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Subject: Electronic Chess for Youth

Author: Steve Goff

Date: 07:03:00 11/09/05


Greetings Everyone,
  My son, soon to be seven, recently discovered chess with a friend at school.
He came home very excited and asked me to teach him to play.  I have played
since I was his age and was thrilled.  I was stunned at how quickly he picked up
the moves and in two nights and only 4 games, he is well on his way to
understanding there is much more to the game than just moving and capturing
pieces.  He seems to love it and seems to have a very strong nack for the game.
So, for his upcoming birthday, I wanted to get him some form of Electronic Chess
Game that has good teaching and novice modes.  A tour of the web this morning
found lots of products but few reviews.  I was hoping some of the experts on
this board might be able to reccommend some different ones and tell me what you
like and, just as importantly, what you don't like.  Some of the parameters that
will help drive my selection are:

1- Ease of use - my son will be 7 in a few weeks; it needs to be simple to use.
2- Teaching and novice modes with the ability to move up in levels at his own
pace.
3- Portability - Ideally, I would like him to be able to put it in his back pack
and take it with him wherever he goes.  This suggests a handheld but some of
those seem to break rule number 1 above - too many buttons.  I admit I am torn
on this though because at his age I would expect he would do better to have
something concrete to grab (i.e., pieces) to move rather than icons on a screen.
 If I do go completely electronic, color screen would be nice.

Your advice and assistance would be appriciated!!

Thanks!



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