Game Review by Matt Bird
Game Rating = 3.5/5 Balls
Yay. Yet another chess game. There are thousands of the things already: who really needs another? What else can be done with chess that hasn’t been tried before?
Who knows. GrandMaster Chess sure doesn’t take the age-old strategy game into new realms. At the same time, though, that’s a good thing, as it doesn’t rely on dumb gimmicks used to jazz up other titles. It’s straight up chess.
Eschewing all concerns of plot or style, GrandMaster Chess has two modes: Championship or Local. In the demo both boil down to playing against a computer, though you can bring in a friend for Local if you wish. In either case you’re planted on opposite ends of the chess board and set to playing. You move your pieces by clicking once on the desired piece and then clicking on its destination.
Unlike a lot of other chess games, though, GrandMaster Chess actually shows you the paths available to that piece. If it’s a pawn that can only move one square ahead, you’ll see a single green square ahead of it. If it’s a queen positioned in the middle of the board, you’ll see long branches of green squares shooting out from her. It’s a handy feature for newcomers who aren’t entirely sure of what their pieces can do.
These squares also appear as recommended next moves by the computer, though to be honest following them usually got my pieces caught in compromising situations. You can’t turn this option off, either, which irritated me. That combined with a somewhat lackluster tutorial leads me to suggest learning to play before booting up GrandMaster Chess.
Especially since it has some truly brutal opponents, like the majority of chess games. Unless you’re reeeeeally good you’ll probably lose most of your matches. That said GrandMaster Chess DOES offer a nice range of difficulty levels, so if you get sick of losing you can always tone down the difficulty. It also allows for easy redos of your last move, which is especially handy since the game lags on occasion and may goad you into misplacing pieces.
Aesthetically GrandMaster Chess is nice enough. The menus are clean and the boards stylized, with a few different skins available to spice up the play. (I recommend the standard template, though, since the kiddy version is kinda boring and the modern version makes it tough to see the black pieces.) The game also allows the player to make the board 3D and even rotate it, though both can prove rather confusing for players of any level. It also offers some token musical accompaniment that is pleasant in a medieval sort of way, though it sporadically kicks out for no reason.
Overall GrandMaster Chess is a good game. It’s obvious more work went into it than some other chess titles on the market, as there’s more than just the bare bones. There are much worse ways to spend ten bucks than this, though don’t spend it expecting a revolutionary experience. 3.5/5
You should buy GrandMaster Chess IF:
- You like a solid game of chess
- You want a challenge
- You want some relaxing musical accompaniment
You should NOT buy GrandMaster Chess IF:
- You get frustrated easily
- You’re looking for something innovative
- You want to win matches
System Requirements
OS: Windows 98 Windows XP Windows Me Windows Vista
Memory: 256 MB
DirectX: 7
CPU: P3
Alawar created Grand Master Chess.
