Chessboard with Feedback for Learning Rules and Strategy

Learning a set of rules and strategy, such as for the game of chess, can be difficult.The optimal way for a person to learn is based on their primary learning style.Three of the learning styles have been classified as visual, kinetic, or auditory.Rules of chess are often presented as written or verbal instructions that may be of less benefit to people who are primarily visual or kinetic learners.Even computer chess games that only utilize the keyboard or mouse for user input may be of less benefit to kinetic learners.We are developing an interactive chessboard system that will benefit learners who are primarily visual and kinetic.The system has real chess pieces on a real board, with an internal digital controller that can light up selected square positions of the chessboard.The user selects a chess piece to potentially move by pushing down on this piece to activate a switch.Then all of the possible locations where this piece could move will be lit up.The kinetic interaction would be similar to that of a conventional chess game, not requiring additional user input of location and type of piece to the digital controller.The additional feedback of lit up squares should aid understanding the limitations of each type of piece and how the game might progress.The techniques used in this system will aid cognitive development for learning complex rules and strategy.Such development will enhance the future mastery of engineering tasks that also involve complex rules and strategy.