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Home Classic DS Games for Kids Chessmaster: The Art of Learning

Email Zoom Chessmaster: The Art of Learning (27 customer reviews)   SKU:   827307799112 In Stock Availability:   Usually ships in 1-2 business days Only 1 left in stock, order soon!     Chessmaster DS   List Price: Our Price: $79.99 You Save:     Note: Item may be sold and shipped by another company. Learn more. Product Details Product Length: 4.75 inches Product Width: 5.25 inches Product Height: 0.5 inches Product Weight: 0.2 pounds Package Length: 5.4 inches Package Width: 4.9 inches Package Height: 0.6 inches Package Weight: 0.2 pounds Release Date: October 23, 2007 Average Customer Rating: based on 27 reviews Game Information Platform: Nintendo DS Media: Video Game Item Quantity: 1 Features Learn from champion Josh Waitzkin - Using the principles outlined in his book The Art of Learning, Josh puts players in his shoes during some of the most riveting moments of his career, then walk through the classics, introducing beginners to the fundamentals of the game and providing revealing commentary about the road to mastery Multiplayer wireless - Two players can battle each other using the wireless option on the DS including varieties such as Dark Chess (opponent's pieces are invisible), Extinction Chess (first player to capture all of the opponent's pieces), and Losing Chess (first player to lose all of his/her pieces) Six original mini-games - Each mini-game is packed with its own music, sound effects, a high-score record and 20 levels of gameplay such as Minefield (chess pieces are used to locate mines hidden in the board), Breaking the Lines (the knight is moved to capture all of the pawns) and Fork My Fruit (uses chess pieces to fork fruit of the same kind, among others) Famous games - Players have access to 900 of the most important chess games, which are analyzed to provide key tactics Checkmate - With an arsenal of 600,000 games, players will never run out of fun Customer Reviews Average Customer Review: ( 27 customer reviews ) Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers. Most Helpful Customer Reviews 111 of 111 found the following review helpful: Best chess game so far, some big faults...  Oct 25, 2007 By Troy Edwards I've been looking forward to a decent chess game for the DS since I picked it up last year, so I picked this game up on its release day. The chess game on clubhouse games, even on "hard" is very weak. I can beat it without even paying attention, and I'm no where's near an expert level player. Anyway, without boring everyone to tears, here's the PRO and CON list: PRO * You can have four profiles. Great to have for the kids. * It has a very strong, and in my opinion, realistic engine. * You can set up positions for playing against the computer. * Save game is very useful if others are using the game. * Can play someone else on a single card (see below for gripe though) * Movement is so much nicer with a stylus, but the Direction pad is also an option. You can either drag a piece to its destination, or you can touch the destination. You also have a choice to confirm your move to avoid "mouse slips". * The mini games, like "Fork the Fruit", are actually very good drills. * Nicely themed chess puzzles too. CONS * False advertising. "Players have access to 900 of the most important chess games, which are analyzed to provide key tactics", uh no, there are NO games. This and other features mentioned on the chessmaster site, are not here. They must be for the PC version. * No online play. Are you kidding me?! * No ability to set it for two human players on one DS. This seems like a "way too obvious" feature. I'm truly baffled as to why it's not on here. * You can only set up a position to play the computer. That, and the fact that I can't set the clock to one players advantage, makes it difficult to have a challenging/fair game with my daughters * You can't set the clock to add time per move (Fischer Clock) * Pieces are a bit odd looking, but tolerable. * "Help" shows a play button, that, while reviewing a game, would let you play from the current position. It's just not there though. * The puzzles, though nicely themed, are all one move. Also, I was having a lot of trouble with one, and had to ask for the answer. Turns out I was supposed to be playing white from the flip side of the board. However, it still showed the flip side as being the 8th rank. Ok, that's a lot of "CONS", and the first three really annoy me. I was so looking forward to having 900 games to go through without sitting at the computer, or setting up a board. This does give you a great portable chess engine to have a game anywhere you might be. Also, doing all the puzzles repeatedly, and going through the mini games, will give you a fair skillset to destroy the average non-serious player. 33 of 36 found the following review helpful: Finally, a full chess game for the DS. But it's lacking...  Oct 25, 2007 By T. Lockridge First, before you buy, please note that Chessmaster for the DS *does not* have wifi capabilities. Meaning, if you want to play your friend, he/she will need to be in the same room as you. This is likely the game's biggest flaw, and I'm really surprised that Ubisoft managed to omit wifi play--it's a huge missed opportunity. There's a lot to like in this game, but it's largely geared toward beginning players. The tutorial is fairly shallow, and the mini-games are gimmicky. I'm not sure how effectively they'll change the way you play chess... or even the way you learn. Still, with the negatives aside, this game is worth the $[...]. It's the only decent chess game on the DS, and it does have a number of tough and varied computer opponents. I enjoy playing a game of chess on-the-go, and Chessmaster DS is superior to the cellphone version I've been using. So, for simply playing chess, it's a fun and worthy addition to the DS library. With wifi, however, it could've been amongst the essentials. 15 of 15 found the following review helpful: Nice chess title for the Nintendo DS  Mar 14, 2008 By W. Scott Gibson I actually bought my Nintendo DS Lite for this game and the Brain Age products. I have been a USCF tournament player for 20 years and at one time had a rating over 1600. My rating has declined in recent years as my available time to devote to the game has dwindled. Chessmaster on the DS is aimed mainly at beginners and casual players. While there is no choice in the board or pieces both are nice looking and easy to see. The tutorials are basic but complete. I haven't spent a lot of time on the exercises but they are fun and would undoubtedly be useful to a beginning player. I jumped right in to rated games against the highest rated opponents. One thing I noticed is the claimed ELO ratings of the players appears to be 100-200 points higher than they actually play. Also each player uses the same opening for every game. They use different ones among the players but each player has his own favorite opening. The response time of the highest rated opponents can be several minutes in untimed games. I have beaten all but the last two opponents and expect them to fall when I have more time to play with it. As other's note, the claimed 900 games are nowhere to be found. That's no real biggie as I have over a million games avaible in the Big Database for Fritz 9. I would have liked a stronger engine and faster response time. The Chessmaster personality has beaten me a couple of times but I know he's going to fall. I blame my losses partly on unfamliarity with the board and distractions while playing. Despite my criticisms I like the game. I looked at some of the dedicated handheld chess machines but this seemed like a better option. If you're not over 1500 USCF and are looking for a nice chess title for your Nintendo DS this would be a very nice addition to your game library. 11 of 11 found the following review helpful: This is a very good chess game, with only minor drawbacks.  Dec 28, 2008 By Smaug "Jeremy" I too bought this because I'm a chess player and was looking forward to having a game boy chess game with stylus control. Let's face it: chess with a control pad is awkward and slow. In this game, the control pad and buttons are strictly optional. Maybe you'd use them if you lost the stylus, which happens to some folks. REVIEWER STRENGTH - A review on a chess game without some indicator of the reviewer's strength is worthless. So here are my indicators. On Yahoo Chess, I'm around 1300. In tournament USCF play, I'm around 1200. On Chessmaster 10th Edition for the PC, I'm around 1100. TWO HUMAN OPPONENTS - I agree with the first reviewer, in that a two human player version in which the humans would share the DS is a no-brainer. But this is not a huge drawback to me. It is easy enough (and preferable) to simply bring out the real, physical chess set. LACK OF WI-FI SUPPORT - Lack of WiFi support, I haven't decided on yet. One can go online in other ways easily enough, especially if one has access to free WiFi or is at home. This is a drawback, but is not huge. I bought this game as a portable computer opponent that I would use for 80% practicing and 20% training. TRAINING FEATURES - For someone at my level, most of the training is useless. The Mate-in-One puzzles are good. But I echo the sentiments of the other reviewer in that there should be options for training & puzzles that are beyond one move deep. PERSONALITIES - Another reviewer made the point that sometimes, this game will blunder unnaturally. I was playing a game against a 900-level opponent. I was losing, down a piece or so and down in position. I made one good move on the way to recovery. My clock was at 6 minutes, and my opponent's was at 12 minutes. The computer could not figure out a move. My move put her in check, and there were only three options. It couldn't choose one. I'm glad I had set a time limit on the game; I wound up winning on time after waiting for the computer player's clock to run down. But the personalities each have their own quirks and strengths. This is nice, as it is more like playing a human opponent. STRENGTH OF THE PROGRAM - Serious chess players refer to this as the chess engine. A chess engine is not a simple calculator. There is a lot more to making a good chess engine. This version only goes up to Elo strength of 1850. The Chessmaster for PC goes up to 2400 or so. Now I don't know if these are ratings that were given by actually having the engine play against a range of rated players and doing an official calculation, or if the developer took an optimistic guess. Obviously, at my level, that is plenty strong. If you are a master class chess player and you're looking for a portable chess computer, you will probably need to consider a Pocket PC and Pocket Fritz software. For the other 97% of us, this engine is plenty strong. I tested this engine by setting up a position with Chessmaster (1850 rating) having a bishop, knight, and king, and me with just the king to see if it could figure out the mate. I can't figure this out, personally. It could. It maneuvered me into the corner on the color of his bishop, blocked off my escape, and administered the checkmate in less than 50 moves. It is easier to type this than to do it! CHESS SETS & BOARDS - There is only one. It is 2D, and overhead view. No 3D sets and no animated sets. It works to play, but is a little more basic than I was expecting. DUAL SCREEN FUNCTIONALITY - The bottom screen is where the action is. The board is on the bottom screen, as are the timers and options. The top screen has reference information. In games, it shows captured pieces, the name and image for each player, and each player's rating. In training modes, it has Josh Waitzkin, who makes gestures, facial expressions and so forth according to the quality of your play. PRICING - When I searched on this before Christmas, only one Amazon retailer had it, and they were asking $50. Not bloody likely. Now, I see that it is offered at around $25. I wound up buying this locally at a store whose initials are BB. It was in the bargain bin for $15, and was the last copy. Score! Keep an eye on the price. Since this is not the most popular title, not everyone will stock it and it may be hard to find. I would buy it for up to $30, but you can likely find it for less if you're willing to burn some gas and do some legwork. REPLAY VALUE - This is a term gamers use to indicate whether it is fun to play the game again after you've beaten it. In my opinion, no video game has higher replay value than chess. (assuming it is strong enough to challenge you) COMPARED TO CHESSMASTER 10TH EDITION FOR PC - The PC version is better in every way except for one: portability. That is a big thing eh? Even if you have a laptop computer, it is big & bulky compared to a DS. The PC version has lots of sets, more useful training features, a stronger chess engine, more opponents, more timing variations, 3D options, and better sound effects. I recommend getting both of them, but get the DS version first, as it is nice to be able to play a quick game at lunch or while waiting for your wife to get ready to go, or when she drags you out shopping. :) *** What I like *** - Stylus control - Strong enough chess engine - Good personality traits make it more like playing humans *** What I don't like *** - Only one set & board are available; a basic 2D one - No game library like the PC version has 8 of 8 found the following review helpful: Limited Features But Easy to Like  Feb 11, 2008 By Leon Rosiczkowski When I want to play a quick game of Chess, I grab my DS rather than my Dell PDA that has chess software (with many more features available). Why? The interface is easy to use, the display is bright and clear, and if I am interrupted just closing the lid QUICKLY pauses the game. As a member of the US Chess Federation, its chess ability is a limiting factor but the built-in rating system is FUN as you play pseudo-humans complete with their photos. The mini-games are helpful exercises in recognizing patterns (a big key to improving your chess). Recognizing forks, pins, and simple checkmates are the basis for a sound understanding of chess. Not so good - no separate time settings to handicap players, the game startup sequence is poorly impremented, there is no way to save a completed game to analyze later (better save it just before the checkmate!), and its of no use if you want to play another human without their having a DS with ChessMaster. But I certainly have fun with it!! See all 27 customer reviews on Amazon.com

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