No Stress Chess is a chess game that beginners of any age can immediately start playing. It is a fast way to learn how to play chess for kids. Adults with no experience of the game can also quickly learn to play chess with this game.
No Stress Chess really does take all the stress out of learning the game and teaching it to children.
The game comes with a folding board, plastic playing pieces, a set of 56 action cards. A plastic a storage tray holds the cards both inside the box and during play.
The folding two-sided chess board has a training chess board on one side. It shows you exactly where to put your pieces at the beginning of the game.
Once you have played a few times and are familiar with the set-up, you can flip the board over and play on a regular chess board.
Action Cards
The 56 action cards show you exactly how each piece moves. The action cards are what makes No Stress Chess a truly stress-free game to play.
Instead of having to choose which piece to move, players take turns to draw an action card from the top of the deck. Then they move the piece shown on the card.
If you have more than one of that type of piece, you can choose which piece to move (if more than one piece can make a legal move).
If you do not have that piece any more, or if the piece cannot make a legal move, then you lose your turn.
Because the action cards show and explain exactly how the pieces move, you can start playing No Stress Chess even if you don’t know how the pieces move!
It really is an ideal way for complete beginners to begin playing chess as soon as they open the box.
The Element of Chance in No Stress Chess
Because each player must move whatever piece is shown on the card he or she draws, No Stress Chess is much more of a game of chance than standard chess.
For example, if you draw the Queen card, you might be able to take a piece with the Queen. However, you risk having your queen taken by a pawn on the next turn. It’s up to you whether to “take a chance” on the other player not drawing a pawn card.
With a bit of luck, your opponent might draw a card for a type of piece that cannot legally move, or for a piece that has been taken off the board…
There are also six green cards that allow you to “move the same type of piece again.” When you draw a green card, you can move the same piece you or your opponent previously moved. This is a nice touch as it adds an extra element of choice into the game. It helps beginners to think about which would be the best piece (out of a limited range of choices) to move.
Increasing Players’ Choices
As you get used to playing No Stress Chess, you can increase the range of move choices by playing the “Level Two” and “Level Three” games.
- In Level Two, each player starts with three cards in hand. On your turn, draw a card, and then choose which card to play from your hand of four cards.
- In Level Three, each player starts with five cards, and proceeds as in Level Two.
Play Standard Chess!
When you are ready, you can “graduate” from No Stress Chess, flip over the board and play standard chess. The instruction pamphlet includes a set of clearly written rules and diagrams explaining how to play the standard game.
No Stress Chess Specifications
- Folding 36 cm x 31 cm two-sided chess board
- 17 charcoal-colored plastic pieces
- 17 ivory-colored playing pieces
- 56 illustrated action cards
- Black plastic card tray
- Illustrated instruction pamphlet