Chess Academy for Kids by Geek Kids App Reviews

Its a great way to learn how to teach your kids how to play chess and the whole family too. Theres even tutorials and practices

This app is pretty typical of a product created by someone who is out of touch with the intended user. The language used to explain the moves is unclear and obtuse….kinda like those words are. Tells you something, but not much, really. I set my ten-year-old alone with the app and let him start learning the moves. He was able to follow the lessons (good job by the developers). However, he didnt understand what the move was supposed to accomplish. Why use "equilibrium" when "balance" is clear and known to all ages. Why use the term "legal" move. Wouldnt "allowed" suffice? What is really meant by "beneficial capture"? In fact, isnt any move which results in some gain "beneficial"? I do understand that the process of learning the game includes the use of the language or lingo. However, I also understand that the game is pretty much a universal game and not something exclusive to english-speaking people. The developers remind me of the experience of driving a nice BMW. I dont need to practice my skills in deutsch to drive the car. I need to be taught how to use the car properly and when words get in the way of that, I have a less valuable experience. I would suggest buyers of chess instruction apps consider this particular one for older and better educated persons (at least in language skills)

I bought this app as an adult learning to play chess. I had the freebie version first, so had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Im using it alongside Chess Pro - with Coach which guides you in games and has pro games to study. I like that your app is easy to use and I did learn from it, but for so much money I would like to see it tell me WHY a correct move is correct. Sometimes it took me many tries and then I had to figure out why it was right and some other option was wrong. It also assumes a more advanced chess knowledge for some of the exercises to choose the correct move. Also, it should include that double step pawn rule. And finally, I wonder about the AI engine. Ive played 50 games now ( I like that it keeps stats - but it should include the AI strength) and I havent won once. As much as I have studied and practiced I cant be that bad. I wonder if this app would be frustrating to children, despite some of the good things about it.

It was a great app before commercial strip was added on top of the screen of the full version. There is no way to turn it off. Very unethical way of shoving your customers faces into other products!

First of all, the quality of this apps user interface (UI) is really good. I have used Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition on the PC previously and I think that program is still the best learning program Ive ever experienced. Some of my recommendations below are informed by my experience with Chessmaster. Some of these suggestions have been mentioned in other reviews. Because of the great quality of the user interface, I trust that this app will grow into what I envision below. Im going to be teaching my twin 7-year-olds chess using this app on the iPad, so my review will lean in that direction. I have used it on the iPhone myself and I assume the iPad experience is similar, just bigger. I bought it on the iPad and it works on both the iPad and iPhone since I have my same apple account on both I got two for the price of one. Thanks! The tutorials are good but I think they need to be reordered, expanded/explained, words simplified, and a few missing parts of the chess game need to be added and other parts corrected. Oh, and remove your companys ads from this paid app - not cool. I want all the screen real estate dedicated to what I care about and paid for. 1) Reorder the tutorials a bit. I think its more effective to cover the board itself, ranks and files, chess notation, then pawns, then move up in piece value. This app covered king first, then queen, etc. When referring to how the queen moved, it said that it moves like the rook and bishop combined, but it hadnt covered how those pieces moved yet. Do it more like Chessmaster did it.

Hard to give it a review when it failed to work from the get-go. Its wasnt a connectivity issue as the app would download but when you opened it & attempted to "build a user", it froze. Ive tried uninstalling & reinstalling multiple times to no avail. Lame.

Im super disappointed in this app, as there is no actual teaching of strategy and worse, you cant adjust the difficulty, so forget this being anything other than pure frustration unless you are Bobby Fisher.

Big disappointment. Waste of money. Lessons are okay for kids 7-10 or so, but they start playing actual games they will be very frustrated. The easiest level is impossible for kids learning for the first time. Not to mention its buggy and crashes a lot.

I taught my son the basics of chess the old fashioned way but wanted help in teaching him some beginning strategy. This app walks you through over 70 lessons in clean, easy to understand language and graphics. But the vast majority of tutorials focus on the basic rules of movement, and only a few lessons address strategy, and just barely. It is definitely worth the purchase price if you are starting from scratch with your child, and you need help teaching the very basics of how the pieces move. And it offers an excellent interface and memory for playing games with your child or against the computer. And kudos for being ad-free and in-app-purchase free. But once the very basics are understood, the educational value of this app maxes out. I wish there were more advanced lessons available as add ons so I could get help teaching basic strategy.

I just purchased it. I went through the learning process. I understood some of what I was learning. I am not a kid and havent been a kid for a long time. Then I was looking for more to learn in strategy and found that I could purchase another app for that. But I havent done that yet and I dont know if I will. So, I played some games against the computer. The computer always wins. The Queen is relentless and very mean. She goes after you like a spider on a web, and very very fast! I am beginning to dislike her very much. But I keep trying, and actually I am improving. But I know that I will never win against a computer because the computer has all the answers. So, when I get tired of getting beat, I will look someplace else to learn and play. In my opinion, the app is okay, but I think that for the price it could be better.

Its a decent app for beginners to pick up chess. Very well designed, both in terms of UI and content. Easy to understand, with tons of practice to solidify what youve just learned.