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Chebache^®: An Educational Game Excellent for reinforcing basic math skills, while inspiring more complex thinking.  

    People who love playing games, perhaps do so in part, because games mimic "real life" on a smaller and self-contained level. Games offer an opportunity for learning and practicing many skills that can later be applied to ones day to day life experience. Some of these skills can be a great help in raising the odds of success throughout one's life, especially when clear, concise and even quick thinking are crucial.

    Abstract strategy games not only sharpen a person's ability for clear thinking, but also provide lots of fun, challenges and reflective time as well. They provide a superb opportunity for expanding the mind's capacity for abstract thought and analysis. So, where does Chebache fit in?

    Chebache is the new strategy board game which unites elements of many of the old classics, such as Checkers, Backgammon and Chess, which provides challenging new vistas for adults & children alike. It's not only fun to play, but also has great educational value. Kids these days naturally supplement formal education by learning on their own and from their extracurricular environment. Playing Chebache presents them with an excellent opportunity for learning important basic math and cognitive skills while not even realizing that they're learning.

    Here are some ways in which Chebache can reinforce math skills and inspire more complex thinking while providing an exciting, dynamic and fun alternative or supplement to structured learning:

Life Skills --  Chebache teaches many essential skills which can help children succeed as they grow into adults:
· the importance of taking calculated risks;
· the importance of seeking balance;
· the value of thinking before acting;
· the management of fixed, scarce resources;
· the development of a logical flow of ideas to implement game plans;
· the necessity of developing backup plans, in case the best-laid plans go awry;
· teaches patience and tolerance, since strategic development is rewarded, but the expected outcome may change (due to dice).

Family Learning --  Chebache offers fun and challenge for the entire family, adults & kids, since:
· by playing Chebache, kids get to learn cognitive & life skills naturally at home, while having fun with friends & family;
· Chebache appeals to adults as well as to children, and hence presents a good opportunity for parent / child play and cooperative learning.
· Chebache includes basic concepts from already familiar games, but is a unique game in its own right. Thus, it will hold the interest of and remain challenging to the entire family, for years to come.

    Movement:  During each player's turn, a roll of the dice dictates the available movement for a piece or pieces along the path for that color. Since backward moves along the path of movement is allowed from Tivits with regular pieces, or from any space with the King, as well as forward movement, the basic concepts of addition and subtraction are both necessary. When deciding which piece(s) to move, the player must consider the available dice roll, and decide which combinations of additive or subtractive moves will be the most advantageous to further the desired strategy.

    Stacking:  Chebache allows the stacking of pieces, up to a maximum of four high, upon each space along the path of movement. On intersections, stacked pieces of one color may be sent back to Start if an equal or greater number of opposing pieces land upon them together within the same turn. Players can't move their pieces onto opponent's stacks without sending them back, so the strategic advantage of restricting an opponent's movement are important. This can also help in developing the understanding of basic concepts of ratios and fractions.

    The Chebache:  Additionally, Chebaches can restrict movement and make the squares and Tivits "unsafe" for an opponent's pieces. Pieces may not land in spaces threatened by an opponent's Chebache. A Chebache is formed if a player occupies three consecutive spaces along their path, starting with an intersection. For example, intersections 3 & 5 along with square 4 (on the black movement path) form a Chebache on the white Tivit directly across and closet to square 4. If any white pieces occupy this Tivit, then they have to escape or "break" the Chebache during white's next turn, or get sent back to white Start. Even a stack of 4 pieces can be sent back to Start in this way.

    Chebache and Math skill development also go hand-in-hand. To illustrate, let's use the Chebache board, with the black movement path displayed, as an example (with each space from Start to Finish numbered). Spaces 2, 8, 10 and 16 are the Tivits, from which black pieces may move in either direction.

    Counting:  Suppose that the person playing black wants to move a piece from intersection 5 to Tivit 8, but rolls a '5' & '2' using the dice. They can first move the piece from intersection 5 to Tivit 10 (using the '5' die), then backward from this Tivit, using the '2' die, ending on Tivit 8. This example illustrates the basic equation 5-3=2 and its connection to counting, addition and subtraction.

    Visualization and Math:  As Chebache players move pieces along the path, they can eventually assess the relative advantages of different moves by sight. After playing several games, players notice visual patterns associated with movements along the path instead of having to count for each move. This technique of moving allows kids to connect the concepts of counting and basic math with the concepts of visual imagery. Most advanced mathematical concepts (from algebra, to calculus, and beyond) may be grasped more easily by referring to visual models. As they form connections between the visual and the mathematical, in this way they begin to learn the techniques of algebra, geometry, graphing, and other forms of higher math, perhaps before these concepts are taught to them in school.

We believe that you will find Chebache to be not only a fun, exciting and dynamic game for both children and adults, but also a valuable educuational tool for learning and reinforcing a wide variety of skills applicable to everyday life.

For a better understanding of how to play Chebache, please review our Rules/Hints page, which includes a tutorial designed in Flash with some animated examples.