STEM
PawnPals
Learn-to-Play Chess for Ages 3-8 — one piece at a time, through story. Poppy the pawn and friends show how each piece moves via audio-first, pre-reader minigames, with correct checkmate (never capture-the-king).
▶ Play it nowBuilt for sittings of about 15 minutes on the screen. That is our design budget, not a measurement.
Meet your mentor
Every Spark & Anvil app has a friendly mentor character that demonstrates, asks, and patiently scaffolds learning.
Mentored by Poppy
#9BD1A0 Characters who teach
Meet the cast
PawnPals is a chess app for ages 3 to 8 where each chess piece is a friendly character whose story is the way it moves. Poppy the pawn marches straight ahead, Rooky the rook walks in straight lines, the twins Bo and Bay glide on diagonals, Hoppy the knight hops in an L, Queen Quill glides any direction, and King Cozy takes one slow step at a time. They live together in Pawnmeadow.
Poppy
Pawn — a tiny brave pawn who marches straight ahead one step (two on the first) and taps the corner to capture; never moves backward
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Rooky
Rook — a friendly walking tower who strolls in straight lines (up, down, side to side), never corners
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Bo & Bay
Bishops — twin bishop-kids each gliding on diagonals of ONE colour (Bo the dark squares, Bay the light squares)
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Hoppy
Knight — a little pony who hops two-then-one in an L and is the only piece that jumps right over others
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Queen Quill
Queen — a gentle, powerful queen who glides any direction (straight or diagonal), near or far
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King Cozy
King — a sleepy, gentle king who takes one slow step any direction; the piece everyone keeps safe (checkmate = trapped-and-safe, never captured)
Read chapter →
Browse all chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Learning goal
Learn-to-Play Chess for Ages 3-8 — one piece at a time, through story. Poppy the pawn and friends show how each piece moves via audio-first, pre-reader minigames, with correct checkmate (never capture-the-king).
Mentored by Poppy — no data leaves the device.
How PawnPals handles your kid's data
- ✅ All progress, settings, and AI-generated content stays on the device
- ✅ No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs
- ✅ Free — no ads, no in-app purchases
- ✅ No personal information collected from children — in line with COPPA (updated by the 2026 FTC amendments)
- ✅ No chat with strangers — play-together rooms use a short code and preset emotes, never typed messages
For you, the grown-up
The grown-up side of PawnPals on Spark & Whetstone, our free site for grown-ups: Chess across the table. Take off a piece before you start and play on one device.
PawnPals runs on ForgeKit — the open-source Swift Package Manager framework that powers every Spark & Anvil app. ForgeKit ensures consistent accessibility, COPPA compliance, and design language across the portfolio, so your kid's progress and preferences feel coherent across every app they touch.
Coming to the App Store
PawnPals is in active development. Email us to hear when it ships — no marketing, no spam, just a one-shot launch announcement.
Email me at launch