No Stress Chess by Winning Moves Games USA, Celebrating 20 Years as the Chess Teaching Game Using Innovative Action Cards, for 2 Players, Ages 7+ (1091)

I bought a fancy electronic chess set and decided it would be a good time to help my wife learn how to play chess. Before it arrived, I googled around for stories of people who tried to teach their wives chess and it almost never goes well. it made me realize that I had more of a challenge ahead of myself than I originally thought, and began imagining all the ways it could go wrong. In one of those threads, I saw a recommendation for "No Stress Chess" and I bought it immediately.It is what it says it is. It is a great way to 'balance' the playing field so that someone who knows how to play chess can play against someone who is still learning, and both people can have a great time. Sure, this doesn't teach you real chess strategy, but there's no need for any of that early on when someone is learning how the pieces move. My wife won our first two games, I still had fun, and she was eager to keep playing and learning.Mission accomplished! I am confident that if I tried to teach her chess on my own, without this set, it would have gone poorly for everyone involved. Thanks "No Stress Chess"! Once we've moved past needing the cards in this set, we'll be gifting it to family who have small children so that, once they're old enough, they can use this set to teach them.

Bottom line: you could make your own set of six directional cards for each piece.No Stress Chess provides several advantages for anyone new to the game--including me. I purchased this No Stress Chess set to introduce my grandchildren to the game. So far, it is the four-year old who likes to play it. The older ones prefer checkers, though they do like to put the chess pieces on top of the checkers to liven up the game. ( Note to other adults with a similar goal, I wish I'd introduced chess to the others by at least five years of age.)After two games, my granddaughter could correctly arrange the pieces on the board and by the fifth game she decided to challenge herself and use the standard or "grown-up" side of the board without referring to the picture on the back of the box. From the beginning, we used the cards to see which way a piece could move. At first, we each got a set of cards consisting one each of a rook, a knight, a bishop, the king, the queen and a pawn. Later she decided we could share one set which she would line up off to the side of the board. Each card has the name of the piece at the top, a clear picture of the piece, and another picture of a small chessboard with arrows that show the direction the piece may move. Initially, the most helpful card was for the pawn, because it clearly shows that it can move twice the first time, once afterwards, and can only take another piece with a diagonal move. Without the card, this would have been difficult to explain.--we're still working on the "horsie." We found all the directional cards quite useful. Actually, imo, these directional cards are the best part of this game. Being able to refer to them allowed my granddaughter to be much more independent while learning. The cards provide visual aids that make the basic concepts much easier to grasp than verbal instructions alone. She didn't have to ask me about the rules over and over and she could actively participate from the first game. On her own, she learned to use the cards to plot strategy, for instance, figuring out how to sacrifice the pawn to free up her rook. Being able to refer to the cards allowed her to be confident and independent from the beginning. In short, they're great.We have not used the cards that suggest moves, so I can't comment on them. Maybe we will use them some day, but I rather doubt it. If you already have a chess set, you could easily refer to the illustration on the box provided here on Amazon and make your own set of six directional cards.The box is shiny and quite attractive. The pieces are black or white, lightweight plastic, the pawns are about an inch high and the king is about two inches high. The side of the chessboard that provides "hints" has the name of the piece printed on its beginning position, and it hasl arrows showing how a pawn can move the first time. No Stress Chess definitely made learning chess easy and enjoyable for both of us.The price is reasonable and I do not regret this purchase. But we already have two chess sets so this is just one more to store. Based on my experience using No Stress Chess, were I to do this again, I'd have taken a picture of the rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, and pawn from my own chess set and printed them out. Using your computer or colored pencils, you could include the name of the piece and a small chessboard on which you've drawn the directions that piece can move. Either way, this is a great way for kids and adults to learn to play chess. To encourage her, I've let her win a few times, but she's also surprised me with a checkmate more than once.

For years I have been trying to get my now 11 year son to learn how to play chess, but I was unsuccessful and he didn't really seem interested. I finally decided on this product based on the many glowing reviews here on Amazon.com, and all I can say is this product succeeded in accomplishing what I could not.I see some reviews complaining about the quality/durability of this set, but in all honesty what do you expect from a set that costs less than $20? You want intricate figurines or nicely crafted glass pieces, then buy that instead. You want something you can display on your coffee table, then spend the money to get that. This set is for learning and once you learn the game you can flip the board and play chess on a standard board. Playing chess does not require an expensive board as the pieces don't "perform" any better during a game just because they are made from a better material. Knights are knights, queens are queens, and rooks are rooks, no matter if the piece is paper, plastic, glass or metal. If you take care of this set (i.e. put it back in the box when done) then it should last a long time.If you or the person you are getting this for already knows how to play chess, then there is no need for this and you can buy any set you like. This set is for learning how to play chess gradually and in that regard it does an excellent job. My son and I started off with the basic draw a card and move game, while he got used to learning the pieces and how they moved. After a few games of the draw a card game we moved to the 3, and then 5 card games where each player was dealt a number of cards and could move any piece that the player has in their hand. We played a couple of 3 card games before he started getting more comfortable and wanted to move to the 5 card game which we spent a lot of time playing many games. The card game is chess with a couple of exceptions to the rules, 1) unlike standard chess, the object is the physically capture the king and remove him from the board, 2) Because you are playing with cards, there is no restriction from moving you king into check or leaving him in check which is illegal in standard chess. In the final game of the night, he managed to blindside me and capture my king because I underestimated him. He went to bed elated while I stared at the board in disbelief on how I missed what he was doing.The next day he wanted to play again so we played a couple of more 5 card games, until he decided he was ready for a real game. I explained to him the the slight differences in the rules as we went along and he seemed to catch on really fast. He immediately understood the concept of check and checkmate and after a couple of corrections from me he was making some pretty good moves to get himself out of check. Naturally I beat him on our first real game against each other, but I sense he will get better as we continue to play. Later on I will explain to him new moves like castling and en passant. It will be so much easier to explain these things to him now that he has a solid understanding of the basics.I am amazed at how quickly my son who had ZERO knowledge of the game picked it up and I look forward to more matches against him especially when he gets better.This set has exceeded my expectations and if you or anyone you know wants to learn chess the "No stress" way then this set is highly recommended.