very good

This is a truly magnificent game. It teaches the basics of chess in a simple and child friendly way. My daughter loves the stories, and laughs each time we read them. The additional option to add the characters from the stories to the chess pieces is a lovely touch.The mini games provide a great build up enabling young children to understand the moves of the chess pieces without getting confused. The final suggestion of an almost complete game chess without worrying about tactics needed for check and check mate is perfect for my daughter's age and capabilities.The board itself is great. I love the double sides with one being a traditional chess board and one having grass to complement the stories as well pictures of characters showing where each piece starts making setting up easy.We've had many hours of fun with this game and I am sure we will have many more. There are two expansion packs (level 2: strategy and level 3: tactics) which look equally as excellent. Unfortunately they do not seem to be available to buy in the UK so I've had to order from elsewhere (not yet received) but I am sure they will be equally as excellent.

I got this for my five year olds birthday, and it's been awesome. Shes been talking about wanting chess for a number of months (I blame Bluey for this), and I knew teaching her was gonna be a time. I saw this on Tik Tok one day and was like screw it, let's go. 10/10 best choice, I got it on sale but would have no problems paying full price for it.First off, the board and pieces are BIG. This is great for little hands and kids who haven't necessarily developed great spacial awareness. The learning side of the board even have pictures to tell you what piece goes where, which is adorable and extremely helpful. There are little cardboard cut outs that have the characters on one side and the piece that they are on the other. They're very durable and very cute. The story itself is also cute. But the best thing I think is the minigames and the catch phrases. For every piece there's a little thing to say for them (for instance the Knights it's gallop gallop step to the side). This has been SO helpful in reminding my kid what each piece does.I can't speak highly enough about this, I will definitely be getting the level 2 and 3 boxes when my kid hits that level and understanding!

Out of the box, one of the pawns didn’t have a slot. Super glue doesn’t work because it’s handled by children. Emailed their support to no avail.Anyway, amazing game and my 3yo loves the cute stories and have learned the fundamentals of chess piece movements. It’ll honestly be a long time before we play an actual game, so in the meantime, we have a knight each, and are racing across the board to see who collects the most pizza first. Gallop, gallop, move to the side!

Here's what I loved:1.) It teaches each piece individually! - Story Time Chess gives each of the different pieces on the board a cute character and a fun backstory. And the backstory helps you remember how they move! (King Chompers gobbles up pizza as he goes slowly, moving one step at a time.) After each character's story, there's a set of practice games that will help your child practice moving that piece (while committing how it moves to memory). The instructions recommend mastering one piece before moving on to the next. This seems so logical to me! Don't try to remember all those pieces and their moves all at once. Learn them one at a time!2.) Its more than just a chess game! This set has a lovely, colorful book that's filled with all the character backstories and practice games! There's also a small board game and a set of cards for practice. Plus, the chess board is double sided! There's a Story Time Chess side and a regulation side!3.) The characters are fun and engaging! As I mentioned, there are fun characters and backstories for each piece on the chess board. They are adorable and the kids really love them! And I love that they slide into each of the chess pieces! This means that when you're ready to graduate to the official game, you can slip the characters off and play with the regular chess pieces!4.) The board and pieces are large. - This may seem like its not a big deal, but for small hands, this is great! It not only makes the game seem fun and engaging, but it makes it easier for little hands to play with!We've really enjoyed this game so far! The kids and I all love the colorful story book and the adorable characters! And I feel like its actually helping us all master how the pieces move. (There was a period of a couple weeks between the first time we played and the second - because I got really sick and wasn't up to any games for a while. But even after all that time, I still remembered that the King moves one step at a time and where he moves - thanks to the adorable story, characters, and practice games!) At 40 years old, I may actually FINALLY learn to play chess!!! And I'm kinda super excited about that!!! The kids all enjoy the fun stories and colorful characters as well! And with the storybook and practice games, it really feels like we're getting a LOT for the price - a standard chess game, a fun and fanciful chess game, practice games, and a story book!I received this game, free of charge, from Story Time Chess, in exchange for my honest BLOG review. I was not required to post a positive Amazon review, but I was so impressed by this game that I felt compelled to.