Before Quake, before Doom, before Castle Wolfenstein came the ultimate combat game of them all — chess. It's still you against the computer, only instead of Uzis and bazookas it's queens and rooks as the weapons.
The recent match between Garry Kasparov and the chess computer X3D Fritz caught my attention. Years ago, probably on my first XT PC, I used to play Chessmaster 2000. The current version of that game, now from Ubi Soft, is Chessmaster 9000, and has an extensive package of features filling two CDs.
If you want to play chess against the computer, you have two basic options — the Game Room and the Tournament Room. In both, you can set the computer to different ability levels, based upon the established chess rating system, and personalities. The best of the computer opponents are based on famous grandmasters of the past; the weakest are represented by children, with about 150 different choices in between.
In the Game Room, there are a number of different features that we can euphemistically call "teaching aids", or ways to cheat the computer. There's Quick Hint to tell you the best move; the Blunder Alert to give you a second chance when you've made a bad move; the Chess Coach for more extensive analysis, and more. If you don't listen to their advice and make a bad move anyway, you can take back moves.
In the Tournament Room, all the help features are turned off. Here it is you against whichever AI opponent you picked. As you play games here, you start to establish a provisional rating, which will go up as you win and go down as you lose.
After awhile, you may get tired of getting kicked around by the computer. Then you can turn to some of the many teaching aids found in the Classroom, Library, and Database. The classroom includes tutorials, drills, quizzes, and explanations of chess openings. The library has classic games you can replay, and the Database has records of over 500,000 chess games that you can analyze in various ways. There's also a Kid's Room that's presents the game in a more simplified setting. Once you've felt you've learned enough, you can use the CMLive feature to play others over the Internet.
Article comments
1 - TDavid
Put me down as one of the people who has watched a Kasparov chess match recently. I wish I could take the time to really get down to studying the nuances of this game and playing more competitively.
Put this on the someday list for retirement.
2 - Dew
Ditto and ditto TDavid!
I am the nerd who was in the chess club. I am pretty good depending on the opponent(but that would be obvious huh?). I currently have Chessmaster 8000 which I hardly play because I don't like the computer play. I would rather play on Playstation or Gamecube. Hopefully that will be the next pit stop.
3 - Bruce Kratofil
Dew --
You say you like the Playstation or Gamecube better. Is the AI opponent stronger on this systems, more varied, or just different?
4 - Dew
No, the play is just different. The interface is basically the same but I am more comfortable with the PS2 and Gamecube joysticks as opposed to my keyboard (i refuse to to buy a joystick for my computer).
5 - John
CM 9000 is a strong opponent... master level if you have a recent CPU and give it a while to think.
Oh, and no-one ever uses CM Live, it's deserted. Yahoo! Chess has more than 0 opponents to verse. About 8000 usually...
6 - Richard
Chess is still with us and played by millions world wide. Where is Quake. Interesting! Chess sets and games are such a beautiful site if you are still play on a board. Some of the handmade pieces are just simply art.