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Genre: Strategy

Format: CD

Developer: JAMDAT Mobile, Inc.

Publisher: JAMDAT Mobile, Inc.

Mac Publisher: MacPlay

Minimum System Requirements: PowerMac G3, Mac OS 8.6 or Mac OS X, 64MB RAM, 50MB free hard disk space, 800x600 monitor resolution supporting millions of colors

Review Computer: 867MHz G4, 640MB RAM, ATI RADEON 8500, Mac OS X v10.3.2

Network Feature: Yes

Price: $19.99

ESRB Rating: E for Everyone

Availability: Now

Official Website: [url=http://www.hexacto.com/game_kasparov.php]http://www.hexacto.com/game_kasparov.php[/url]

Let me sum up for you everything I know about chess.

1. The person with the power to settle all disputes in a chess tournament is called the "arbiter."


2. You'll be laughed out of the park if you refer to your rook as a "castle."


3. One town's very like another when your head's down over your pieces, brother

Actually, I also know enough to find it a bit ironic that Garry Kasparov would lend his name to a computer chess simulation. I guess since he helped design it...

Be that as it may, here's chess, arguably one of the easiest games to learn to play, but the hardest to really get any good at. I always had visions of me sitting down with one of those old guys in Central Park who just play this all day, getting my butt kicked for a few months, only to earn a slow respect that would eventually culminate in my beating Big Blue before a worldwide audience. Then I'd remember that I never really was a child prodigy, so I'd just walk over to Broadway and play some pinball.

Kasparov Chessmate is aiming to change all of that for me. It manages to strike a decent balance between chess tutorial and chess playground, so both newcomers like me and dedicated studiers of the game can find elements in there that will keep them coming back.

Before I get to that, though, I'll talk a bit about the game's appearance. This isn't like that old Battle Chess game, full of attitude and animated monsters beating each other up. Here, you get only three boards, each of which can be viewed in either 2D or 3D. The boards would like quite nice sitting in your office or living room, but some will find them a little bland on screen. This is okay. It's chess. It's not about fun and zing. There's no music, either, during the game. Again, this is okay. It's a thinking game, and you'll want as few distractions as possible while playing. If you really need music, you can just fire up iTunes while you play.

Even our spokesman Garry isn't well represented. Aside from a little icon in the hint dialog, there's pretty much just one shot of him seriously contemplating his next move. You look at this guy and think, "Ain't no way I'm beating that man. Ain't no way I'm even gonna try." But, Garry's on your side. There are multiple tutorial and stratagems to improve your game, then plenty of chances to practice.

Everything about chess is explained here in an online tutorial. The pieces, the maneuvers, the offensive and defensive strategies, the notation, and more. What's more, you get to see most of these in action. There are various "histories" included; previous games played by chess legends which you can watch played out in their entirety. The purpose of this is to let you study the masters and pick up on their strategies. The trouble is that the histories play out a bit too quickly to really follow at first. You can pause them to slow things down, but this grew quite tiresome. Also, I'd like if there was some sort of documentation that accompanied the histories. I'd like to know what offenses were being used, what defenses countered them, and when the players deviated from their planned attacks. After all, as they sang in the musical Chess, "Each game of chess means there's one less variation left to be played."

When you're ready, you can play against the computer in one of four timing modes: blitz, rapid and tournament, or with no time limit. You can also play at various skill levels (a slider controls the computer's intelligence level). Now, I'll reiterate that I'm not a great chess player, so I can't say how tough it really is for those who know what they're doing. There's also a multiplayer feature built in, but you need to know the IP address of the person against whom you want to play as Chessmate isn't compatible with any of the popular Mac gaming services. Two people can play at the same computer, of course, and you can play against Palm users, too. But...come on. Have some gaming pride.

There is a hint feature built into the game as you play, but I didn't find this as helpful as the histories or in game tutorials. Although you can control the level of detail that accompanies the hints, using them is like picking apart someone else's brain. I found it better to just make my own mistakes, then watch the histories to see what started to go wrong when. Although, I will confess I did feel a good degree of satisfaction when Garry would compliment my moves. Also, I found it amusing to play a terrible game, then use Garry's hints to see if he could get me out of trouble. When he'd resort to just moving my rook back and forth while my opponent mounted his attack, I could almost feel Garry smacking me in the back of the head.

There are, of course, numerous chess programs available in the shareware world. Apple even includes one with Mac OS X, in case you haven't seen it yet. I can't speak for any of them, but I can say that Kasparov Chessmate is the most useful chess program I've ever played (at only $19.99, it's also priced better than some shareware programs). I'm not nearly ready to play a knowledgeable human yet, but Garry's being patient with me. With some practice, I may be ready to sit down for a game in central park, or, at the very least, spend one night in Bangkok.

I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine.