chess

Chess is one of the oldest games in the world. It's a classic, and it's revered by everyone from world class-thinkers to children just learning to play as a game that tests the limits of your thinking ability. So any game that takes all the elements that make chess so popular and finds a way to make them more engaging is bound to be successful. Such is the case with ChessFlash KnightVision. Looking beyond its simple green interface and somewhat maze-like menus, KnightVision is a fantastic game, sure to capture the imagination of anyone who has ever obsessed … Read more

We've never been very good at chess, but that doesn't mean we can't recognize a good chess game when we see it, and Chess Wizard definitely fits that description. Although the game's graphics are nothing to get excited about, serious chess players will love its huge variety of features.

The game's interface is plain, with menus and a toolbar across the top and a one-dimensional chessboard. Chess Wizard has 10 levels of difficulty, ranging from "peabrain" to "overwhelming," and you can select from a variety of handicaps. We set our level … Read more

It really wasn't that long ago that the idea of playing chess against a computer was about as realistic as Mr. Spock's ears, but today's chess engines are so powerful that even free game software can challenge expert players. Or so we assume with Mayura Chess Board, which quickly eclipsed our limited chess-playing skills and proved an excellent piece of software as well.

Mayura Chess Board's board and pieces have realistic 3D highlights. That plus a pair of counters labeled white and black and a window to hold captured pieces add up to this game's … Read more

In Greedy Spiders, your job is to rescue helpless flies being hunted by one or sometimes several hungry arachnids. Each fly is thoroughly trapped in web, but with a simple tap of your finger you're able to cut individual strands to eventually free them all. The problem is, every time you make a move, the spiders get to make one, inching themselves progressively closer to their prey.

To start, you get to cut a single strand of web per turn. A good strategy is to either snip near the spider to cut off its route, or snip one of … Read more

It's no surprise that with the advent of computer games, enduring classics like chess would make the leap to the virtual world. The Internet is jam-packed with different versions of chess, from the elaborate to the austere. ChessBin Free Chess falls somewhere in the middle; it's a fairly basic take on chess, but it has several useful features that make it a bit more versatile than the hands-on version.

The program's interface is plain and easy to navigate, consisting of a green and white chessboard and a handful of menus across the top. Users can play as … Read more

Playing chess against a computer is supposed to be Mr. Spock's territory, but there's nothing stopping you from pitting your skills against a cybernetic opponent, thanks to Yea Chess by Drazen Beljan. It's a free chess-playing program that uses artificial intelligence and your computer's processing power to test your chess-playing ability at various skill levels.

Yea Chess is portable freeware that requires no installation; you can copy it to a USB stick or other portable device and always have access to your saved games. The program's interface is a chessboard with Game, Option, and Homepage … Read more

This week, Donald and Jasmine have a lot to crave, not the least of which is a pair of health-monitoring tighty whities. And yet we are somehow much more impressed by a giant chess set made from robotic Legos, a swarm of hovering honeycombs, a massive LED art display that moves to the music, and a roving solar-powered car disguised as a shrub. On the list of things not to crave? Trading drugs for gadgets. Come on people...you're smarter than that! (Right?)

I hate playing chess. I don't hate the game; in fact it's pure strategy, something I love. But despite years of practice, I still almost never win. And now, it would seem, I have further cause to be pessimistic about my chances of a victory, as even robots made out of Legos are here to beat me.

Observe the video below. That's a huge, 156-square-foot chess board and pieces made entirely out of Lego Mindstorm parts--more than 100,000 of them. It's called Monster Chess, and it's awesome.

The battery-operated, Bluetooth-controlled pieces use downward-facing sensors … Read more

tChess is one of the best chess apps available for the iPhone and iPad. The low-priced Lite version offers many of the features of tChess Pro, including an elegant interface and lots of in-game extras. (Both versions have variable difficulty settings, but tChess Lite taps out at a 1200 ELO rating, which "corresponds to a strong casual player but is weaker than an average chess club player.")

tChess Lite offers an excellent interface for chess learners, whether passing the device in two-player mode, or solo against the AI, with a clean, 2D board view that you can flip … Read more