
Angie Kibiloski of Computer Times Editor's Choice writes: "Learn
to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster (Retail $29.99), and the sequel,
Learn to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster 2 (Retail $29.99), by
Viva Media, are two great learning packages that teach kids to play chess in
a fun and unique way. Chess skills develop while the player participates in
practice exercises that explain the basics of the game. In the second installment
of the series, once skills are established, the methods are used to teach hints
and more advanced game play.

In the first Learn to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster, you are Fritz
and Bianca, a young prince and his cousin, who have been challenged to a chess
duel by the evil Black King. Luckily, your jolly neighbor King Kaleidoscope
knows just the places in the kingdom to take you to build your chess knowledge.
You will learn how kings move with Sumo Wrestlers, see the course a knight
can take by running a Show Jumping horse, play a nice game of tennis with the
Pleasant Pawns of Pleasantville, and much more.

I have played chess for years and there were some hints and techniques that
I enjoyed learning. This is also a game that rewards the player for their progress,
with trophies in the first installment, and intelligence points in the second.
Learn to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster, and Learn to Play Chess with
Fritz & Chesster 2, by Viva Media, are absolutely must haves for any child
who truly wants to learn to play chess. Check it out!"
Links

List of stories on this remarkable children's program
Old
world sophistication, not rampaging rooks
2/10/2005 When a magazine like Game
Chronicles reviews a nerdy chess program you would expect a gigantic
yawn. "When I began playing Fritz 8, I figured a jeans and T-shirt guy
like me would hate it," admits reviewer John DeWeese, who also tried
out our children's tutor Fritz & Chesster. See
how he fared... |
Old
world sophistication, not rampaging rooks
2/10/2005 When a magazine like Game
Chronicles reviews a nerdy chess program you would expect a gigantic
yawn. "When I began playing Fritz 8, I figured a jeans and T-shirt guy
like me would hate it," admits reviewer John DeWeese, who also tried
out our children's tutor Fritz & Chesster. See
how he fared... |
Fritz
& Chesster 2 gets five-star review
1/6/2005 Our children's chess teaching
program is out there, generating thousands of new chess players. Like
no other chess software "Fritz & Chesster" has scaled the mail-order
lists, landing on the top of the Amazon top-sellers. Now version two
is out and getting rave reviews.
|
Fritz
and Chesster volume two
12/15/2004 The original Fritz &
Chesster children's teaching program is currently number two on Amazon's
overall top
selling software list, just behind Adobe's latest Photoshop Elements
3.0. Quite unprecedented for a chess program. First reviews of volume
two lead us to suspect that it will do as
well as the original. |
Fritz
and Chesster tops Amazon
11/13/2004 For the first time the bestseller
list in the Children software section of Amazon was topped by a chess
program – ahead of Nancy Drew, I Spy and Backyard Baseball. Learn
to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster by Viva Media has received
a 4½ (out of five) star rating. Meanwhile Viva has announced the release
of Fritz 8 Deluxe. Curious?
|
Gold
Award for Fritz & Chesster
3/25/2004 Our children's CD-ROM title
has won the 2004 Parents' Choice Gold Award. The reviewers found Learn
to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster "wonderfully unexpected,
charming, simply animated, and cleverly designed." It is number 35 on
Amazon's top selling software list and has received almost exclusively
five-star reviews. |
Maybe
you should get it for the kids?!
03.12.2003 After testing hundreds of
new titles this year, USA Today came up with their "Best Picks
for the Holidays" in the category of children's "edutainment" titles
(software combines entertainment and learning). Among the eight titles
we find Fritz and Chesster, our very successful children's chess
tutor. Here's the full USAT
list. |
Software
of the year, five stars for Fritz
18.09.2003 Game Industry News
has reviewed our program Fritz 8. Their conclusion: "Fritz earns
5 GiN Gems for being one of the most entertaining, informative and easy
to use chess games on the market today." And Parenting Magazine has chosen
Fritz & Chesster as a winner of the magazine’s prestigious
“Software of the Year” awards. More...
|
Learn
to play chess with Four Fat Chicks
24.08.2003 The name of the site is,
well, interesting. Four Fat Chicks does reviews of adventure games
and software that goes beyond the mass destruction of humans or aliens.
This week it's Fritz
and Chesster, which they call "one of the more remarkable and commendable
edutainment titles" they've seen. Here's their charming
review. |
A
wolf in sheep's clothing?
10.07.2003 "Learn to Play Chess with
Fritz and Chesster is a bit like a wolverine in that it's cute and
furry on the outside, but has some real teeth once you get involved with
it," writes
GiN, the Game industry News service. The note that most children
won't even realize they are learning how to play chess. You can buy the
program here...
|
Slow
and steady
02.07.2003 "Learn to Play Chess with
Fritz and Chesster is a tad slow-moving at times, but its system
is quite effective and the story very charming," says this software
review, which gives the program an A. You can get your kids a copy
of Fritz and Chesster here.
|
Chess
'toon fun a cool combination
25.06.2003 "In a world of violent video
games there must be a place for children and their parents to interact
and actually learn something," says this
Washington Times review. Fritz and Chesster will "turn
junior into a grandmaster before mom and dad can say Svetozar Gligoric."
|
Yet
more rave reviews
19.06.2003 After USA
Today gave it a resounding five stars (of five), now Cablevision's
Power
to Learn reviewer Diane S. Kendall calls Fritz
and Chesster "one of the best of its kind I've seen in years". And
Discovery.com
gives it 9.2 out of 10 and a 5½ star rating. "Making the game of chess
child's play is not entirely easy, but this new game succeeds admirably".
|
Chess
is child's play
11.06.2003 That's what USA Today
thinks, after looking at our children's chess teaching software Fritz
and Chesster. "This software has an amazing amount of depth and is
presented in a progressive manner," writes USA Today reviewer Jinny Gudmundsen,
who gives the package five stars (out of five). Here's
the report. |
It's
raining awards and prizes!
04.06.2003 Our top programs are doing
pretty well out there in the media scene. Europe's biggest computer magazine
gave Fritz 8 the top place for board game software (Shredder 7 came in
second), and the Bologna Children's Book Fair gave Fritz & Chesster
the top children's media prize. More...
|
Soccer
moms and Chesster
20.05.2003 "The US is going to become
the world's powerhouse of chess, I can guarantee that," writes star journalist
Rudy Chelminski (Smithsonian, Wired, Life, et al.). "How? Why? Because
of the soccer moms and Chesster." After some experiences with our
program Fritz
and Chesster Rudy is convinced that the next Morphys, Fischers and
Polgars are at their computer screens right now. More...
|
Fritz
and Chesster get an A
01.05.2003 Of course we are proud when
ChessBase super-programs like Fritz and Junior bash Kramnik and Kasparov.
And we're proud that just about every GM in the world uses ChessBase
every day, as do thousands of other chess fans. But we're REALLY happy
with our new Fritz
and Chesster program that teaches chess to kids. And so was a Houston
Chronicle writer, as you will see here.
|
A
revolution in chess learning
02.04.2003 It is possibly the most important
piece of software created by ChessBase. 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. Here's a description of the ultimate chess
teaching tool for children.
|