rules over and over and she could actively participate from the first game. On her own, she learned to use the cards to plot strategy, for instance, figuring out how to sacrifice the pawn to free up her rook. Being able to refer to the cards allowed her to be confident and independent from the beginning. In short, they're great. We have not used the cards that suggest moves, so I can't comment on them. Maybe we will use them some day, but I rather doubt it. If you already have a chess set, you could easily refer to the illustration on the box provided here on Amazon and make your own set of six directional cards. The box is shiny and quite attractive. The pieces are black or white, lightweight plastic, the pawns are about an inch high and the king is about two inches high. The side of the chessboard that provides "hints" has the name of the piece printed on its beginning position, and it hasl arrows showing how a pawn can move the first time. No Stress Chess definitely made learning chess easy and enjoyable for both of us. The price is reasonable and I do not regret this purchase. But we already have two chess sets so this is just one more to store. Based on my experience using No Stress Chess, were I to do this again, I'd have taken a picture of the rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, and pawn from my own chess set and printed them out. Using your computer or colored pencils, you could include the name of the piece and a small chessboard on which you've drawn the directions that piece can move. Either way, this is a great way for kids and adults to learn to play chess. To encourage her, I've let her win a few times, but she's also surprised me with a checkmate more than once.

So this game is a FANTASTIC way to learn chess. It's not the ONLY way, but it's an easy way for a parent who wants to play with their kid, but doesn't have time to learn with their kid teaching them. All of my kids (including my 5-6 year old, who can't even read!) have learned chess using this game. My nephew came over and was talking about wanting to learn chess, so we gave him No-Stress Chess for Christmas. Here's how it works: There's a deck of cards, and each card has a piece on it, with its allowable moves (graphically illustrated). There are also "move any piece you like" cards. * Level 1 - Set the board up as shown on the side with the pictures of pieces. The white color draws the first card, and moves one of their pieces as described. There are no real rules aside from that. If you don't have the piece described, you lose that turn. You CAN put your king into danger. Game is over only when the king is captured. This is brilliant because it's teaching the mechanics of how the pieces move, giving you a big picture of overall goal, but tying the arm of strategy behind your back. Thus, no-stress! It's the luck of the draw, and all you have to remember is when the king is captured, the game is over. * Level 2 - Once you have mastered how all the pieces move, it's time to throw a LITTLE strategy into the mix. Like level 1, you set the board up and shuffle up the cards. But in level 2, you draw a hand of 3 cards. Each turn, you pick a card to play, and play it. At the end of your turn, you draw a replacement card. This is a great progression because it allows for some strategic thought, but doesn't open wide the doors. You have a selection of pieces you can choose from that makes sense to win the game, but doesn't paralyze the player with too many choices! It builds that strategic muscle. You can progress here to a 5-card hand, if you want, too, which allows for even more strategic thinking. Level 3 - In no time at all, you'll find yourself wanting to play regular chess, and this game has all the regular rules of chess when you're ready for them. Flip the board over to the side where the pieces aren't printed on the board for easy setup, and you're ready to begin your journey to grand master. I love this game and highly recommend to anyone wanting to learn chess, but who is intimidated by all the variety of pieces, etc.

My 6 year old had been begging to learn chess but the main problem is that I don’t know how to play it either. That’s where No Stress Chess comes in. The instructions are simple and with enough repetition, you’ll learn the rules of chess. There’s even three levels of difficulty so the game doesn’t become stale. The learning side of the board has the names and pictures of the chess pieces on the square for initial setup. Then you take turns flipping over a card that tells you which type of piece to move and how that piece is able to move. So simple! While this beginner stage doesn’t have a lot of strategy involved, the more difficult levels do so it can grow with you. When you’re ready, flip the board over and play on a standard chess board without prompts.

Not everybody is going to be good at chess, but I want the whole family to have a core understanding of the game, the moves, and the pieces. Fine. We got this game as a Christmas gift, and I have sat down to play it with very young players. The game can be played as a regular chess set -- all the pieces with the plain board, etc. But flip the board over, and the board has printed the starting set up of pieces, and the first two moves pre-displayed for each player. The "no stress" system is where you draw a card that shows you a piece and its potential moves. Each player MUST move the piece that is on the card he or she draws, so it leads to some very non-chess-like moves being made. It turns chess into a game of chance. But do the children learn the names of the pieces and the moves they make? Yes they do, very quickly. And then you flip the board over, and they can start to play. Great system. Truly, you only learn to play chess by playing chess. This set takes the "strangeness" factor away, gets kids some chess vocabulary, and gives them a few "wins" (random, but still) to get them hooked. For one of my kids, those first "wins" are all-important.

The way the pieces move isn't that hard to learn. The seven year old and the five year old both got it pretty quickly. The problem is one of strategy and tactics. While they both really wanted to play they didn't know exactly why they were moving the pieces and what is was, exactly, they needed to accomplish. Enter this game. Because the cards dictate which piece has to be moved the young player is a bit on auto-pilot. They don't have to look at the board and 16 pieces and decide which one should go somewhere next. The card they draw tells them which piece to move. One guy was very aggressive, opening up on attack. The other was very defensive, making small and closed up moves. They began to see the larger picture, and after a few games they started to develop their own styles and really began to see how you attack and defend the king. It was actually pretty cool to see them "get" the point and flow of the game. We had great fun and made huge strides. I was delighted. Both boys desperately wanted to play chess and I figured this game would do no harm and was no more expensive than a plain plastic set. I did not expect this to be so successful, both as a fun game and as a learning tool. One suggestion. Early on a player may get a card for a piece that can't be moved. (Usually, a rook.) The "rules" dictate that the player must then skip his turn. This made no sense to me because losing a turn is a real disadvantage. We play that if you select a card for an unmovable player you select another card until you can move. That worked much better, and maintained the balance between the players. Anyway, the upshot is that this really worked well for us and I enthusiastically recommend this as a solid introduction for youngsters curious about chess. UPDATE. As of late summer the boys are now playing, quite well, without using the cards at all. This really just worked well beyond my expectations.

I first learned about this from a friend who purchased this for her 7-year old grandson. She stated that he was extremely happy to play this and his parents, whom play very little to no chess, are also learning as they go along. We purchased this for our grandson who is 11. He has not played chess before and thought this would be a great starter for him as well. Fingers crossed! PROS: Excellent quality, designed and advertised correctly. Great for ANY age, for those wishing to learn the game. CONS: None noted

Our school has a chess team for second grade and up. My daughter, who is in first, is dying to be in it. We took an online chess class, and while it was interesting, it was too much to remember all at once. After hearing about this version from the grandmaster who coaches our school’s team, I figured it was worth a try. If nothing else, we’d have backup chess pieces for our current board. My wife and I gave it a whirl, both of us having played chess a handful of times in our own lives. It was very easy to pick up. Unlike real chess, this game is a lot of gambling with your pieces. In real life, if I put the queen in the path of the knight, she’d be dead. Instead, your opponent has to hope they draw a knight card before you can draw another queen. It’s basically chess for poker lovers. We were hooked. My daughter loves how easy it is to play, but she’s not really into the strategy just yet. My wife and I, on the other hand, may as well be Ron Weasly with a high risk battle play. If you hate chess, but love card games, this game is definitely for you. If you don’t know the first thing about chess, this game is for you. If you want an amazing learning tool for chess, this game is for you. If you prefer checkers, this set didn’t come with them, sorry.

Thought chess was stressful? Same. This game teaches moves right on the cards, no memorizing, no pressure, just aha! moments. Kids feel like geniuses, adults feel less confused, everyone has fun. 10/10 would finally play chess without stress.

1. Sehr speditive Lieferung über Landesgrenzen hinweg, danke! 2. Das Spiel war ein Geschenk für unsere 7-jährige Tochter. Sie liebt es und hat dank dessen innerhalb eines Tages die Züge der Figuren gelernt. Ich auch :-) Für uns also eine sehr hilfreiche Art, Schach zu erlernen. Daher 5 Sterne von uns!

Don’t buy this, it will make you learn and love chess. I don’t know about children, but it helped me learn chess. My husband has always loved chess but I was intimidated by the rules and different pieces. When you play the card version you start to hope for certain pieces to come up in the deck and develop a strategy in your mind, this makes you want to stop playing with the cards and start playing normally as you develop a better understanding of potential moves. The booklet also gives you a basic understanding of chess strategy. After teaching myself, I thought one of my friends in an afternoon and she taught her boyfriend, and now we all play. I’m confident children could learn easily too, I was kidding earlier definitely get this. On one side of the board is labeled with suggested moves to meet the card game works better, the other side is plain. The pieces are a light plastic, nothing special, but it’s just a training set anyways. If you learn to like chess you can invest in a much nicer board, and if not, you got your value for your money. My only tiny complaint is that some of the colours on the cards are close together and easily confused at a glance in dim lighting (but you can also just read and see the picture). Great set!

Loved the game but what made it a real pleasure was the excellent customer service from Alpinler.SG. They made buying the game a lovely experience. Their customer service is top notched and I will definitely buy from them again no questions asked. They are now my number 1 go to to get games from! Love them for their excellent top notched customer service

Makes a great introduction to chess with the labels on the board. Also cards to help identifying how each piece type should move. It’s a great tool for young beginners!

I have never bought my grandson a toy which was not educational. For his 7th birthday I found what I thought would be an ideal educator. Little did I know how right I was !! He now eagerly does his homework so that we may play after. Since this game not only educates in chess skill but also introduces an element of 'luck' he's already 'managed' to win me a few games and his improvement in moving the pieces was immediate. Will certainly recommend it for all ages from 7. Good value for money