Family Chess: Kid Power
Family Chess support.
Real chess for a parent and a young kid sharing one iPhone or iPad — the phone lies flat between you, and Kid Power keeps the game close without anyone losing on purpose. Everything you need to play is below; if something's still stuck, write to us at the bottom.
- App
- Family Chess: Kid Power
- Works on
- iPhone and iPad
- Accounts
- None — no sign-in, plays fully offline
- Replies
- Within one to two business days
Getting started.
-
Open the app
It starts right in a game. No menus, no sign-in, nothing to set up.
-
Lay the phone flat between you
The parent holds the near half right side up; the kid reads the far half, which is drawn upside down on purpose so it faces them across the table.
-
Tap a piece, then tap a glowing dot
Every legal square lights up, so kids learn how each piece moves by playing. Hints and the pawn-promotion picker pop up as bubbles facing whoever needs them.
The parent rail.
Every control lives in one slim, swipeable bar at the parent's edge of the board — it never interrupts the game. Swipe it sideways to find:
- Undo
- Takes back the last move. The take-back lock (below) can switch this off mid-game.
- Replay
- Plays the current game back move by move.
- Kid Power
- Opens the live slider that softens the parent's queen and rooks. Works mid-game.
- Piece styles
- Eleven art sets, from storybook kingdoms to wooden toys. “Candy” is the default.
- Move dots
- Turns the glowing legal-move dots on or off.
- Hints
- Turns the kid-facing hint bubbles on or off.
- Chime
- Turns move and capture sounds on or off.
- Take-back lock
- One tap locks Undo so finished moves stay final.
- Swap sides
- Flips which player faces which half of the screen.
- New game
- Starts fresh. Your settings are all remembered between launches.
Common questions.
Half the screen is upside down. Is that a bug?
No — it's the whole idea. The phone lies flat on the table between you, and the far half of the screen is rotated so the person sitting across from you reads it right side up. If you and your kid trade seats, tap Swap sides in the parent rail.
Games are too easy (or too hard) for my kid. What do I change?
Open Kid Power in the parent rail. Sliding it up downgrades your own queen and rooks — all the way to pawns if needed — so the game stays close without you losing on purpose. You can change it any time, even mid-game. Pieces that were already captured stay captured.
Undo isn't doing anything.
Check the take-back lock in the parent rail. When it's on, moves are final for both players — one tap turns it back off.
I can't find the settings.
There is no settings screen. Every option lives in the slim swipeable rail at the parent's edge of the board — swipe it sideways to reach Undo, Replay, Kid Power, piece styles, move dots, hints, the chime, the take-back lock, Swap sides, and New game.
There's no sound.
Two switches matter: the chime toggle in the parent rail, and your device's silent/ring switch. Family Chess respects the silent switch, so flip your phone to ring or check Control Center volume if the chime is on but quiet.
Does my kid need an account? Does it need Wi-Fi?
No accounts, no sign-in, and no internet needed. The whole game runs on your device.
What data does the app collect?
Anonymous usage statistics only — which features get used, tied to a random app-generated ID. Never names, accounts, or anything personal, and nothing is used for ad tracking. The privacy policy linked below has the full detail.
How does my kid's pawn become a queen?
March a pawn to the far row and a promotion picker pops up facing whoever earned it. All the real rules are in the game: castling, en passant, checkmate, stalemate, and draws.
Still stuck?
Tell us what happened and we'll write back — a person, usually within one to two business days. For anything broken, the device model and iOS version help a lot.
Prefer email? Write to justin@humanr.ai.