ThinkFun Solitaire Chess - Fun Version of Chess You Can Play Alone, Toy of the Year Nominee for Age 8 and Up

Love it! This is a challenging puzzle game that is easy to play for anyone. It kept my 83 year old father interested for hours and hours as he worked from beginner to Expert level and he still has a few puzzles to go. He can easily redo puzzles and challence himself for quite a while per session. Many other family members also challenged themselves to solve the puzzles as well. Wonderful gift and is appropriate for all solitaire puzzle people! And Chess players who want a fun challenge!.. The quality of product is great. Pieces are a nice weight and size, easy to hold, and securely fit into the round indents in the plastic top perfectly (so that they don't move around unintentionaly during play). It all stores away in a compact form and keeps everything safe. I will definitely buy the other version and enjoy a whole new set of puzzles. Love the system of numbering and classifing beginner to expert level puzzles so that you can progress along each puzzle in order - learning on the way.

I'm not sure who invented this concept of teaching chess, but it's brilliant! My 4 year old recently got into checkers from one of his teachers at his school. He soon mastered it and was quadruple jumping us before we I could even think about my next move!! When he started showing an interest in chess, and of course, I having such limited knowledge of knowing how to play chess but did not want to appear "dumb" in front of my 4 year old, did the next best thing next to teaching him myself and purchased something that could teach it to him (and hopefully myself, without letting him know that I too was learning at the same time...) He absolutely loved it and caught on pretty easily. I did have to review what all the pieces did and how they moved about the board, but once we got the hang of it (and of course he picked up on that faster than I did), he loved to think about the pieces and how to move them around. I will say that I had to reference the cheat sheets in the back (there are pages in the back of the reference book provided that guide you along to make sure you are doing it right). But it was an awesome refresher for me and a great tool to teach chess for my 4 year old. My son is not yet 5, but he's already getting down the game pretty well, thanks to this game. I highly recommend!

Not what I thought, this is mostly to learn chess strategy, but you need to know how to play and honestly it's a snooze fest for my son! Boring!

I'll compare the two versions here. I wanted the version with the plastic container, but inadvertently bought the one with the cards in a spiral bound book instead at a local store. It is apparently a newer version. So I ordered the older version with the case as well. Older version, with the plastic case: I love the case; the playing board has indentations that hold the pieces in place, making it good for playing on the go. It's self-contained,with a nice drawer to hold the pieces. The rooks tend to stick a little, but the other pieces slide in and out of their holders easily. Other people have complained about the cards not sliding into the slot easily, but I've had no trouble with that. My only complaint there is that the little tab that holds them in place is a separate piece, which could be easily lost. It would have been better to make it attached to the container. The case has little rubber feet so that it stays on a table without sliding. The guidebook that comes with this version includes not only complete solutions, but also hints that tell which piece to capture first and which to capture last. I did resort to peeking at the "which piece to capture first" hint on one puzzle that had vexed me for an hour. Newer version, with no case and the cards spiral-bound: On the other hand, the newer version, with the spiral-bound cards and no case, has more puzzles: there are 80 instead of 60. I made it somewhat portable by buying a plastic box to keep it in, one that fit the book more snugly than the cardboard box in which the game came. I keep the book in the box as I play in the car, so if the pieces slide, they won't go far. If you keep the original box, it does have packaging that holds the book and pieces so they don't slide around. The pieces in this version are nicer than the ones in the older version. They seem a little heavier, and they are more polished. I would love to have a complete chess set made in this style. The large wide bases make them very stable, and the stylized forms are very easy to distinguish. The guidebook that comes with this version does not have the hints, though it does have the complete solutions. Conclusion: If it weren't for the fact that the newer version has more cards, I would prefer the older version, though the newer one does have nicer pieces. I am glad to have both sets. I am not a very good chess-player, though I have played for many decades. The puzzles in this set were at just about the right level for me. I can solve the beginner ones without much thought. The advanced level puzzles take me quite a while to solve, sometimes an hour or more. The intermediate level puzzles sometimes jump out at me and sometimes stump me. I have also found that if I leave a puzzle I have solved and then come back to it a few days later, I don't remember the solution and can enjoy it again (this is also why I can enjoy the same books and movies over and over.) That may not be true for everyone. I've been looking for a good solitaire game to play with chess pieces for a long time. Twenty years ago I invented one called "Queen's Quadrille" (it's not for sale, but you can find instructions online) which is kind of the complement of this one. (In my game, you always move to an empty square and never capture, while in Solitaire Chess you always capture and never move to an empty square.) I also really like the Chess Mazes books by Bruce Alberston. I would love to see those puzzles packaged like these, with cards where you could set up your pieces.

I have enjoyed playing through several of the puzzles. If you are looking for something to help you improve your chess game, this is not it. I would describe this as a collection of puzzles using chess pieces. It is a nice game to keep out on a coffee table. In playing through several puzzles in a row, I thought changing out pieces was a little fiddly. I thought to myself, 'this would make a good iPhone app' where you did not have to set up the pieces for each puzzle. I went looking, and sure enough one exists (and much much cheaper btw). I wish I would have known before purchasing this. If you have an iPhone, get the app. If not this is still a lot of fun. iPhone app also has 5 times the number of puzzles - 400.

This engages my chess students and really gives them a challenge

My 9yo son asked me to buy this for him and he absolutely loves it! I had a play as well and I think it’s amazing. It challenges the mind and there are numerous levels increasing in difficulty. It takes him away from the iPad so win-win!

Très bien pour réfléchir et jouer en solitaire

Bought as a christmas gift for my kids, who are 8 and 5. With a bit of help explaining the rules, they were off playing by themselves. Its a good introduction to Chess and each can play on his/her own without need for a partner.

I am chess trainer in some schools in a rural area. It is a great game for visualization, problem solutions and writing skills (specially dyslexia). Children love it. High recomended for everybody. Soy entrenadora de ajedrez en escuelas de zonas rurales. Es un juego ideal para reforzar la visualización, resolución de problemas y escritura (sobre todo dislexia). A los les encanta. Totalmente recomendado para todo el mundo.

Excelente para toda la familia. No hay persona a quien no le guste. Desde mi hijo de 6 años hasta mi papá de 68. Los retos estan perfectamente pensados y es buenísimo para jugarse en solutario o em grupos para ver quién lo resuelve primero.