What are the best chess programs for a 9 year old to play against and analyse scenarios with based on you or your children's experience?

We have both OS-X and MS Windows based machines here but it does seem at first blush as though the OS-X platform has a dearth of good offerings from what I see.

I have read a little about this and the choices of Fritz, Rybka, Deep Rybka, Shredder and Houdini are just bewildering. DD will have a conflict this Autumn between Chess and Soccer. We are going to give priority to Soccer but the compromise would be a good chess analysis and opponent program...

Any and all help appreciated. TIA,

I don't know your DD rating, but Rybka is used widely by chess coaches, they say it is better than Fritz. Never heard about Shredder and Houdini, sorry.

Thanks very much for your reply.

I bought Fritz 13 before you replied but I really appreciate your taking the time to extend help!

My DD is a chess dilettante with no rating per se but a lot of interest. She did some Saturday classes at a local state college with an awesome tutor who is also a rated Grand Master and she was able to hold her own against more experienced and older players at times. She will not be able to continue this in the coming Autumn because of soccer. I want her to keep her skills keen for when she picks back up in the Spring. She will also be able to use over the summer.

My kids and husband really like an Android app called Chess Free. I think it's also available for iPad.

Fritz is very good, but if you want her to sharpen her skills and may be improve them, you should consider playing online. Computer programs like Fritz are very good for game analysis or for using their game database, but to play a real game you have to have an opponent. Moreover, chess sites give you rating similar to USCF rating, and this is a very useful tool to know opponent's level and check your own progress. You can even participate in online tournaments.

We find playing online frustrating. ChessKid, which seems the best fit, is quite buggy and other kids often are poor sports. DS hardly ever gets to finish out and win a game outright because his opponents almost always abandon their games or resign when he has the advantage. It is also hard to even start a game because people are very picky about matching on rating. The other thing that happens is the server hangs or disconnects.

I know he could play on adult chess servers, but I'm nervous about allowing this. He would be outclassed anyway--he is only 6. ChessFree has an AI engine that makes the play relatively "human" in its errors, or so I am told.

I think your 6yo is better at chess than my 8yo, from what you have written earlier, but my 8yo likes playing on ICC, mostly at the game/15minutes time control, and has won some games, maybe 25% of those he has played. If you lose, your rating falls, and you are matched with opponents of a similar rating. If your son uses a moniker which does not reveal he is a child, I don't think other members will know.

Maybe we'll try it, Bostonian. Just makes me a bit nervous.

We have a CD-ROM called Chess Tactics for Beginners that comes well recommended, if she has patience to run through exercises. It's not flashy, but I'm pretty sure it does its job well.

Enh, except I think that's only available on XP. We have an old computer running XP, so it's on that one.

I registered just to participate in this discussion because my 5 year old is also very interested in Chess so I am also interested in fun websites or chess apps as he always gets more motivated by something new.

We have joined ChessKid and have not seen the problems mentioned by Ultramarina:

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In fact we have found ChessKid to be very good and it is free. This is what we get from it:

* We do the 5 chess puzzles everyday. We do that together and compete to find the right answer first.

* We play "slow chess" games together so he can learn from playing with me.

* He plays "fast chess" games by himself and we can analyze and when the game is over, we can go through it again and analyze the moves together.

There are other features we do not use, because they require Java and I do not want to download it to my computer for security reasons.

Perhaps if some other people from this site are registered, we can organize chess games between our kids on Chesskids.com?

We also use:

* Kidchess.com (see Kidchess Evaluator)
* Gameknot.com (see chess tactics and real-time chess)
* PlayMagnus (a free app that lets you "play" against Magnus Carlsen, at different ages. Magnus in the top chess player of the world, and your 6 year old can see what it would have been like to play against Magnus when he was 6, 7, 8, 9 etc.)
* I just bought "Battle vs Chess" for Wii and we are waiting for that to arrive. I can give comments after we play with it awhile.

If anyone else has fun suggestions for Apps or websites appropriate for kids, please let us know.

I use Fritz 12.
I also use Shredder 10.
I include them play against each other. Their game fun to watch.

I wanted to update my assessment of ChessKid. I believe they changed the site so that you can no longer abandon a game in play because you are losing without penalty. This has vastly improved the experience, although it is still rare to play to checkmate (other play usually resigns--ok often, not all the time). Also, the bugginess we were experiencing seems to be limited to the mobile version, which is still not good, at least on my Driod.

We have actually upgraded to a Gold membership so DS can watch all the videos (I am a chess idiot, but they seem very good) and get all the other benefits, including unlimited puzzles and practicing positions aginst the computer. DS REALLY likes the site and has improved a lot since using it consistently.