Fun Family Chess by Brain Blox -- my REVIEW!

In my family, we love to play games--card games, board games, word games (well, only some of us like those!)--for whatever reason, although my kids are now high school aged, we have never played chess with them! I don't really know why, maybe just because we didn't have a chess board...(I think I'm making excuses). The kids were thrilled that we got to review this awesome product by Brain Blox called Fun Family Chess.  

This chess set is not your usual chess set (board plus pieces) -- it has some extra parts which definitely make it easier for a beginner to learn to play! It is a very nice quality set--the wooden board folds up into a box to hold the pieces and the dice (read on!) and the instructions and the move guide; the pieces each have their own little fabric pouch to keep the colors separate.  

As soon as this set arrived, my daughter opened it right up and set it up to begin playing! The board has the diagram of the icons of the pieces right on it so that you know where the different pieces go, which is very helpful for a beginner. (If you have an eye for details, you'll notice that she set it up on the wrong sides of the board--till I noticed and shared with her what I knew--I had told her what I had learned as a child, to always match the queen's "outfit" to her square--but the way she had it set up, according to the diagram on the board it was not matching--see the pictures below :) She had just put them on the opposite sides of the playing field, I guess because she had been in a hurry to set it up and get started :) Well, it is actually quite easy to set it up correctly, just match the color of the pieces with the side of the board which has the coordinating colored pictures :) White on the outlined side, darks on the filled in side. When she realized that, it was much easier to set it up correctly and continue on!

(you'll notice on these and some other pics that she has them set up on the wrong side of the board--this was in the beginnnig of her learning...now she always sets them up on the correct side!)

Since my kids are in high school (10th and 12th grades), I basically just received the package and gave them the box to play around with and try out. I had anticipated playing it together as a family, using the methods in the kit, but my daughter beat me to it, read how to play, and before I knew it she had learned to play chess by herself--well enough that she could beat me! I mean, like within an hour or maybe slightly longer she had it figured out!

Let me tell you a little about what makes this set different--and so much less intimidating than learning to play using just a regular board/pieces. Do you see the dice (chess cube) and reference card in the picture above? Well, the way that you play this game, you roll the dice and then match the color to the reference card to see what moves you can make with which pieces.  It basically gives you a smaller number of options for your moves and shows you where you can move. Game play progresses as you each roll the die and move your pieces accordingly.  My daughter actually played both sides of the board, she just rolled and moved the accompanying colored side, taking turns--I think this is how she learned so quickly!

Check out this video which gives a little introduction to this method of learning to play chess: 

My son (12th grade) got into the act and he and my daughter have had some fun chess games...and they've both beaten me! I'm no chess pro, but I have known how to play for lots of years...well, they've obviously caught on to it!

Don't be afraid that if you learn to use this that you won't be able to play "regular" chess -- there are instructions in the instruction booklet that help you transition to regular chess--or there are also videos which Brain Blox has made that help you switch over to playing "normal" chess. 

These videos are very helpful, short, to the point, entertaining, and easy to understand/follow.  (There are actually several videos that cover how to play the game as well--if you learn more easily via video than by reading the instruction booklet, you'll be all set also!)

I really like this chess set. I think that learning to play chess might sound like an intimidating thing, but this Fun Family Chess set makes it very friendly and easy to learn :) My husband is actually thinking of trying it out, now that he has seen the kids learn it so quickly!  The way that we used it, with the kids learning it on their own, may not work for your family, especially if you have younger kids, but if you play it with them, or get them started, they ought to be able to follow right through and learn it as well as you or even better!   I definitely think this is a valuable set, it would make a great gift, too, for anyone you know! Seriously, it's not too juvenile for adults, but not too "adultish" for kids.  I'd recommend it for all ages!  

You can purchase it on their website or even on Amazon! (here's the link to their product on there). 

If you'd like to read what other reviewers thought about this great chess learning set, please click on the box below: