Review: Chess Fun for Little Ones, worth £22.99

Review by VIP Club Member Amelia Withall

My first impression of the book “Chess fun for little ones” was that it was a good size and not too heavy, with a calming blue coloured front cover and easy to read text. As many books for small children are, it has cardboard style pages, making it easy for little hands to grasp and turn over. 

On opening it I found lovely images of each chess piece with a simple poem underneath briefly describing clearly how that particular piece moved. Each page also contained a basic chess board with lights, and a large button. When the button was pressed it complemented the poem by lighting up the directions that the piece could move from the position it was in on the board.

I thought the biggest pro was how simple the book was to understand and use; my little one enjoyed pressing the buttons on each page and seeing the different colours of the lights showing the direction of each chess piece’s movements. 

My husband and I thought the short poems explained the movements of the pieces very well and made it interesting to read.  I particularly liked how the lights changed colour depending on the direction the piece could go, and we were both very impressed with the way the light pattern changed based on the page we were currently reading.

My only con is that there is a lot more to the pawn than its poem suggests, although I understand that this book is designed to get small children started on the basics, and adding more information could get complicated very quickly.

Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys chess themselves and is thinking about teaching their young child how to play. I would especially recommend it if they have a 4-5 year old starting to show interest in the game. It is fun to read together as an activity and engaging for the child.

I would give the book a 5 star rating for the reasons stated above.

Available to buy from Chess Fun for Little Ones