COACH REY: My estimate is that fewer than half of kids in afterschool chess programs learn how to play basic, legal chess. Why? Because coaches start by making kids memorize how the pieces move, which is boring after a long school day. Kids get turned off before they get to the point of being able to play. It happens all the time.

My partner (“Coach Mac”) has developed a brilliant strategy game—Dragon Tag—that teaches chess. The big deal is that, while kids can’t play chess right away, they can play Dragon Tag right away, and Dragon Tag teaches chess! (Secret: It actually IS chess, just temporarily rearranged for learning.)

Guess what? We are seeing that, on average, kids who learn with this approach, which starts with solving a fun puzzle—catching a baby dragon—learn faster and play better than kids who start with memorization.