Fritz & Chesster - Learn to Play Chess Vol. 1

Fritz & Chesster - Learn to Play Chess Vol. 1

Learn to think strategically, try out tricky mental exercises and master fun and exciting challenges – all with a generous helping of chess knowledge. These things and more await you on this unusual chess adventure that has already received great international acclaim.

Start playing Fritz & Chesster Volume 1 and join Prince Fritz and his cousin Bianca on their journey through the rules of chess and many tactical motifs.

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.

Like none of the other products, Fritz, Junior, Shredder, or even ChessBase itself, Fritz and Chesster is one that can recruit new players to the game.

We predict that tens of thousands of children will take up chess because they had access to this program.

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 journey they are joined by Kalaidoscope, a jolly instructor, who tells them all about the kingdom. In each scene the children can click different elements, like the mouse traps in the above picture, funny things happen. It encourages the young users to explore the scenery.

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 they need to know about the king move, including the concept of opposition.

Learning the rook moves is equally entertaining. In a pacman-like game the children learn to move the rook and avoid capture by the enemy spiders. There are sound effects and high-score lists to keep their attention.

The bishop move is learnt by bouncing a ball off a rectangular paddle to destroy toilet bowls (the kind of thing young children find hilarious). Since the ball moves diagonally they are learning to operate the bishop. Mind you, these games might also create some problems. Very often the parents start to play them and compete against their offspring. There can be ugly scenes when it turns out, as it usually does, that the children are better.

The stand-alone chess teacher

The principle of Fritz & Chesster is that you can insert the CD into a computer drive, fire up the program and then leave a child alone with it if necessary. After a few weeks the child will come to you and say: “Can we play a game of chess?” It will have learnt all the rule – we are talking pawn moves, castling rules, promotion, mate, stalemate, everything – and even understand a bit about strategy and tactics.

Naturally you do not need to or indeed should leave your child alone with the program. In fact we have discovered that it is often usually children and their mothers who pick up the game. The fathers usually get hooked on the subgames, battling to keep ahead of the kids.

More Images of the game


Read More: Best Education Strategy Games.


Fritz & Chesster - Learn to Play Chess Vol. 1 on Steam

Paintings Jigsaw Puzzles

Paintings Jigsaw Puzzles

There is some bugs, occurs on the last painting (winter) at x280 difficulty, some pieces just won’t stick.

overall best for killing times :D

Real player with 29.4 hrs in game


Read More: Best Education Family Friendly Games.


Paintings Jigsaw Puzzles on Steam

Panzer Strategy

Panzer Strategy

There is a very good reason why Grand Funk Railroad and Kylie Minogue released a song called locomotion in the 70’s and 80’s (respectively). It was because it made a hell of a lot of money for Gerry Goffin and Carole King and the singer Little Eva in the 60’s. It became an instant hit. It became an instant classic. It became the benchmark. So every man and his dog did a cover in the hope it would do the same for them. I mention the first two artists because at least all the others had some musical claim to fame befor trying to cash in.

Real player with 403.0 hrs in game


Read More: Best Education Difficult Games.


In short, if you are new to this genre of turn-based WW2 strategy games, I recommend trying the game Order of Battle first! Panzer Strategy is in my opinion too opaque in its rules and too unfinished for inexperienced players to get past the learning curve. On the other hand if you are already familiar with this genre then I wholeheartedly recommend trying this game. It’s got a demanding learning curve, but once you are past the rough bits, the game introduces much great new gameplay mechanics. I hope you get to enjoy them too and that you join the community to help the developers mature this game into a beauty.

Real player with 336.8 hrs in game

Panzer Strategy on Steam

Family Quiz

Family Quiz

Running out of questions to use during your weekly family video chat quiz night? Look no further…

Family Quiz does exactly what name suggests….a quiz for all the family. Take it in turns to answer questions from various categories, to set the highest score, with varying time limits.

Highlights:

  • Over 20,000 questions included!

  • No Registration or Login is required. Simply start playing this family quiz game and have a great time!

  • Family Quiz has a simple and quick user interface so you can get straight in to the questions.

  • Choose from History, Sport, General Knowledge, Science, Geography and Entertainment.

  • Choose your time limit, 60, 90, 120 or 240 seconds

Family Quiz on Steam

Memory Booster

Memory Booster

I feel like there’s really not enough time to move my mouse around to click on the tiles in the Level +45 range as it seems like I’m sorta stuck. I kinda noticed during some rounds & when it’s down to 1 second and it acts like I’m already out of time before it reaches 0. Plus, not enough time to actually see where all of the imaged tiles are as my eyes focuses on smaller areas first. I know there’s upgrades/perks for increasing the timer(s) but it still feels like it don’t really make any difference towards viewing the imaged tiles before it hides it as it’s a small fraction/percentage of .25 milliseconds. It could be a decent memory game but I don’t really care for the time limit of viewing & picking.

Real player with 7.9 hrs in game

Stars received: 1.4/10 _ Note: v.5 [0.0 to 1] = personal impressions

[0.2] Controls & Training & Help

[0.1] Menu & Settings

[0.3] Sound & Music

[0.2] Graphics

[0.1] Game Design

[0] Game Story

[0.1] Game Content

[0.4] Completion time (level/game)?

[0] is it Enjoyable & Fun?

[0] Could it hold a spot in Favorites? (& if the Game can be repeatedly played again)

[0] BONUS point: Multi-Player related

[0] BONUS point: Review for VR

[N] - if Registration is required with providing PII

Game description key-points: screen flicker xD

Real player with 2.1 hrs in game

Memory Booster on Steam

SUDOKU TIME

SUDOKU TIME

I do like Sudoku. The challenge is nice. Sadly, in this game the colors hurt my eyes and the music hurts my ears. I can mute the sound, but the colors are very bad. More of a contrast is needed.

Real player with 17.9 hrs in game

I like Sudoku games, but i think this game could be better if the color is improved. It’s hard to see if the background and the numbers are similar in color, which makes this game less enjoyable.

Real player with 14.4 hrs in game

SUDOKU TIME on Steam

Pixel Painter

Pixel Painter

저기요 사람들이 욕하고 야한것만 그려요 실망했습니다 또 애들은 주제에 안 맞게 그리는데 하트를 받네요 그리고 주제에 맞게 그려도 하트를 못 받고 주제를 벗어난 그림이나 야한 그림에 하트를 주네요 뭐 이 게임에 변테들만 있습니까? 또 보석을 얻었는데 왜 안주시죠 제작자님 이 게임에 대해 실망했습니다… 또 픽셀그림체가 아닌데.. 그냥 선으로 그린 그림 같았습니다 아니면 욕을 못하게 막아주시거나 픽셀로만 그릴수 있게 해주세요… 그래도 게임은 뭐 나름 재밌네요

Real player with 28.2 hrs in game

I love the fact that you can paint in it, but there are bugs and glitches that easily make me want to destroy the game. And the other fact, which is funny, is that this game isn’t really in early access. The game, whenever you try and save your artwork, apparently I had my fill icon, and when I clicked save, it filled in my artwork, and messed it up. I wanted to cry and fall to the ground, BECAUSE I took my time on that art. I couldn’t EDIT IT and FIX IT.

Real player with 16.0 hrs in game

Pixel Painter on Steam

Bird’s Eye

Bird’s Eye

Build the best ecosystem in Bird’s Eye — a singleplayer engine-building card game.

A relaxing and family-friendly experience

Bird’s Eye is a relaxing game that features no direct combat, no violence and no strong language. It doesn’t require quick reaction or thinking, it invites you to take your time.

Influence your opponents indirectly

While the game has no direct ways to harm your opponent, you can play a card in their ecosystem, as well as yours. Thwart their plans, while risking giving them a edge.

A chance to learn

Bird’s Eye was built to be more than just a fun game, but an educational experience as well. The game mechanics are designed to closely resemble a self-regulating ecosystem, so the player can learn general ecological concepts in a fun and engaging way. The game has also features an encyclopedia where you can learn about the cards (as well as unlock new ones).

Modding support

Bird’s Eye was built from the ground up to be as modding-friendly as possible. It’s easy to create, share and use community-created cards and game modes with built-in tools and mod manager. Combine different card packs. Pick and choose different parts of the mods you install. Tailor the game experience just to you.

Bird's Eye on Steam

Jigsaw Puzzles for Kids and Adults - Europe

Jigsaw Puzzles for Kids and Adults - Europe

These are very colorful, relaxing puzzles. The puzzle pieces are easy to access and place. Children and parents would enjoy solving these together.

Real player with 4.3 hrs in game

Jigsaw Puzzles for Kids and Adults - Europe on Steam

Sokoban: Bunny Tales

Sokoban: Bunny Tales

This game is a good game, don’t let the graphics fool you.

It builds on the concept of sokoban quite well, even if many of its puzzles drift away from the main idea of sokoban and become more like a better version of chip’s challenge. Much of ‘those’ stray puzzles are welcomed additions when compared to the variety it already has when focusing only on its more sokoban-like puzzles of pushing objects onto spots.

Being only 200 levels long, it’s rather short when combined with its relative ease, albeit its difficulty does fluctuate. For me, it took only 22 hours to beat all of the levels… This ensures that the game can’t possibly overstate its welcome, if such a thing was possible with its variety.

Real player with 22.5 hrs in game

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Real player with 14.3 hrs in game

Sokoban: Bunny Tales on Steam