When I finally got tired of my lame computer partner Wes, I headed over to the online version hosted by DQZone. Unfortunately, the only other players were in Spades games. The online game environment is a common meeting place for all of the Championship game players, so there's no guarantee that someone else will be there to play your game. In my case, I needed three someone elses, but I was out of luck.

I went back to the solo play, and for some reason, all of the environmental preferences (sound, icon, etc.) I had selected were reverted back to the default. Could be just a bug, but it really bugged me, particularly since the music is so awful.

All in all, the game is pretty good if you're jonesing for a euchre fix. However, if you get too distracted or annoyed with cheesy graphics and sound effects, this might not be the best computer euchre game for you.

Championship Chess Pro
Writer: Matt Finley

Chess: It’s one of the oldest and most popular games in the world. It’s origins go back nearly 1,500 years. Championship Chess Pro is a great PC version of the game with many more ups than downs. It sports a very nice interface that’s intuitive and easy to use, yet has just about all the functionality you need. It’s quick and easy to set up and I had no problems with the download or install.

Championship Chess Pro has several multiple play modes: Single, multi-player (LAN or Internet) and practice. It has several variations of play: Timed or un-timed, speed, progressive (increase sequential moves each turn), suicide, random start, and custom rules. There are custom art settings with lots of eye candy and plug-ins. There’s a customizable profile (including picture) for online play. It features multiple difficulty settings with good A.I., and customizable sound settings including custom music via MIDI and OGG. I especially like the ability to throw a pie across the table at your opponent's face!

A couple of times Championship Chess Pro completely disappeared from view after moving focus to another application. It still showed in the task-bar, but wouldn’t come back to focus. Several times (one in about every four exits) I got a window popping up after exiting the game. It’s from RSP Software’s Vorbis Player, a shareware OCX file used in the game.