Once upon a time there was a small country, a very, very small country. And this very small country was ruled by a very wise king. In fact he was the wisest King there had ever been. And he was called "King White"
This is the beginning of a very interesting new product by ChessBase: Fritz & Chesster. It is possibly also the most important piece of software created by the company, for a very simple reason.
Fritz and Chesster does not teach chess in the usual way. It does not set up a board and explain how each of the pieces move. Instead it targets children who have never played chess before in their lives and teaches them the basic rules in a Sesame Street like environment. There are cartoons and stories for the children to follow, and then there are tasks for them to solve interactively.
Oh ye, Oh ye, Oh ye! Listen all young heroes well Whom the chess game doth compel: Aspiring masters of the game Come and enter here your name Then I beg click on the seal The world of chess awaits your zeal.
Each piece and each rule is explained in a subgame, which you can play against the computer. Many of them are far away from the actual game of chess, but at the same time they give the children full insight into the sometimes daunting rules of the game. Take for instance the first sequence. Young Prince Fritz has to stand in for a while for his father, King White. Together with his cousin Bianca Fritz embarks on a journey through their kingdom.
On their trip around the kingdom the three encounter the daunting King Black, who challenges them to a game of chess. But Fritz doesn't know how to play. Thankfully he is able to learn the game on the rest of his trip.
The first lesson comes when they see two sumo wrestlers fighting in a ring. The wrestlers are too fat to approach each other directly, so they always stay at least one square apart. They move around the board blocking each other off.
If they do it properly Fritz and Bianca can push their opponent off the board. After that they try to occupy chairs before their opponent, and while trying to do so the program explains how they can use "opposition" to outwit the opponent. At the end of this lesson the children have learnt everything
System requirements:
- Win 98/ME/XP/vista/7
- Pentium II 233 processor
- 32 mb ram (16 mb free momry)
- 16 bit soundblaster compatible sound card
- 16x speed CD-Rom Drive
- Graphics card 800 x 600 (16 bit color)