Power Chess Thoughts
Jeremy M. Dobrick
Well I picked up Power Chess at EB last night- it will be going back
tonight.
This game is simply that, a game. From a teaching standpoint it seems
to have no book editor, nor does it have a way to practice openings
except manually in the lab. Having "My System" in the help file is
nice, but I would have expected that if your program comes on
2 CDs you could get a more interactive tutorial.
You can't force the computer to move., nor can you see what the
computer is thinking. This game was built around a gimmick- The King.
When you play the King he adapts to you and the Queen later provides
commentary. I will say that the King does give you a pretty good game
after it gets to know you, but I found the Queen's commentary to be
fairly banal. Even on thorough analysis she only occasionally gives an
alternate line of play. I don't really need to hear, "I was happy to
see you make that move."
This game is built around eye candy. The computer opponents all have
little stories behind them (since they are fictional characters, I
don't give a damn.) If the tried to simulate actual players a little
sketch of that player might be nice, but I don't need to know the
alien's life story. The Queen which could be useful if she were more
powerful can only be used to analyze games you played vs. the King. It
would be a lot more helpful if you could import a game and get
analysis. When you play the King you have to use Fischer clocks- I
think you should be able to set which clocks you want to use. The 3D
sets are a little hard to see which made me want to use 2D but the
graphics weren't great here either.
Ultimately as a learning tool I thought the game was very poor and
since that is usually what I use chess programs for I was unhappy with
my purchase. I will say though that the King does play a fun game
since I never felt that I was getting blown away nor did I win easily
after the first few games. I am interested in other peoples opinions
of this game especially since I'm not that great a chess player.
End of rant- Jeremy M. Dobrick
Komputer Korner
Jeremy M. Dobrick wrote:
>
> Well I picked up Power Chess at EB last night- it will be going back
> tonight.
>
> This game is simply that, a game. From a teaching standpoint it seems
> to have no book editor, nor does it have a way to practice openings
> except manually in the lab. Having "My System" in the help file is
> nice, but I would have expected that if your program comes on
> 2 CDs you could get a more interactive tutorial.
Don't say I didn't warn you. See my previous postings on this.
However you are wrong about comments on the opening book editor.
In the Lab, you can save lines(but not delete) as in any opening book
editor. However there are no move numbers and there is a bug when
taking back moves. See my review on Power Chess.
--
Komputer Korner
The komputer that couldn't kompute the square root of
36^n.
Pete Valdon
Jeremy M. Dobrick wrote:
>
> Well I picked up Power Chess at EB last night- it will be going back
> tonight.
>
> This game is simply that, a game. From a teaching standpoint it seems
> to have no book editor, nor does it have a way to practice openings
> except manually in the lab. Having "My System" in the help file is
> nice, but I would have expected that if your program comes on
> 2 CDs you could get a more interactive tutorial.
>
I agree with much of your statements. However, I find Power Chess fun,
entertaining, and yes somewhat educational. The Queens commentary is
often like a cheerleader ( a little encouragement never hurts).
The graphics make it somewhat hard to visualize board layout, this seems
to be the case with most chess products I've seen lately.
It's still a keeper in my opinion. The opponent KING is programmed very
well as a variable competitor.
Komputer Korner
Pete Valdon wrote:
>
> Jeremy M. Dobrick wrote:
> >snipped
>
> It's still a keeper in my opinion. The opponent KING is programmed very
> well as a variable competitor.
The Lab is actually an opening book editor but doesn't have the
capability of having move numbers attached to the moves and you
can't delete a move.
--
Komputer Korner
The komputer that couldn't keep a password safe from prying eyes and