Saturday 30 September 2017

Fun Chess Book & App! The Foolish King: The Secret Story of Chess by Mark Price & Martin Brown (Children's, Non-ficiton, 7 years +, 10/10E)

As a special feature post requiring hunting down info rather than simple copy and paste of a review this is a delayed post due to life happening so the dates have obviously taken place, but the info is still very much in date!: The app was released last summer (I think). I haven't played the app, but because I enjoyed the book I wanted to share news about the app with you too! 


The review I wrote for The Foolish King book last year can be seen here. I loved it especially because Martin Brown did the illustrations for Horrible Histories, a series that I think started when I was little and which always made me laugh. I'm not brilliant at chess, but the moves in the book were simple to understand, and the story very charming.
 
In game screen
The illustrations are from the app, and everything below this paragraph is from the press release info. Do go check it all out! (Please excuse the formatting, despite me telling Blogger to centralise all text it didn't happen. Technology!)

THE FOOLISH KING: The Secret History of Chess
MARK PRICE, illustrated by Martin Brown
Paperback, second edition, published by David Fickling Books on 6th July 2017, £8.99
 
Image from the app
Since last summer Lord Mark Price’s THE FOOLISH KING online game has seen young chess players competing from across the world to get to the top of the leader board. Now the winners of the winter and spring league have been announced on the ‘Board of Fame’ and the summer league starts just in time for the holidays on 14 July!

Lord Mark Price, has also announced his support for The Delancey UK Schools’ Chess Challenge, where he will be donating copies of THE FOOLISH KING book to help promote the game of chess to young people and inspire children to become the chess champions of the future.
 
New games and puzzles image from the app
THE FOOLISH KING LIVE online game was launched in 2016 and is available to play via the website www.thefoolishking.com and the free app for iPhone and iPad. The online game was inspired by the critically acclaimed book, THE FOOLISH KING: The Secret History of Chess, by former Deputy Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership and current Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Lord Mark Price, and published by David Fickling Books. The aim of the game is to enable young players aged six and above to learn how to play chess - one of the world’s most popular games estimated to be played by 500 million people in 167 countries.
Another in app image

The interactive, smartly-designed app and website offers children the ability to play against the computer (1 player mode) and against another player (2 player mode). Using the same illustrations and characters as the book, the game has three different levels (easy, medium and hard), features clear tutorials and provide tips on how to improve your technique and suggestions for chess moves to try.

THE FOOLISH KING GAME updates this summer:
·       Build your own league section - Being able to share the results of your game with your friends via social media and invite new players to play.
·       ‘Zapping’ people you are playing with to encourage them to make their move
·       ‘My Games’ section where you can review your past games and improve on them. The games are:
-  Game Openings - helping players to play their best moves first and have a great setup for the   rest of the game.
-  Mate in One - learning how to make the best move to win the game. There are 50 levels for players to try out.
-  Mate in Two - learning how to make the best two moves to win the game. There are 20 levels for players to conquer in this section.
·       The Bank of Stur - the Foolish King’s very own currency for Foolish King chess players all around the world to buy ZAPS to prompt opponents to play, or improve their game with The Foolish King in the Learn and Improve section. You can gain currency by winning games in the FKLive Worldwide league on the app - it’s free to play.

There are more opportunities for young people to get involved in chess through The Delancey UK Schools’ Chess Challenge, the UK’s leading junior chess competition owned by previous UK Chess Champion, Sarah Hegarty. The challenge has been running for 21 years and has seen over 1,100 schools sign up to take part this year.  Lord Mark Price will be adding his support and sponsorship to the Delancey UK Schools’ Chess Challenge in a bid to raise awareness of the importance of chess to young children. Mark has sent a copy of his book, The Foolish King, to every school that has signed up to the challenge for them to house in their school library for children to read and explore the world of chess. In addition, over 200 copies of his book will be sent to each Megafinal (the regional heats), for attending parents to read to younger siblings, whilst waiting for their child to compete. (Nayu: The 2017 one has finished but you can sign up for the 2018 challenge!)

Mark also attended the Terafinal on the 13th August and will present the UK schools’ champion and runner up with their cash prizes. Find out more at https://www.delanceyukschoolschesschallenge.com/
 


App image of the Board of fame
THE FOOLISH KING: The Secret History of Chess original story book is also available in hardback (£10.99) and as an eBook (£7.99). The book can also be bought as an in-app purchase through the iPhone and iPad apps (£4.99).
 


About the Author and illustrator:
Mark Price joined the John Lewis Partnership in 1982. He spent 17 years on the board of Waitrose, becoming Managing Director in 2007 and held this post until 2016. He was also Deputy Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership from 2013. Mark was appointed Chairman of Business in the community in 2011 and Chairman of the Prince’s Countryside Fund in 2010. In 2016, Price was appointed Minister of State for Trade and Investment and a life peer. Price is the author of THE GREAT BRITISH PICNIC GUIDE and in 2016 he published THE FOOD LOVER’S GUIDE alongside his first book for children, THE FOOLISH KING. Mark will publish two new titles for adults in 2017, FAIRNESS FOR ALL: Unlocking the Power of Employee Engagement (May 2017) and PRICE’S WORKPLACE FABLES (October 2017).

Martin Brown is best known for his illustrations of the bestselling Horrible Histories series. He has also written and illustrated Lesser Spotted Animals, published by David Fickling Books.


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