Reviewed: October 14, 2002
Reviewed by: JoLene Lark

Publisher
Ubisoft

Developer
Ubisoft

Released: September 3, 2002
Genre: Strategy
Players: 2
ESRB: Everyone

9
9
5
8
9.0

Supported Features:
GBA Link Cable

I will be the first to admit that as far as classic board games such as chess and checkers go I have always opted for the easier of the two…checkers. I have always found the rules for chess to be somewhat overwhelming, as I couldn’t keep the knight straight from the bishop. Thus when I asked to review this game to see if years later I could figure out this game’s objective I was pleased by the way Chessmaster 9000 was setup. Overall my experience this time around trying to learn this game via Chessmaster’s interface was very rewarding.

This game is comprised of three differing types of chess games as well as the options for multiplayer and most importantly the chess tutor. The chess tutor is a text interface with graphical illustrations that illustrate the text. This part of the game is what I viewed first, and I would recommend anyone desiring to brush up their chess skills to do the same before attempting to play a match.

The basic rules section of the chess tutor constitutes a very detailed overview of the basic rules of chess. After reading through these I felt a bit more at ease and eager to play a match. The pieces rules was the most informative section for me as it went into very high detail to show each piece and describe its role. Also interesting to me was the section called special moves that contained the three special moves in chess:

  1. En Passant: this is a special capture move for pawns only
  2. Castling: a special move involving the king and either rook
  3. Promotion: when a pawn reaches the opposite side of the board it must be promoted to a queen, rook, bishop or knight. You usually promote the pawn to a queen otherwise you have performed an under promotion. Under promotion is ideal if you can create a checkmate situation.
Notation is another area that can improve your game. Chessmaster mentions the five most popular forms:
  1. Algebraic
  2. Long algebraic
  3. Coordinate
  4. Descriptive
  5. Correspondence
The next gameplay area I wish to mention is the standard game mode. This mode is where the chess game begins with the pieces in standard position. It was with the help of the chess tutor that I was able to finish a few standard games and actually win one!

The second type of game mode is called handicap game mode. In this game the pieces are setup in standard position but the player may remove any of the pieces to create and advantage for either of the sides.

The third type of game modes is the setup board games. This variation allows the player to recreate various situation or problems you may be having at a certain point in a match.

The last area of gameplay I wish to mention are the game settings. In Chessmaster 9000 there are 18 different A.I. (artificial intelligence) personalities and it is important to know that you can change your opponent, even during a game. Another setting that can be modified is the response time such as seconds per move, minutes per game or making the match time infinite.

Chessmaster had some impressive graphics. I was thinking that there would not be any sort of notable graphics that were photo-like in quality but I was wrong. The chess board quality was also well defined with the board having high contrast, as well as several unique textures like a newspaper, wood, kid’s clay, Napoleon or a circus set.

Your opponent’s image was also great quality. The actual movement of the pieces was also smooth and not jerky at all. Overall, I was happy to see how well the quality of the graphics were, considering this was basically a chess game.

Minimalist is the way I have to describe this games sound system. There were only sound effects, no background music was found in the game options. It was rather refreshing to play a game that is not blaring background music. This is especially true for this game as it is usually takes a matter of great concentration. I believe that the sound effects that were included were not annoying at all.

Game length varies from a few minutes to an infinite amount of time if you want it to. Most of the matches I played lasted from two to twenty minutes in the standard game mode. This game had four game options on who could play:
  1. Player vs. A.I. –default setting
  2. Player vs. Player – 2 players play on the same console
  3. A.I. vs. A.I. – one personality against another, a great way to view strategy
  4. Multiplayer – The standard game or handicap. This game allows either single game pack or two game pack modes. The difference between the one and two game pack version is that if you use two packs the client player may also save the game.
Also of note is that this game allows you to choose a variety of game boards as well as game pieces. Your chess game choices are quite varied and add substantially to this game's value.

I have finally started to learn chess and actually enjoy it thanks to Chessmaster 9000. Besides the basic tutorial, this game provides much more since you have such a variety of opponents, boards, and pieces to choose from. I spent many hours enjoying this game and you will also! I highly recommend you purchase this game if you enjoy chess or want to learn how to play.