Great Foundation for Chess

What We Liked:

Chess Academy for Kids by Geek Kids has a great, sophisticated design for tweens who are just getting started with chess, but who don’t want to feel like they are being babied. Starting with the basics, the app takes children from moving the pieces right up into special rules and combinations that I – in all honesty – don’t know.

This is a great, comprehensive resource that children can use independently to strike out into the world of chess. Parents can also use it as a guide for younger, ambitious children who want to learn chess.

I love that the app lets you set-up profiles for multiple children, and the motivating statistics and progress bar are great for kids who are completion-driven. I also really like the chess game module because of the option to turn possible moves on and off – what a great visual to reinforce chess-piece movement (there are SO many different pieces after all, it can be confusing for beginners). My oldest and I have had some games together, and really enjoyed them – it’s still great to play with a more experienced player so you can see exactly why your child is now in checkmate (yep, I let my kids lose)!

She has also been spending time with the tutorials and tasks (the beginning ones are pretty simple for her because we started with chess a few months ago), but there is a LOT of content that she hasn’t covered yet (and that I don’t even know – so I can’t teach it to her myself), so I really like that this app can take us beyond the bare basics that I’m personally familiar with.

What We Didn’t Like:

It would be nice to have a narrated option of the tutorials and tasks for children who are less confident readers.

Overall:

For far less than the cost of even an economy-model chessboard, you can give your child all the basics (and quite a bit more than that) needed to get started in chess with Chess Academy for Kids by Geek Kids. With sixty tutorials, eighty interactive learning activities, and a chess game mode ideally suited to beginners – everything your independent reader needs for a solid foundation is right here in one handy app.

Appsforhomeschooling.com about Chess Academy for Kids by Geek Kids, v1.0