Junior Chess Game Review

Junior Chess Game Background

Likely originating in India more than a thousand years ago, Chess is among the oldest and most studied board games on Earth. Junior Chess is a simple introductory version of this classic game suited for young learners. Players can learn about the basics of chess and challenge a computer player with 3 different difficulty levels.

This game was developed by RavalMatic.

How to Play Junior Chess

To select, left click with your mouse or tap on the touchscreen with your fingers. The welcome screen offers the following customization options:

• Play as the red or blue player.
• Choose a difficulty level.

Once you’re done, select Play! to begin the game. If you’re new to chess, select Rules to learn more about how the game works.

Move a piece by selecting it, then selecting a space where it can move.

Basic Gameplay Advice

Mechanisms

Chess is a turn-based board game where two color-coded players move specific pieces according to a set of rules. Your ultimate goal in chess is to put the king in checkmate, a position where the king cannot avoid capture by fleeing or blocking. This version of the game is played against a computer player with 3 difficulty levels.

Players can assign themselves with the color. The red player moves first.

Each player starts with the same set of pieces: one king, one queen, a pair each of bishops, knights, and rooks, and 8 pawns. Each piece has its own rules of movement:

• Pawns can only move forward one space at a time unless they are moving for the first time, in which case they can move two spaces. Outside special circumstances, they capture pieces diagonally.
• Rooks can only move horizontally and vertically. They are the second strongest piece in the game.
• Bishops can only move diagonally.
• Knights move three linear spaces and one space to the side, forming an L shape. They can jump over any piece in between them and capture any piece in the side.
• The queen can move horizontally, vertically, and diagonally, making her the strongest piece in the game.
• The king can move only one space at a time. He is simultaneously the weakest and most important piece in the game. You cannot move the King in a space that will put it under threat of capture.

Whenever the pawn reaches the other side of the board, you can choose to promote it to another type of piece, usually another queen. There is no limit to how many pawns you can promote.

When a piece lands on a space with another piece on it, the opposing piece is captured and removed from play. This is depicted in-game as the piece being placed in a cage.

Special Moves

The game includes two extra moves that are standard in many forms of chess play. The first is castling, which is a move that allows you to protect the king more readily. This is the only move in chess that allows you to move two pieces at the same time. It is also the only time where the king can move more than one space.

When castling, you move the king two spaces toward the rook it will castle with, and the rook jumps to the space on the other side. The following conditions must be met before you can castle the king:

• The king hasn’t moved yet.
• The king isn’t in check.
• The king won’t move into check when he does.
• There are no pieces between the rook and the king.
• The rook you plan to use hasn’t moved yet.

The second special move is the En Passant and is unique to pawns. When your opponent moves a pawn two spaces forward. If you have an adjacent pawn, it can move to a forward diagonal space and capture the enemy pawn.

Winning & Losing

The game follows standard chess rules. Putting your opponent’s king in a position of inescapable capture, checkmate, is the main goal of the game. A king is placed in check whenever it is put in danger of capture. You must move the king away from its current space or somehow block the check with another piece. You cannot move your king into check.

There are times when neither you nor your opponent can win the game. This tie, called a stalemate, is when you run out of legal moves to finish the game. One example would be when you are not in check during your turn, but moving anywhere will put you in check. A stalemate can also take place when neither you nor your opponent have sufficient pieces to trap your kings.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

General Tips

Use pawns for your opening moves. This will gradually clear the way for the more powerful units directly behind them. Once the pawns have advanced, use the knights and bishops to control the center of the board as soon as you can. Don’t rely too much on your pawns as they’re considerably weaker than most other pieces. Stronger pieces will restrict your opponent more effectively.

Pay attention to how your opponent responds to each of your moves. They could be setting you up for a trap or moving you toward a difficult-to-defend position. Think about your moves several steps ahead to avoid some of the more obvious counters your opponent may make.

Castle your king as soon as possible to bolster your defenses. If your opponent fails to do the same, this will put you in a more powerful position overall.

Sacrificing & Promoting Pieces

Chess is about taking pieces from your army. While keeping as many pieces as you can is important to maintain control of the board, giving up pieces is unavoidable. At times, you will need to sacrifice pieces to get ahead in the game. Sometimes, though you must choose between pieces to sacrifice. In general, you should seek to preserve stronger pieces like the queen or the rooks and sacrifice weaker pieces such as the pawns.

That said, do not sacrifice pawns willy-nilly. Because you can promote your pawns (to a queen, rook, bishop or knight), preserving some of them can give you an edge in the late game. Aim to get at least some of your pawns promoted while preventing your opponent from doing the same.

Get on Notation

Chess boards are annotated. The columns are marked by letters (A to H, from left to right), while the rows are marked by numbers (1 to 8, bottom up). Although notation isn’t necessary to play chess, it makes studying moves easier to follow along. Most guides on chess use notation to indicate the position of pieces, which is invaluable to keep track of famous gameplay scenarios.

Once you’re familiarized yourself with notation, you can learn about common winning strategies such as the Scholar’s Mate and the Queen’s Gambit and avoid critical errors like the Fool’s Mate.

Educational Aspects

Chess teaches logical and strategic thinking. Players are encouraged to think carefully about each move and their consequences as they play the game and formulate situations where they can emerge victorious.

Player Age Recommendations

This game is suitable for school-aged players and above. That said, this is a version of the game suited for younger, newer players. We have other, more complex chess games suited for seasoned chess players.