Think of a chess set as a tool kit containing many tools to help develop your children’s thinking skills while teaching them how to play the world’s greatest game.

MINICHESS is a cornucopia of activities based on subsets of chess: using some of the pieces and some of the rules. The activities include games, puzzles, quizzes and quick lessons.

MINICHESS is suitable for children who have already acquired the ability to handle simple logic. For most children an appropriate age to start would be at 7 years old, although some bright children will be able to master the material a year or two earlier.

Each activity can be learnt in five minutes: either from scratch or from building on earlier activities. Unlike a game of ‘big chess’, most of the activities can also be completed in five minutes.

There is no need for a specialist chess tutor (although we can help if you really want one) and, although it will help if you have real chess sets, they’re not necessary. We provide the materials you need to improvise your own boards, and many of the games can also be played online via our website.

Once your children have solved the puzzles and quizzes, and mastered all the games, they will, incidentally, have acquired much of the knowledge and skills they need to play a complete game of ‘big chess’ at a reasonable level.