Customer Reviews

Chessmaster: The Art of Learning

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've been looking forward to a decent chess game for the DS since I picked it up last year, so I picked this game up on its release day.

The chess game on clubhouse games, even on "hard" is very weak. I can beat it without even paying attention, and I'm no where's near an expert level player.

Anyway, without boring everyone to tears, here's the PRO and CON list:

PRO

* You can have four profiles. Great to have for the kids.
* It has a very strong, and in my opinion, realistic engine.
* You can set up positions for playing against the computer.
* Save game is very useful if others are using the game.
* Can play someone else on a single card (see below for gripe though)
* Movement is so much nicer with a stylus, but the Direction pad
is also an option. You can either drag a piece to its destination,
or you can touch the destination. You also have a choice to confirm
your move to avoid "mouse slips".
* The mini games, like "Fork the Fruit", are actually very good drills.
* Nicely themed chess puzzles too.


CONS

* False advertising. "Players have access to 900 of the most important chess games, which are analyzed to provide key tactics", uh no, there are NO games. This and other features mentioned on the chessmaster site, are not here. They must be for the PC version.
* No online play. Are you kidding me?!
* No ability to set it for two human players on one DS. This seems
like a "way too obvious" feature. I'm truly baffled as to why it's
not on here.
* You can only set up a position to play the computer. That, and the
fact that I can't set the clock to one players advantage, makes it
difficult to have a challenging/fair game with my daughters
* You can't set the clock to add time per move (Fischer Clock)
* Pieces are a bit odd looking, but tolerable.
* "Help" shows a play button, that, while reviewing a game, would let
you play from the current position. It's just not there though.
* The puzzles, though nicely themed, are all one move. Also, I was
having a lot of trouble with one, and had to ask for the answer.
Turns out I was supposed to be playing white from the flip side of the
board. However, it still showed the flip side as being the 8th rank.

Ok, that's a lot of "CONS", and the first three really annoy me. I was so looking forward to having 900 games to go through without sitting at the computer, or setting up a board.

This does give you a great portable chess engine to have a game anywhere you might be. Also, doing all the puzzles repeatedly, and going through the mini games, will give you a fair skillset to destroy the average non-serious player.

First, before you buy, please note that Chessmaster for the DS *does not* have wifi capabilities. Meaning, if you want to play your friend, he/she will need to be in the same room as you. This is likely the game's biggest flaw, and I'm really surprised that Ubisoft managed to omit wifi play--it's a huge missed opportunity.

There's a lot to like in this game, but it's largely geared toward beginning players. The tutorial is fairly shallow, and the mini-games are gimmicky. I'm not sure how effectively they'll change the way you play chess... or even the way you learn.

Still, with the negatives aside, this game is worth the $[...]. It's the only decent chess game on the DS, and it does have a number of tough and varied computer opponents. I enjoy playing a game of chess on-the-go, and Chessmaster DS is superior to the cellphone version I've been using.

So, for simply playing chess, it's a fun and worthy addition to the DS library. With wifi, however, it could've been amongst the essentials.

I actually bought my Nintendo DS Lite for this game and the Brain Age products. I have been a USCF tournament player for 20 years and at one time had a rating over 1600. My rating has declined in recent years as my available time to devote to the game has dwindled. Chessmaster on the DS is aimed mainly at beginners and casual players. While there is no choice in the board or pieces both are nice looking and easy to see. The tutorials are basic but complete. I haven't spent a lot of time on the exercises but they are fun and would undoubtedly be useful to a beginning player. I jumped right in to rated games against the highest rated opponents. One thing I noticed is the claimed ELO ratings of the players appears to be 100-200 points higher than they actually play. Also each player uses the same opening for every game. They use different ones among the players but each player has his own favorite opening. The response time of the highest rated opponents can be several minutes in untimed games. I have beaten all but the last two opponents and expect them to fall when I have more time to play with it. As other's note, the claimed 900 games are nowhere to be found. That's no real biggie as I have over a million games avaible in the Big Database for Fritz 9. I would have liked a stronger engine and faster response time. The Chessmaster personality has beaten me a couple of times but I know he's going to fall. I blame my losses partly on unfamliarity with the board and distractions while playing. Despite my criticisms I like the game. I looked at some of the dedicated handheld chess machines but this seemed like a better option. If you're not over 1500 USCF and are looking for a nice chess title for your Nintendo DS this would be a very nice addition to your game library.

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

When I want to play a quick game of Chess, I grab my DS rather than my Dell PDA that has chess software (with many more features available). Why? The interface is easy to use, the display is bright and clear, and if I am interrupted just closing the lid QUICKLY pauses the game. As a member of the US Chess Federation, its chess ability is a limiting factor but the built-in rating system is FUN as you play pseudo-humans complete with their photos.

The mini-games are helpful exercises in recognizing patterns (a big key to improving your chess). Recognizing forks, pins, and simple checkmates are the basis for a sound understanding of chess.

Not so good - no separate time settings to handicap players, the game startup sequence is poorly impremented, there is no way to save a completed game to analyze later (better save it just before the checkmate!), and its of no use if you want to play another human without their having a DS with ChessMaster.

But I certainly have fun with it!!

I've been looking forward to chess game for the DS and I thought the Chessmaster game would be perfect. I started a profile and have played up through 'Kenji'. I believe the Kenji profile and beyond plays a somewhat realistic chess match, though it still has some problems. A couple key issues I've found:

- The computer appears to play the same opening, no variance. Once you play a game that beats an opponent, then the same game can be played with the same results. They should have put in a simple opening book with some variance. This would make playing the same opponent last a bit longer. Using different time settings will alter AI play.
- Always set a game time in rated play, there are instances where the AI will just hang and there is no way to force moves in a rated game. Here is a game I played against Kenji that caused the AI to hang:

[White "Drew F."]
[Black "Chessmaster (Kenji)"]
[Result "1-0"]
1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 e6 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nd7 5. dxe6 fxe6 6. Nc3 c6
7. Nf3 e5 8. d3 Bd6 9. O-O Qe7 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bd2 e4 12. dxe4 Nxe4
13. Nxe4 Qxe4 14. Bc3 Qe7 15. Re1 Rg8 16. e4 Nb6 17. Qb3 Qxe4??
18. Rxe4

This was a 20 minute rated game, at this point, Kenji still had 11 minutes on his clock and he ran out of time. Something fried when Kenji blundered on move 17 and I had to wait for the time to run out, this would have been more annoying if I didn't set a time control.

- There isn't a way to replay a set up position, so you are forced to set up the position again.

I bought this game for my DS about a month ago because it was (and is) the ONLY chess game available for the DS. Amazon is giving out a bad product description though, because there is NO 900 game annotated database.

What is available though is a decent enough chess game with multiple (if recycled) Chessmaster "personalities" to play against. There is also a rudimentary section that teaches the very basics of chess, including board setup, piece movement rules and special rules, plus small sections explaining skewers, pins and forks. There is no tutorial section per say, just a series of explanatory screens that explain the concepts and give chessboard screens to illustrate them.

New to the Chassmaster series and in my opinion most of the fun here is the mini game concept. There are several mini games available that are chess based, but quick and fun to play. These include a forking game, and minefield clearing game, a chain reaction game, a "Masterpiece" game in which your correct moves reveal an underlying painting, and my personal favorite a pawn removal game using a knight called "Breaking the Lines". These games are fast a friendly and yet help reinforce chess concepts as you play them.

All in all, if you are looking for a strong tutorial to the game of chess, this is not your ticket. The Nintendo DS platform really doesn't have the horsepower to provide that anyway. This game is great for simply playing some chess against either the CPU, or you can also play against another human by means of the Nintendo DS connect facility. The inclusion of online WiFi play would have been nice, but the Chessmaster series is not known for strong online play anyway. For that, what you want is a PC Fritz game. Personally I think this title is overpriced by $10 because at $29.95, it should have at least had WiFi in my opinion. Without it and considering that it only plays 2D chessboards and lacks tutorials, $19.95 would have been a fairer price. Still, I bought it anyway and I don't regret it because as I said it is the ONLY chess title currently available for the Nintendo DS platform.

I have 7 and 8 year olds, and our boys love this game! I've always thought DS offers no education, but this one is different. If you have a basic chess skill this is one you should get. My boys like this one as much as they like new super mario bros. Get it if you can. Check your local Gamestop preowned section. I purchased it at Gamestop at 14.99 (preowned) Highly recommended.

My 6-year old and 7-year old love this game and the fact that they can play chess with each other using only one game card. They are novice chess players, but with this game they can really expand their skills.

I gave it five because for the platform you use it on it's great and I'm having fun. I don't think for the price you can go wrong. Not exactly a lot of different chess games out there for handhelds to compare it to.
Not perfect but fun.