Learn to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster Review

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Learn to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster

Review by Old RoosterAugust 2003

A Chess Vacation

Learn to Play Chess is one of the more remarkable and commendable “edutainment” titles I’ve ever experienced. My visiting nine-year-old nephew and I have just completed more than a dozen delightful hours with Fritz, Chesster and the other charming characters of the Kingdom of King White.

The good King is bored. He and the Queen decide to take a little trip, leaving the Kingdom in the hands of little Fritz and his friend Bianca. Within hours of the parents’ departure, while trying out the comfortable throne, Fritz receives this letter: “A challenge is given to King White. King Black would like to play!”

Well, no one has beaten King Black in years. And it’s no coincidence that this challenge is delivered when the parents are away! What is Fritz to do? He’s in charge, but he doesn’t know how to play chess. To the rescue comes a very colorful character—King Kaleidoscope.

King K (as he’s affectionately known) is my kind of guy, full of little sayings like this:

In winter’s cold or summer’s heat, It’s always best when it’s time to eat!

But roly-poly King K is also prepared to teach little Fritz (and my nephew) the techniques of playing chess. Exploring the grounds of the Kingdom reveals side games designed as instructions in the basics of chess. These are fun in and of themselves, and include such frolic as:

  • Take Your Pick—Her Majesty shows the art of moving queens;
  • Smash the Toilets—In King Black’s factory, you’ll find how bishops traverse the board;
  • The Peasant Pawns of Pleasantville—Visiting this village will reveal the movement secrets of pawns.

Three other entertaining games are available, giving guidance on the movements of knights, rooks and the king.

I had to pull my nephew away from these games, directing him to the Brain Building IntelliGym. Here, one puts it all together. You can choose a Light, Middle or Heavyweight category and have a Chessometer measure your readiness to move on—ultimately to face the evil Black King!

Finally, you gird yourself to enter the Arena! Here you can take on King Black as many times as you would like. Or you can play more friendly games against Chesster and King K, adjusting the difficulty setting to be just a bit challenging but not too much so. In the Arena, you can choose to play with traditional-looking pieces or the creative characters of the Kingdom.

My nephew had had a superficial interest in chess, but he thought of it as a dry game for old people. No longer! If I had not intended this game as a gift for him, he certainly would have found a way to relieve me of it anyway. He (and I) had a delightful time with this creative and fun chess tutorial.

The “adventure” is set up with 800×600 graphics and very fine voice acting. It ran smoothly on my XP rig, and it has a broad range of system compatibility. As you will see from the screenshots, the settings and colors are far from “dry” and “eggheady.” You progress in a fairly linear fashion through the various subgames to the IntelliGym and finally to the Arena. When leaving the program (“Are you Fritzed out already?”), the game is automatically saved at the last point. Moreover, at any point you can return to previously completed subgames to brush up on piece movements—or just for fun! The chess engine used may have some limits, since I was able to do quite well at the highest level. But I’ve been playing for half a century! For children, though, the engine and its range are perfect.

In my years of playing chess, I’ve seen “beginner” instructions in many programs. However, for a pre–ten-year-old, I’ve never found a program as fun, encouraging and successful as this experience with Fritz and Chesster. The manual says age eight and up; but I would offer that a bright six-year-old could well benefit from this “edutainment,” as could an adult new to the game! As a footnote, purchase of the game also includes a one-year membership in www.PlayChess.com, a website with kid and adult rooms and game matchmaking.

I’m pleased to award Learn to Play Chess with Fritz and Chesster our Gold Star. From the colorful packaging to the carefully sequenced “adventure” itself, this is a “one of a kind” product, clearly designed not only with love of the game, but also love of children. Congratulations!

And remember, boys and girls, as King K likes to say:

I feel so happy, I feel so fine, because it’s almost dinner time! The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Viva Media Publisher: Viva Media Release Date: May 2003

Available for: Windows

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Screenshots

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System Requirements

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP PII 233 32 MB RAM 16 MB free hard disk space

Where to Find It

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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