http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn0bMld-K9w
here is a demo video i found. i cant wait til xmas to get this for my son! i hope its as easy as it seems!
No stress chess
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great for complete beginners, gets them playing quickly
Aug 21, 2011
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#4
I'm not a fan of it. The cards take much or all of the choice and thought out of a game. But I guess it's a good option for, like the video says, simply getting someone up and running, so that a total beginner knows what to do.
I wonder how the game handles castling and en passant. And pawn promotion, for that matter.
I teach chess for a living and one of my students brought this up. It is a good idea for getting kids up and running. However, it leans towards purely mechanical thinking. When I teach chess to kids (during a typical semester I have up to 170 kids) we start with the basics. No Stress Chess is good for the basics. After piece movement and rules, we move on to tactics. When we get to strategy, I have to steer my students away from mechanical thinking. I teach them how to identify and avoid traps rather than set them. As we get into the art of the sacrifice, we discover that mechanical thinking can get you in trouble.
The problem with No Stress Chess is that it is extremely difficult to reduce a huge number of options into a streamlined format. I am thinking about testing No Stress Chess out with a select group of absolute beginners to really determine the value of the game's teaching methods. In the end, No Stress Chess is affordable, providing a beginner with a board and pieces. Therefore, a novice could learn from the card system and move on to more advanced lessons vis books and videos. Thanks for posting this topic.
When I came home from work last night, my four year old was very excited to show me something. He pulled out a chess set and showed me how that he knew what each piece was called. Then he proceeded to set up the board, correctly, on the side that does not include the setup guide. Then, we played a game, and he did surprisingly well, even planning a move ahead in some cases. My wife taught him how to play earlier in the day using the No Stress Chess board, and the results were impressive.
This is the third child that we have taught using No Stress Chess, and I can say that it works well. They graduate quickly from the cards to "real" chess.
I have read a little bit about this game and it sounds like a good way to teach kids chess. Has anyone here used it or know anything about it? I am thinking of getting it for my son to help teach him.