New Concept in Chess

[Geoff Chandler]

Any idea that encourages kids to play chess must be embraced.

Personally I think the Staunton design is perfect and so it
appears do hundreds of advertising agencies.
Chess logo's are on everything from removal vans to a bag
of potatoes. (and I have the pictures to prove it.)

Replacing the pieces with war like pieces was a lot earlier than 1981.

Try 1941 when Hitler and Himmler had such a set designed to give away as presents.

google Mussert Chess Set.

Good luck with it.
If just one kid from the 100 falls in love with the game and takes it up
then this enterprise will have been a success.

[Richard James]

Good luck with it.
If just one kid from the 100 falls in love with the game and takes it up
then this enterprise will have been a success.

They might fall in love with the pieces but falling in love with the pieces and falling in love with the game are not the same thing at all.

What if two kids from the 100 fail to understand chess because they're not using a standard set?

[Peter D Williams]

Any idea that encourages kids to play chess must be embraced.

Good luck with it.
If just one kid from the 100 falls in love with the game and takes it up
then this enterprise will have been a success.

Keeping children playing chess into adult hood on a regular bases appears to be the problem as most drop out and we then start the merry go round again of the next intake knowing full well that most will drop out by age 14/15

It is new long term ideas that we need which will help children embrace chess not fads or gimmicks.

I am off to buy some rather nice cheese and fine wine to go with it keep warm everyone.

[Peter D Williams]

Good luck with it.
If just one kid from the 100 falls in love with the game and takes it up
then this enterprise will have been a success.

They might fall in love with the pieces but falling in love with the pieces and falling in love with the game are not the same thing at all.

What if two kids from the 100 fail to understand chess because they're not using a standard set?

I agree Richard.I was teaching a child at scouts and he wanted to move the chess knight like a plane because you could in the game he played with the Star Trek set he had been given at Christmas.He wanted to go into warp speed.

[Richard James]

Any idea that encourages kids to play chess must be embraced.

Good luck with it.
If just one kid from the 100 falls in love with the game and takes it up
then this enterprise will have been a success.

Keeping children playing chess into adult hood on a regular bases appears to be the problem as most drop out and we then start the merry go round again of the next intake knowing full well that most will drop out by age 14/15

It is new long term ideas that we need which will help children embrace chess not fads or gimmicks.

I am off to buy some rather nice cheese and fine wine to go with it keep warm everyone.

Indeed - but in primary school chess clubs they drop out at 8 or 9, not at 14 or 15. If they dropped out at 14 or 15 at least they'd know enough about chess to take it up again later.

Several years ago I was involved in the English version of the Harry Potter Chess Course. At the time this was trumpeted by the BCF (in the person of Gerry Walsh, I believe) as something that would have a dramatic effect on junior chess in this country. In fact, predictably, it had no effect at all. I have many of the pieces on display in the Chess Palace: young kids are always entranced by them. They were just gimmicks, though, and the course itself was worse than useless. It was an adult course written by an Italian (and, I suspect, cribbed from an old book by Pachman or somebody but I never checked) printed on stills from the first HP movie.

I seem to recall that a big kiddie tournament was to be held in York, but it was cancelled, apparently because the publishers hadn't realised that chess was competitive, but possibly also because nobody entered.

Many gimmicks have been tried over the years to get more kids to play chess, but all of them have been commercial failures.

[Andrew Martin]

How many girls do you think would be interested in this version of the game?

[Simon Brown]

For what it is worth, my daughter thought it looked ridiculous. I didn't disagree.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I am off to buy some rather nice cheese and fine wine to go with it keep warm everyone.

Actually, if the pieces were made of cheese and chocolate, I'd buy (and eat) them... (have a look at the picture again).

[Brendan O'Gorman]

I know I shouldn't, but I can't resist … each set of king and queen equivalents are not on matching squares in the initial illustration

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Richard.

"Many gimmicks have been tried over the years to get more kids to play chess,
but all of them have been commercial failures."

So we just give up then.

I'm not fond of the pieces but give it a chance.
If it gets some kids looking at a chequered board instead of an X-Box
then that is small victory.

It just might trigger some kids imagination to look deeper into the game.
He will then discover a brilliant medieval war game called Chess.

Hi Andrew.

"How many girls do you think would be interested in this version of the game?"

None.

Girls are young women and if a woman wants to play chess she will.
They do not need to be lulled towards the game.
They do it because it interests them and it is what they have made up their mind to do.
They are a different breed from us guys.
They stop playing with toys at a much earlier age than us.

[Rob Thompson]

Just as a general comment, can we please stop with all the "girls are like this, but boys are like that" sort of comments? It's neither helpful nor true to imply that wargames are exclusively male, so these "what about the girls?" comments w.r.t. this set are not entirely useful.

[Greg Breed]

Just as a general comment, can we please stop with all the "girls are like this, but boys are like that" sort of comments? It's neither helpful nor true to imply that wargames are exclusively male, so these "what about the girls?" comments w.r.t. this set are not entirely useful.

Wargames are not exclusively male, but they tend to have a majority of male fans. It goes back to the differences in the male v female psyche and instincts.
If you were to canvas an equal number of males and females from an equally varied cross-section i can guarantee that you would get more positive responses from males towards wargames than females. It's just human nature. Nothing to do with inequality. And to be fair their comments are no less useful than yours or mine.

[Peter D Williams]

Just as a general comment, can we please stop with all the "girls are like this, but boys are like that" sort of comments? It's neither helpful nor true to imply that wargames are exclusively male, so these "what about the girls?" comments w.r.t. this set are not entirely useful.

Members on here are quite entitled to say if they think a male or a female may play a certain game more.I have found that in my experience war game clubs tend to have far more males as members.

It soon be time for lunch and a nice cup of tea

[Peter D Williams]

I am off to buy some rather nice cheese and fine wine to go with it keep warm everyone.

Actually, if the pieces were made of cheese and chocolate, I'd buy (and eat) them... (have a look at the picture again).

You can buy chocolate chess sets which i have done for Peter when he was younger and remember Peter eating most of my chess men and i got very few of his to eat.

Fish today for lunch but first a nice cup of tea i be back later to see what progress we are making with all these threads topics.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Rob.

I think Andrew made a valid point, girls will not be intrested in playing on a set like this.
We should not expect girls to act like boys and like the things boys like.

I grew up in the pre computer age when being sent to your room was a real punishment.
(Now days the kids appear to spend their whole lives in their bedroom.)

Cannot ever recall the girls joining in when we played Japs & Commandoes.