Xbox Dad:

World Class Chess Comes to Xbox LIVE

Published April 14, 2008

Even at my house, with a dad who writes for Xbox.com and games with his kids, we've had many discussions about the pros and cons of videogames. We come up with rules and systems to limit the amount of "screen time" for my son (combining TV/computer/Xbox 360®), and we still worry about the little time he does spend playing videogames.

We have an exception to the rule. He can spend more time in front of a screen if he is playing something "educational." We have a few games that fit this description including some focused on reading or math, but the one game that we consider educational and that he finds fun to play is chess. I could quote numerous studies that show that chess has value for kids, improving their performance in other academic areas, improving their spatial reasoning and logic, but what matters most is that we see it as a useful activity for him. Playing against another person is the best, and while he plays chess against me a few times each week, it's also great to have some way to play games on your own.

Intellectually stimulating and fun to boot.

Chess Software

There are many different ways to play chess against a computer opponent, both on the PC and on Xbox 360. We have the Chess Titans game on our home computer (it's included with the Home Premium version of Windows Vista) and we also have Ubisoft's Chessmaster 10 game for the PC, but the most enjoyable piece of chess software we have found so far is the new Chessmaster® LIVE game that is available on Xbox 360 LIVE® Arcade.

Chessmaster LIVE is not intended to be as full-featured as Chessmaster for the PC, but we've found that we are playing it way more now that it's on the console. You can play it from the couch, it's up and running with no disc required, and the simpler, slimmed-down UI of Chessmaster LIVE is so easy for my son to use. Within moments he can have the game fired up and jump right into a game against a computer personality, or he can go into the puzzles section and try his hand at a seemingly never-ending stream of excellent chess problems, including the standard "mate in one" and many other puzzle types. We can also go multiplayer against each other on the same console, each of us logged in under our own profile so the game can track our overall performance.

Game Variations

One of the benefits of playing chess against my son through Chessmaster LIVE instead of just using a regular board is the additional game variants. You can play regular chess, losing chess (where the object is to lose all your pieces by forcing your opponent to capture them), extinction chess (where you lose if your opponent captures all of any single type of piece, such as both knights, all eight of your pawns, or your queen) and progressive chess (where each turn you get to make a larger number of moves, starting with one for white, then two for black and then three for white and so on). Once you start having special rules, it's much easier to play the game on Xbox 360 then to try to keep track of everything on a regular board.

One additional variation, Dark Chess, is available only when you are playing multiplayer across Xbox LIVE (as opposed to an opponent on the same console). Dark Chess is a particularly tricky variation of chess where you can't see all of your opponent's pieces, only those that are within striking range of your own pieces. Imagine trying to protect your king when you don't even know where an attack could come from. Dark Chess wouldn't work at all on a regular board, or even when playing on the same console. It's a variation perfectly suited for online play.

Special themed chess sets can also be used to customize look and feel.

Ratings and Rankings

In chess, every player is considered to have a "rating." This number, which starts out at 600 in Chessmaster LIVE, goes up when you beat a player with a higher rating and goes down if you get beaten by a player with a lower rating. When you start playing, your rating is likely quite a bit below or above your true skill level, but over time, your rating will become more accurate and will stop going up or down as rapidly. The game tracks your ranking independently for all the different variations of chess available and also for online play vs. local Xbox 360 play, which is great as it helps to keep the meaning of a specific rating consistent from player to player.

When you play against the computer, you get to pick from a list of computer personalities. Each personality has a rating and a description of how they like to play (one might tend to ignore their pawns, while another is overprotective of their queen, just as real players have game tendencies), and when you play against them your rating will change depending if you win or lose. There are a lot of different personalities, with ratings all the way up to 2700, so you can find the perfect players to compete against without ever even connecting to Xbox LIVE. There is something special about playing against another real person though, so the option to create or join an online game (with various timing options to make sure your game won't go on for hours) is available, complete with support for your Xbox LIVE Vision camera if so desired.

Chess for You or Your Kids

My son plays chess against me, against the computer, in a school club and in the occasional tournament. You might say he's "into" the game. But maybe your kid's school doesn't have a chess club, or perhaps you don't really know how to play. With a game like Chessmaster LIVE, there is no reason why anyone, child or adult, can't get into the game. Sit with your son or daughter as they go through the included chess tutorial, or do the chess puzzles and play games against the console. You can use the game as your own way to learn, to improve your game enough to be a challenge to your kids, or just as a good way to find some chess players of similar skill to play against online. There is a reason why this game has been popular for hundreds of years. It's one of the original strategy board games, and you can play it for hours and hours and still find challenges and learning opportunities in each game. I hope you and your kids try it out, and maybe I'll end up playing you online!

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Article by Duncan Festive Turkey Mackenzie