Fritz and Chesster does not teach chess in the usual way. It does not set up a board and explain how each of the pieces move. Instead it targets children who have never played chess before in their lives and teaches them the basic rules in a friendly and fun cartoon-like environment. There are cartoons and stories for the children to follow, and then there are tasks for them to solve interactively. In short Fritz and Chesster makes chess fun!

Each piece and each rule is explained in a subgame, which you can play against the computer. Many of them are far away from the actual game of chess, but at the same time they give the children full insight into the sometimes daunting rules of the game.

Take for instance the first sequence. Young Prince Fritz has to stand in for a while for his father, King White. Together with his cousin Bianca, Fritz embarks on a journey through their kingdom. On their journey they are joined by Kalaidoscope, a jolly instructor, who tells them all about the kingdom. In each scene the children can click different elements, like mouse traps and funny things happen. It encourages the young users to explore the scenery.

On their trip around the kingdom the three encounter the daunting King Black, who challenges them to a game of chess. But Fritz doesn't know how to play. Thankfully he is able to learn the game on the rest of his trip.
The first lesson comes when they see two sumo wrestlers fighting in a ring. The wrestlers are too fat to approach each other directly, so they always stay at least one square apart. They move around the board blocking each other off.

The principle of Fritz & Chesster is that you can insert the CD into a computer drive, fire up the program and then leave a child alone with it if necessary. After a few weeks the child will come to you and say: "Can we play a game of chess?" they will have learnt all the rules - we are talking about pawn moves, castling rules, promotion, mate, stalemate, everything - and even understand a bit about strategy and tactics.

Naturally you do not need to or indeed should leave your child alone with the program. In fact we have discovered that it is often usually children and their mothers who pick up the game. The fathers usually get hooked on the subgames, battling to keep ahead of the kids!