Deep Silver 09: Hands-on: Fritz Chess - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 11 August 2009 / 3,495 Views

I never expected a chess videogame to surprise me, but that is exactly what Fritz Chess did. This is not a chess game built around gimmicks, just a pure and comprehensive version of the classic board game. There is an emphasis on teaching the basics of the game to novices, but seasoned chess players should find plenty to keep them busy. The version I played was near the final build and everything seemed to be in top condition.

You hold the DS like a book, similar to playing Brain Age. As you would expect, the stylus moves all the pieces on the touch screen. The interface is clean and simple to understand for just about everyone. The visual representation of the chess pieces is not as pristine as I would hope. Initially I had troubling distinguishing between my bishops and pawns, and my king and queen. I eventually got the hang of it, but anyone whose ever played a 2D flash version of chess should have a good idea what to expect from the graphics.

The sheer number of modes available is impressive. One that stands out in particular is the Historic matches feature. Here you can observe a step by step replay of some of the most historic matches in chess history. Such matches include Napoleon vs. Madame de Remusat and Fischer vs. Kasporov. You can’t actually play through any of these matches yourself but reportedly more than a thousand documented matches will be included. There is also a puzzle mode with different puzzle types for player of all skill levels. One mode designed for beginners is Checkmate in One Move, which just as it sounds will generate a situation and task the player of finding checkmate in just one move.

There is a practice mode where you can hone your skills even though you can ask for hints from the computer in just about every other game mode. You can always play classic chess against the AI, and the game allows you to set up the board any way you want before starting a game. In addition to practice mode, there is classic chess and chess 906 (A variation of chess created by the late chess champion Bobby Fischer). Fritz Chess ELO will pit you against the computer without assistance with the outcome affecting your stats. Multiplayer is available for two people playing on the same DS as well. There is a story mode of sorts to Fritz Chess involving a tournament between two kingdom with the ultimate goal being to defeat “The Black King” who is the chess grandmaster.

As you can probably tell, I came away from my time with Fritz chess impressed. It stands out among the countless other chess games in the market by feeling infallibly in depth. The DS game will launch alongside a Wii version that shares much of the same content, and the series may expand to other platforms down the road. Anyone interested in playing virtual chess should keep an eye on Fritz Chess launching later this year.

5 Comments

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Non Sequor (on 11 August 2009)

@megaman79:

Like all people with niche traits, lefties are generally useless, but occasionally helpful to the rest of us, so we'll keep you around. In the future, you'll all be baseball pitchers.