Fun Family Chess & LifeChess is a great developer of life skills because it reflects so much of real life.Chess has always been a simulacrum for political and military confrontation, with its gambits and endgames, stalemate and checkmate. We imagine diplomats or generals facing each other across a board. The game has been internationally popular for more than two centuries, but, like the literary genre of the spy thriller, it came into its own in the Cold War. To take one of many examples: the opening scene of one of the first James Bond films, From Russia with Love, is a chess match between two grandmasters. And in real life, it was the Fischer-Spassky match of 1972—when an eccentric American genius smashed 25 years of Soviet chess hegemony—that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Chess provided a mega-metaphor for this psychological war, and derived added significance from the game's important role in Soviet communist society. The Russians might have lagged behind in military technology or economic competition, but over the chessboard they reigned supreme. A battlefield that for the first time in history was genuinely global could be metaphorically translated on to the 64 squares. Right up till the end of the Cold War it was played to prove which nation was the strongest. Fun Family Chess continues this great tradition and perhaps even improves on it. Life is not normally as confrontational as two person chess. In real life it is not always necessary for one person to have to lose for another person to get ahead. Life is not just about two sides, or two people fighting until one gains victory over the other. Life is much more like fun family chess where even the threat of check is moderated by the fact that two other people have their turns before you have to react - and who knows - maybe they will be distracted, perhaps one of them will step in and save you - even if it's only to reduce the threat to themselves from someone else. In life we have many challenges - all at the same time. We have to juggle careers, study, marriage, parenthood, health, all kinds of threats and opportunities. Children need to juggle pressures to achieve their best. To take time to develop character, friendships, to fit in school work and cope with parents who move house and make them move schools. It is a challenge transitioning from childhood to being an adult. Fun Family Chess, with its mix of strategy and diplomacy, reflects this well - and what better place to learn some of these lessons than playing a game with your friends and family. see Chess & Life Essay - Daniel Johnson June 2005 http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=6901 |
TESTIMONIALS
FunFamilyChess is amazingly true to normal chess considering the additional players. The need to watch out for so many threats and opportunities turns it into a head spinner. Oftentimes a strange combination of moves injects real humor into what is traditionally a totally confrontational game. Destined to checkmate normal chess for families. - Peter |
