The knight, for example, is said to move with ''ninja-like invisibility.'' The bishop is likened to a laser beam ''slicing and dicing'' its way across the chessboard. It is probably best suited for teaching young adults because of its many sports metaphors and colorful descriptions. The package cover says that Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess is for beginners and intermediate players. Ashley's enthusiasm for chess and for teaching have also made him a popular commentator at world championship matches. MAURICE ASHLEY is an international master and coach of the Raging Rooks and Dark Knights, two Harlem-based school teams that have won national scholastic chess championships. (Simon & Schuster/Davidson & Associates about $30 Windows 95 and 3.1.) Unless you simply want a primer on the game, Chess Mates is probably not the partner for you. Its most useful feature seems to be a few pages that your child can color in should he or she get bored with the program. Other shortcomings include the lack of a glossary (chess is full of colorful terms that are helpful to know, particularly if you ever wander into a club or pick up a chess book), or Help feature, and the manual does not tell you much about the program that you cannot figure out on your own. Since white always goes first and therefore is naturally on the offensive, someone learning chess with this program would not get the opportunity to learn what it is like to be on the defensive from the start of the game. Because you cannot switch sides, you can play only the white (or as the program calls them, gray) pieces and not the black (or red). And none are especially challenging for anyone beyond an advanced-beginner level. While there are a number of playing levels, the relative strength of each is not explained. As with Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess, there are not nearly enough examples given for each tactic.Īt any time, you can stop the lessons and play a game against the program. The explanations are good, but the pace is slow because of all the multimedia fanfare. The program then explains, with examples, the basic tactics of chess: forks, pins, skewers, removing the guard, discovery, double check and checkmate. When one is captured, the square on which it sits opens up and it falls through with a look of surprise on its face. Each piece is animated and has a distinctive personality. Initially the characters seem clever, but after a couple of hours, they wear a little thin.Ĭhess Mates gives a short history of the game and then meticulously, almost painstakingly, explains each piece and how it moves. The program uses a wizard called Wigby, a magic wand called Wanda and a flying carpet called Rugby to teach people how to play. But for any chess player, Chess Mates has a few problems. While the label says it is aimed at ages 9 and up, it is more appropriate for children younger than that. IF THE trash-talking approach of Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess is a bit intimidating for the young chess player in your family, you might be tempted to consider Chess Mates. (Interplay $29.95 Windows 95 and 3.1, Macintosh System 7 and later.) They are also easy to upgrade and, at prices often under $100, they are cheaper than either the electronic games or weekly sessions with the local chess master. While electronic chess games are widely available, CD-ROM's take advantage of the multimedia features your personal computer already has. The best place to look for chess programs is on CD-ROM's. Beating a program you have dumbed down does not provide the same level of satisfaction as beating your nemesis at the club, but it can get you in shape for a big match. And unlike a human opponent, a computer is never going to have an off day - that is, unless you instruct it to play worse (a feature found on some of these programs). No on-screen game board, no matter how well rendered, is as easy to follow as a real board with real pieces. Many new programs can and will tell you what you are doing wrong in a match, even as they beat you into submission. Best of all, they now give something back to their human opponents by teaching them to become better players. Since then, computer chess programs have continued to improve. Three years earlier, he had been knocked out of an elimination tournament by Genius 2, a software program that ran on an ordinary PC and was widely available in computer stores. WHEN the world chess champion Garry Kasparov lost a six-game match to I.B.M.'s Deep Blue computer last year, it was not the first time he had been bested by a silicon-powered opponent.
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