Amazon Maximum Age: 20 years Amazon Minimum Age: 60 months Binding: Video Game Brand: UBI Soft EAN: 0008888163664 ESRB Age Rating: Everyone Label: UBI Soft Manufacturer: UBI Soft Model: 16366 Platform: Nintendo DS Publisher: UBI Soft Release Date: October 23, 2007 Sales Rank: 720 Studio: UBI Soft
Features:
Learn from champion Josh Waitzkin - Using the principles outlined in his book The Art of Learning, Josh puts players in his shoes during some of the most riveting moments of his career, then walk through the classics, introducing beginners to the fundamentals of the game and providing revealing commentary about the road to mastery
Multiplayer wireless - Two players can battle each other using the wireless option on the DS including varieties such as Dark Chess (opponent's pieces are invisible), Extinction Chess (first player to capture all of the opponent's pieces), and Losing Chess (first player to lose all of his/her pieces)
Six original mini-games - Each mini-game is packed with its own music, sound effects, a high-score record and 20 levels of gameplay such as Minefield (chess pieces are used to locate mines hidden in the board), Breaking the Lines (the knight is moved to capture all of the pawns) and Fork My Fruit (uses chess pieces to fork fruit of the same kind, among others)
Famous games - Players have access to 900 of the most important chess games, which are analyzed to provide key tactics
Checkmate - With an arsenal of 600,000 games, players will never run out of fun
Product Description: Josh Waitzkin, International Master and eight-time National Chess Champion, coaches you to grasp the basic fundamentals of chess and to master the game through exciting courses and tutorials taken directly from his groundbreaking book, The Art of Learning. You can then practice your newly learned skills in single-player mode or challenge their friends to a fun-spirited competition in multiplayer mode via LAN or Internet.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - This is a very good chess game, with only minor drawbacks.
I too bought this because I'm a chess player and was looking forward to having a game boy chess game with stylus control. Let's face it: chess with a control pad is awkward and slow. In this game, the control pad and buttons are strictly optional. Maybe you'd use them if you lost the stylus, which happens to some folks.
REVIEWER STRENGTH - A review on a chess game without some indicator of the reviewer's strength is worthless. So here are my indicators. On Yahoo Chess, I'm around 1300. In tournament USCF play, I'm around 1200. On Chessmaster 10th Edition for the PC, I'm around 1100.
TWO HUMAN OPPONENTS - I agree with the first reviewer, in that a two human player version in which the humans would share the DS is a no-brainer. But this is not a huge drawback to me. It is easy enough (and preferable) to simply bring out the real, physical chess set.
LACK OF WI-FI SUPPORT - Lack of WiFi support, I haven't decided on yet. One can go online in other ways easily enough, especially if one has access to free WiFi or is at home. This is a drawback, but is not huge. I bought this game as a portable computer opponent that I would use for 80% practicing and 20% training.
TRAINING FEATURES - For someone at my level, most of the training is useless. The Mate-in-One puzzles are good. But I echo the sentiments of the other reviewer in that there should be options for training & puzzles that are beyond one move deep.
PERSONALITIES - Another reviewer made the point that sometimes, this game will blunder unnaturally. I was playing a game against a 900-level opponent. I was losing, down a piece or so and down in position. I made one good move on the way to recovery. My clock was at 6 minutes, and my opponent's was at 12 minutes. The computer could not figure out a move. My move put her in check, and there were only three options. It couldn't choose one. I'm glad I had set a time limit on the game; I wound up winning on time after waiting for the computer player's clock to run down. But the personalities each have their own quirks and strengths. This is nice, as it is more like playing a human opponent.
STRENGTH OF THE PROGRAM - Serious chess players refer to this as the chess engine. A chess engine is not a simple calculator. There is a lot more to making a good chess engine. This version only goes up to Elo strength of 1850. The Chessmaster for PC goes up to 2400 or so. Now I don't know if these are ratings that were given by actually having the engine play against a range of rated players and doing an official calculation, or if the developer took an optimistic guess. Obviously, at my level, that is plenty strong. If you are a master class chess player and you're looking for a portable chess computer, you will probably need to consider a Pocket PC and Pocket Fritz software. For the other 97% of us, this engine is plenty strong. I tested this engine by setting up a position with Chessmaster (1850 rating) having a bishop, knight, and king, and me with just the king to see if it could figure out the mate. I can't figure this out, personally. It could. It maneuvered me into the corner on the color of his bishop, blocked off my escape, and administered the checkmate in less than 50 moves. It is easier to type this than to do it!
CHESS SETS & BOARDS - There is only one. It is 2D, and overhead view. No 3D sets and no animated sets. It works to play, but is a little more basic than I was expecting.
DUAL SCREEN FUNCTIONALITY - The bottom screen is where the action is. The board is on the bottom screen, as are the timers and options. The top screen has reference information. In games, it shows captured pieces, the name and image for each player, and each player's rating. In training modes, it has Josh Waitzkin, who makes gestures, facial expressions and so forth according to the quality of your play.
PRICING - When I searched on this before Christmas, only one Amazon retailer had it, and they were asking $50. Not bloody likely. Now, I see that it is offered at around $25. I wound up buying this locally at a store whose initials are BB. It was in the bargain bin for $15, and was the last copy. Score! Keep an eye on the price. Since this is not the most popular title, not everyone will stock it and it may be hard to find. I would buy it for up to $30, but you can likely find it for less if you're willing to burn some gas and do some legwork.
REPLAY VALUE - This is a term gamers use to indicate whether it is fun to play the game again after you've beaten it. In my opinion, no video game has higher replay value than chess. (assuming it is strong enough to challenge you)
COMPARED TO CHESSMASTER 10TH EDITION FOR PC -
The PC version is better in every way except for one: portability. That is a big thing eh? Even if you have a laptop computer, it is big & bulky compared to a DS. The PC version has lots of sets, more useful training features, a stronger chess engine, more opponents, more timing variations, 3D options, and better sound effects. I recommend getting both of them, but get the DS version first, as it is nice to be able to play a quick game at lunch or while waiting for your wife to get ready to go, or when she drags you out shopping. :)
*** What I like ***
- Stylus control
- Strong enough chess engine
- Good personality traits make it more like playing humans
*** What I don't like ***
- Only one set & board are available; a basic 2D one
- No game library like the PC version has
Rating: - Great learning tool
This game has been a wonderful tool to learn chess. Now I plan on getting a regular chess came to teach my grandchildren how to play.
Rating: - Great way to enjoy chess
I bought this for my 12 year old son and he loves it. He takes it to his chess meets to play in between games. Being able to play this game gives Mom and Dad a break from playing every night.
Rating: - Dissapointed
I was looking for a decent game to play during my travels and I confess that I got fooled by the title of the game.
Since the game belongs to the Chessmaster series anyone can think about a very complete game in all senses. I understand that a NDS has its limitations but... come on! they wasted a lot of resources with stupid minigames (I'm an intermediate player), the openings are soooo limited and practically there's only one decent opponent: the Chessmaster.
The chessboard just SUCKS, I don't care about playing 2-D but at least they could be a little bit more original than a diagram that looks like an ancient book. For example a marble or wooden board would have been much better.
And... there is no even a classic game to see.
In the end maybe for the very begginers this game could be decent.
Rating: - Good Game
The game itself is great. Its easy to figure out, which is a good thing, since the vendor I purchased it from sent it to me with a book entirely in french. This is my first time delving into the world of chess, so as a novice this game is a good tool to learning the ins and outs of the game.
- Great learning tool
- Dissapointed
