Initial Review of "No Stress Chess" Game/Set

"No Stress Chess" is a chess set that comes with a deck of cards - 56 in fact.  These cards show you a picture of a piece or pawn and how the piece or pawn can move.  The idea is that once you set up the board - and move two pawns forward to make room for your Queen and Bishops to move, each player draws a card and then MUST move the piece shown.  There are variations given in the directions though this has been the most used by my daughter and I. 

The cards clearly set up positions that you should not ever get in, but imagine the delight of a five year old who watches me draw a king card right into a position that allows her to win on her next move.  What you say that is against the rules - well not in this game.  It keeps us playing for an hour or so and it ensures you get your pieces into the game and learn their movement.  Most importantly, it gets us playing.  Not ever having played the game before it clearly made it easy for us to start.  Had I been accomplished at the game I may have chosen a different route, but not knowing the game, this turned out to be great for us. 

Have someone in your family who has not ever played but you would like to get going in a way that is really non-stressful?  Try this game.

So far the best chess move made in my house was when my wife found "No stress Chess" in a local game store and purchased that to complete a request on my Santa list.