Some people have a certain aptitude for chess. I picked up my chess skills on the streets and as such, am pretty terrible against anyone even remotely competent at the game. My husband and I have an unspoken agreement to never mention chess and our marriage is better for it. This might be good enough for me, but what about the next generation? Are today’s children doomed to learn the intricacies of the game of kings from rumors and confused peers? Not if Joe Miccio has anything to say about it.
Checkmate!
Miccio is the inventor of QuickChess, an award-winning board game that quickly teaches kids how to play chess. The game features a smaller board and reduced number of pieces. Through a series of mini-games, kids are taught the skills needed to take Bobby Fisher down a peg.
Okay, that might be going a bit far, but it does eliminate a lot of the more intimidating aspects of learning to play chess. Since the challenge escalates as players improve, even seasoned vets can use QuickChess to hone their mad skills.
Now, nearly 25 years after developing QuickChess, Miccio has decided to take the game digital. The new game will build on the original concept with additional settings and (admittedly) cute animated pieces. New challenges have been added and the final version will feature multiplayer and online capabilities.
The project is seeking $55,000 on Kickstarter. Digital QuickChess will be designed to run in a browser so it will be accessible to a larger audience. I couldn’t find any mention of how much the final product will cost, but it’s worth nothing that one of the rewards offered is “Lifetime Digital QuickChess Account.” This at least implies that there will be some sort of fee down the line.
It will be interesting to see if QuickChess will succeed on Kickstarter. It’s easy to write chess off as something that kids (and most adults) aren’t overly excited about. Still, there’s a reason the game has endured for so long.
