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.

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.

This is an excellent start chess set. I got this for my 6 year old and 4 year old as they have recently really been interested in learning about chess, but they are too young to deal with the nicer sets (keep the grubby little fingers away). This is a very basic set, but the nice thing is that one side of the board it shows you exactly where to put the pieces and has suggested starting moves for the pawns. This is a quick way for the boys to memorize placement, and keeps them organized. But then when they are daring they can flip the board over to the other side and that is a blank board, testing their memory skills. The cards are somewhat handy as they show each of the different moves a piece can make. We haven't really used them for their stated purpose as what we found is that many times you couldn't move the piece they were suggesting to move. Instead we have one card of each piece set aside so the boys can reference them if they can't remember how it moves. Overall it's a great first starter chess, and you can't go wrong for the price. Pieces are durable, cards are normal cards so be prepared for some bent corners, and the box is a typical box (mine is pretty destroyed already). Highly recommend this.

For years I have been trying to get my now 11 year son to learn how to play chess, but I was unsuccessful and he didn't really seem interested. I finally decided on this product based on the many glowing reviews here on Amazon.com, and all I can say is this product succeeded in accomplishing what I could not. I see some reviews complaining about the quality/durability of this set, but in all honesty what do you expect from a set that costs less than $20? You want intricate figurines or nicely crafted glass pieces, then buy that instead. You want something you can display on your coffee table, then spend the money to get that. This set is for learning and once you learn the game you can flip the board and play chess on a standard board. Playing chess does not require an expensive board as the pieces don't "perform" any better during a game just because they are made from a better material. Knights are knights, queens are queens, and rooks are rooks, no matter if the piece is paper, plastic, glass or metal. If you take care of this set (i.e. put it back in the box when done) then it should last a long time. If you or the person you are getting this for already knows how to play chess, then there is no need for this and you can buy any set you like. This set is for learning how to play chess gradually and in that regard it does an excellent job. My son and I started off with the basic draw a card and move game, while he got used to learning the pieces and how they moved. After a few games of the draw a card game we moved to the 3, and then 5 card games where each player was dealt a number of cards and could move any piece that the player has in their hand. We played a couple of 3 card games before he started getting more comfortable and wanted to move to the 5 card game which we spent a lot of time playing many games. The card game is chess with a couple of exceptions to the rules, 1) unlike standard chess, the object is the physically capture the king and remove him from the board, 2) Because you are playing with cards, there is no restriction from moving you king into check or leaving him in check which is illegal in standard chess. In the final game of the night, he managed to blindside me and capture my king because I underestimated him. He went to bed elated while I stared at the board in disbelief on how I missed what he was doing. The next day he wanted to play again so we played a couple of more 5 card games, until he decided he was ready for a real game. I explained to him the the slight differences in the rules as we went along and he seemed to catch on really fast. He immediately understood the concept of check and checkmate and after a couple of corrections from me he was making some pretty good moves to get himself out of check. Naturally I beat him on our first real game against each other, but I sense he will get better as we continue to play. Later on I will explain to him new moves like castling and en passant. It will be so much easier to explain these things to him now that he has a solid understanding of the basics. I am amazed at how quickly my son who had ZERO knowledge of the game picked it up and I look forward to more matches against him especially when he gets better. This set has exceeded my expectations and if you or anyone you know wants to learn chess the "No stress" way then this set is highly recommended.

I had low expectations for this game format given chess can be fairly complex and a lifelong journey to learn and improve. I purchased this for my 7 year old and she was hooked, and soon after, my 5 year old was also interested. We played 3 games the first day (at their request), and twice more on the second day. After the first day they could explain all the pieces and the way they move. Chess is a rewarding game that you can hone over a lifetime. This format is a brilliant way to set the complexities and strategy aside and introduce young players to the fundamentals involving the pieces, game flow, and forward-thinking. The strategy will come later, but this format provides an excellent way to help them understand the game. The structure provided by the cards is essential in providing focused learning - they still have the autonomy to make a decision where to move, but the focus is on the piece dictated by the card - this is much more manageable for younger players rather than being overwhelmed by the entire board. For context, I played recreationally when I was young, but not in years. I have a good understanding of the forward-thinking required for the game and peppered those thoughts into my kids play to frame their thinking - "if you move here, what could happen?, what might be a better choice?" My 7 year old is already asking to try it without the cards - we'll do that soon enough. Highly recommend.

Ever wanted to figure out how to teach your pre-teens how to play chess? And younger? All they need to do is know how to read, or you can help them read the cards. Even our 5 year old learned to play chess, something that would have been more difficult to show them on my own. Older chess players have all of the rules and moves in their mind, but this game works so well because it gives your young people something very tangible and visual (the cards) to help them play the game. The cards simplify each move to allow them to focus on only a single type of piece. This made learning chess easy and fun for most of our younger children (and a couple of the older ones who hadn't tried before). You can later transition to full chess either directly or this game has rules that step you there a little at a time. My five year old now plays regular chess against the computer after only a month with this game! (To be complete, my seven year old is not as interested in either reading or games. He does play this game but has not shown an interest in regular chess yet.) All of my older children tried this a couple of times and are now playing regular chess. We will probably introduce our toddler in the next year or two. When your children are comfortable with this game and ready to move on to regular chess, you just have to show castling and en passant--easy. And if needed, you can always delay those rules if they feel too advanced for your child (that's what we did at first). They will still have a lot of fun and learning with the strategies of chess.

Great for a beginner level and those who just wants have fun. My son loves it. He plays with his grandma. Nice for Sunday school activities. Love its simplicity. Kids don’t get upset if they lose. Teaching the rules of chess in gentle and positive ways.

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