Excerpt from the review by Anne Reeks
It's hard to be uptight about aiming a cannon stuffed with a hungry fellow
called Jumbo Chops Joe and firing at flying food. Yet that seemingly silly enterprise
demonstrates diagonal movement of bishops and queens and prepares for more sophisticated
training, using a single piece to threaten two of your opponent's pieces.
Without sacrificing scope, depth or raw chess power, Learn to Play Chess
2 jests and jollies kids and grownups along the path from beginner to intermediate
player and beyond. On one hand, it's got Fritz, the world-class software engine,
providing behind-the-scenes brains, and on the other, a whimsical plot, charismatic
cast, funny settings and clever games and activities to make the trip enjoyable
as well as instructive.
Once again, evil is afoot in King White's kindly realm, evoked in charming
2-D, watercolor-look scenes. Dastardly, chess-obsessed King Black wants to win
the title of best player in the land. He captures Chesster, a rat who's a brilliant
player and coach to royal cousins Fritz and Bianca. The duo sets off to rescue
Chesster, stops to participate in the Pleasantville Olympics (site of the previously
mentioned Cannon Man Championships) and ends up trapped too.
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... |
 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.
|
