Don't be fooled, checkers this is not.
When people think of next-gen videogames chess is probably the furthest thing from their mind. Multi-core technology and a ramped up graphics card don't exactly bring the same panache to a square chessboard as they do to an expansive battlefield with hundreds of swarming enemies and particle effects flying around the screen. That having been said, here we are staring Chessmaster Live, the latest release to Xbox Live Arcade, dead in the face. As the successor to the ridiculously long-running series fans probably have a pre-defined idea of what Chessmaster should be on Xbox 360. It comes close to living up to the legend, but not quite.
What most people remember about Chessmaster – at least those who frequent the IGN offices – is the extensive lessons that came packed in. Spending five hours with a videogame to teach you how to play chess might sound mind-numbing, but you could bet your last buck that you'd know what you were doing when the lesson finished. Sadly none of that made it into Chessmaster Live. The closest the game comes is a practice mode where you'll see all your movement options for different pieces in front of you. Spaces are shaded either red or green so you'll know where it's safe and where the enemy will be able to capture your piece. It hampers the accessibility of chess, but if you already have a grasp on the rules then it will, at the very least, sharpen your skills a bit.
Luckily there is more to do than tango with the plethora of AI personas. There are four chess variants: dark chess, losing chess, progressive chess and extinction chess. Each is a nice distracter but it's a shame that you're limited to playing them online. It's not clear whether they just didn't have the time to map AI to the modes or if there was some other obstacle, but you can only play the variations on the traditional game when playing multiplayer either locally or on Xbox Live.
Chessmaster Live also allows you to toy around with the conditions for the impending match. You can set things like time limits, move limits, or you can use the Fischer clock which adds a certain amount of time on to your clock after each move. Setting the time limit to ten minutes is kind of like playing speed golf, but on a chess board. There's very little thinking, you just move your pieces and hope that your opponent's clock runs out first or you get lucky and score a checkmate.
The strongest feature within the game is the number of AI personas that you can match up against. Each has its own face, its own play style which most actually adhere to and a rating so you know what you're getting yourself into in terms of difficulty. You can play against everything from a monkey – seriously, you play against a chimp – to the Chessmaster himself who is touted as "The grey matter… (err, eminence) of this game." Word to the wise, never presume you're good enough to take on the Chessmaster (don't worry; there's no achievement for beating him).
As you might expect from a game based around the slow-paced activity of chess, the graphics in Chessmaster Live are a bit lacking. Aliasing runs rampant, there's lighting effects that make it tough to determine which are your pieces when using certain chess sets and there's even screen tearing when you rotate the 3-D board. To make matters worse the art design behind a few of the sets is very questionable. You'll get bishops confused with queens, kings confused with bishops; it's all just a bit more befuddling than it should be. You're better off sticking to the simplistic two-dimensional board, even though it feels like it's from the '80s.
Closing Comments
At only ten dollars less than the original Xbox release which also featured Xbox Live play it’s tough to recommend Chessmaster Live to people. The chess action is solid and the different AI types will please chess aficionados but we can’t help but feel like the feature set doesn’t quite live up to the rest of the series. Beginners can’t just hop in and take a lengthy chess lesson to get themselves acquainted and those looking for something beyond the regular game of chess can only find it online or while playing against a friend. Chessmaster Live is a functional board game, but in this day and age we need a bit more to give it the stamp of approval.
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