Chess House ~ Review

Eli has been asking to learn how to play chess for awhile now so when the Starter Chess Learning Kit from Chess House became available for review, I really hoped that we would get it.  

Eli was very excited to see it arrive!
We had to exam the contents of the Learning Kit immediately and Eli had a dozen questions right off the bat...of course, I could not answer most of his questions because I have never played chess before.



The Starter Chess Learning Kit includes: ($39.95)
*Elliott's Chess School DVD 1 "Pawn Level" including a bonus booklet *34 Solid Plastic Chess Pieces (2 extra queen pieces) *Vinyl Roll-up Chess Board (made in America) *Deluxe Chess Bag
We even received a tasty chocolate bar with our kit!



Elliott's Chess School was developed by National Master Elliott Neff.  The lessons in this program focus on understanding chess and how to think so that you can figure out the best moves in any position, not just by memorizing patterns.  There are six primary levels of skill and knowledge: Pawn, Knight, Bishop, Rook, Queen, and King (we received the Pawn Level DVD for this review).  Each level builds upon the previous material and consists of elements that are most important to master at that point in development.  The lessons incorporate audio/visual presentations, practice positions, and test positions.  There are even workbooks to complement the lessons.
Eli was thrilled to see the DVD.  Since he is a struggling reader he really dreads activities that require a lot of reading in the lessons. The Pawn Level DVD is for beginners...that's us :)  Like I said, I know nothing about the game of chess. We watched the entire DVD in one sitting to familiarize ourselves with the game first, the entire thing took less than an hour. 
There are 10 Topics on the Pawn Level DVD:
Intro to Chess Pawns Rooks Bishops Queen King  Knights Castling Pawn Shields Development
In the first topic, Intro to Chess, we learned about the chess pieces (it isn't called the castle piece, it is called a Rook!) & how to set up the board.  Did you know that a chess board has to face a certain direction? Yep, me either...the white squares in the corners have to be on the right!   
With each topic you will learn the "point values" of each piece, the rules of play, & the important basic strategies of the game.  The DVD also comes with a bonus booklet that has extra activities for each topic that help in learning tips and tricks of the game.
Eli sometimes forgets which piece can move which direction (truthfully, so do I!) so, we are making our way through each lesson, sometimes two or three times, so that we really grasp the concepts of each piece and the rules of the game.  So far, Eli has not minded repeating the topic lessons because they are short and have great visuals for the explanations.
Elliott Neff - the DVD teacher - is easy to understand and very thorough in his explanations.  And as Eli said..."he doesn't have an annoying voice or talk to us like we are babies..."  Below is a short video sample from the Pawn Level DVD.


Eli has really enjoyed learning about the game of Chess and is eager to begin each new lesson so that he can "really play and beat everyone!"