Lessons From the Best

Palalau’s team may not have contained seasoned pros, but he notes that the lack of club players “had a great side effect — we kept referring to Chessmaster as our teacher. When it couldn’t give us answers, we designed tools that would.”

Make Your Move. Black will need some smart planning to get out of this one.

They also had access to some of the greatest chess minds in the world, from grandmaster Larry Evans to former wunderkind Josh Waitzkin, who played the renowned Garry Kasparov to a draw at age 11 and became a National Master at 13. Evans, Waitzkin and others created a wide variety of tutorials, drills, quizzes and puzzles that provide a comprehensive chess development course.

“We learned that you need a lifetime to master the game. That was slightly more than the time we had to develop it.”

- producer Ioan Palalau

Waitzkin’s instruction is found in the Kid’s Room, which features kid-themed chess sets, child opponents of various skill levels (many will give even good adult players a hard time), a progress chart and more. Kids can earn printable certificates as they take lessons from Waitzkin, engage in tutorials and win games.

Gnomish Checkmate. One of many unique chess sets found in the game.

Given that chess enthusiasts speak of such greats as Kasparov the same way diehard baseball fans talk about Babe Ruth, it’s probably not a surprise that Chessmaster also includes a library full of classic games you can review to see how the pros play the game. You’ll find matches spanning the years 1619 to 2002, with an accompanying glossary that helps you understand the difference between, for example, the Queen’s Fianchetto and the Queen’s Pawn openings. Commentaries help newcomers understand why each match was worthy of inclusion in the game.

Worthy Adversaries

Eventually, you’ll likely want to try your hand against the computer. Chessmaster contains a number of artificial personalities that play at skill levels ranging from beginner to grandmaster, and you can engage in single games against them or set up your own tournaments.

“We kept referring to Chessmaster as our teacher. When it couldn’t give us answers, we designed tools that would.”

- Ioan Palalau

While IBM’s Deep Blue was an AI powerhouse when it was developed during the 1990s, the technology available today enabled Palalau’s team to create something that he says “compares well” to its predecessor.

Torn From the Pages. One of many head-scratching teasers reminiscent of the ones found in newspapers.

He continues: “While Deep Blue was a brute power goliath, with 64 processors and the ability to compute 200 million moves per second, Chessmaster runs on single- or dual-processor home systems. It was designed to be as comprehensive and adaptive as possible, to offer hundreds of opponents of various strengths and playing styles, not to be the single best computer opponent possible.”

Relive the Excitement. A thrilling end to a classic match.

Of course, when you’d rather test your skills against a live player, you can always access Chessmaster’s CM Live option, which allows you to challenge an opponent across a LAN or over the Internet, where you can create a direct TCP/IP connection or open GameRanger to find someone. You may never become a world-renowned Grandmaster, but perhaps you can rise to the top of those who gather online on Tuesday nights. And if you’re really good, you just might best all comers two nights a week.

If you liked this game, check out:

• Big Bang Board Games
• Chessic
• jose Chess Database
• Kasparov Chessmate
• Sigma Chess
• Vektor3