Story Time Chess Backgammon Set for Kids, Ages 3 and Up, Educational Learning Game, 1-6 Players

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.

This kids storytime chess game board has quickly become one of our favorite family games, and I’m genuinely impressed with how well it works for introducing chess to young children. The board and pieces are sturdy and colorful, which immediately grabs kids’ attention, and the story-based format makes learning the rules feel like an adventure instead of a chore. My 7- and 9-year-old were able to follow along with minimal help, and within a couple of play sessions they were excitedly recommending moves to each other based on the story prompts. The included guide is clear and age-appropriate — it breaks down the traditional moves into fun scenes and characters, which helps kids associate actions with narrative instead of memorizing dry rules. We appreciated how the board and pieces feel durable enough to withstand enthusiastic play without tipping or bending. The storytelling aspect has turned chess into a shared activity we look forward to, rather than a frustrating lesson. One tiny thing that would make it even better is if the rule booklet were laminated or sturdier, but that’s a minor detail compared to the overall value this game delivers. This chess set is much more than a typical board — it’s a teaching tool, family activity, and confidence builder all in one. Highly recommended for parents who want their kids to learn strategy, patience, and critical thinking in a way that feels like play.

Such a fun and brilliantly creative way to teach anyone chess. I am currently using it with an adult who wants to learn the game but has always been overwhelmed by the many pieces and strategies. They are finding this to be imaginative and fun. The motivation to learn? Our 5 year old granddaughter has already learned Story Time Chess and her grandmother, my wife wants to play, too! Such a fun, encouraging, and nonthreatening way to discover this wonderful game - and useful for all ages. Full sized pieces, entertaining stories, gradual introduction of pieces, simple introductory games at each stage of learning.

Even a 3 year old can pick uo tips for the game as they watch older players learn. Fun to read storry akso!

This game is a great introduction to chess. The included book does an excellent job breaking down concepts in a way that made it easy for us to really dig into learning and understanding the game. Originally purchased for an 8 year old. The set itself is well organized, with separate bags for the black and white pieces, which makes setup and cleanup simple. Everything feels thoughtfully put together and approachable for beginners. My only minor “nice-to-have” would be a separate bag for the extra flat pieces used for checkers. Those don’t currently have their own storage, and I’ve noticed a few migrate out of the box over time. Overall, this is a fantastic option for introducing chess in an engaging and accessible way, especially for families or beginners. Edit: forgot to mention a section of the board came apart fairly easy. A little annoying, but what can you do?

This game has taught three of my grandkids how to play chess. Great fun and great value!

I recently got into chess as a hobby and my daughter watched me play a lot of games. She really loves board games and so she asked if I could teach her. I figured it would be fun to be able to teach her and play together. The difficult thing is...well chess is difficult! I didn't know where to start teaching a 4-year-old something as complicated as chess. I found this online and immediately knew that my daughter would take to it. I just didn't know how much! She absolutely loves this. We breezed through level 1 and bought the puzzle book for it. We breezed through that and we're not on level 2! She loves the characters and the stories. They're the right amount of fun, silliness, and helpfulness. She now knows how all the pieces move and play a simple game of "capture the king." The set itself is well made. The characters are likable. The stories are entertaining. The exercises and puzzles are the right difficulty. There are a few criticisms. 1) The pieces could be better quality. They're a bit light and feels like cheap plastic 2) More stories would have been helpful, as they were a big hit 3) More explanation could have been given for why there are 2 sets of Bop and Bae (bishops). My daughter was confused by Bop and Bae were both on King Shaky's side AND King Chomper. The same goes for Clip and Clop (the knights). Other than that, the whole thing is fantastic! She's liking level 2 so far. I'd definitely recommend this.

This exceeded my expectations. My 8 yo daughter and I learned to play chess together through the stories and characters and now we play often. Such a great way to learn quickly and get kids off their screens!

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!

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.

Unique book-game, brilliant story, and excellent quality! It’s such a wonderful way for kids to learn and have fun at the same time. Definitely one of the best books-games you can have for your children!

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!

This is amazing. My 5 year old has learnt the basics of chess purely from this book. Loves how the kings pockets are full of food so can only move 1 space at a time. Great as a present too. If only amazon sold the part 2 box for this