If you are a beginner and want a portable DS chess game then try * You have to reset your difficulty level each time you turn on the DS system.Ĭomments: Aside from the noticeably-weakened chess strength when using time controls, this is a good game for intermediate players to enjoy a game or puzzle on the go. * Only has two save game slots and it only saves up to the first 60 moves even if you played more. * Multiplayer is only for those in the same location with you ie no online multiplayer. To play against a playing strength that is considerably closer to its stated rating, I recommend that you use the no-clock time controls which still usually will have the computer use not much more than about 5-20 minutes for the whole game depending on the difficulty setting. * Under blitz and long time controls, the computer makes its moves much more quickly than necessary which substantially lowers its playing strength below that of its stated rating to the point where it is not worth playing. * Has a left-handed option(DS is always held like a book) * Has 2000 historic games that you can play through(no commentary though) * Has many challenging mating and best move puzzles. * Often plays different openings at the same difficulty level. Also you can use blitz or tournament time controls, and can change the board and pieces. In the practice games you can use help options like show threats, legal moves, best move, last move, and standard opening lines. Or you can play practice games that also include the chess variants of Chess960(backrow pieces are random) and Giveaway Chess(win by losing all your pieces).
If you play rated games you earn your own Elo rating. You can play at 12 different difficulty levels ranging from Elo ratings of 400(beginner) to 2320(expert). It's definitely worth the $ but I hope v2 comes out soon so I can record my tournament games on this thing. Get 4 DS's together to support Saiamese, Kreigspeil and other variations. Support PGN and annotations and interface with PCs or something outside itself for game up/downloading. Or alternatively, some way to store and dump the games to a PC.įix the menus man - they are really lame. The DS needs a printer! This would enable fritz to print out the game record for you. Use an alternate background to indicate this mode clearly from a distance - this will put MonRoi out of business! No endgame training here and fritz is pretty crummy at mating with a King and a Rook against a King unless it is jacked way up.ĭoesn't rate a position, just your record of play.Īllow tournament mode where fritz is inaccessible and you are simply recording a game. You will just figure it out by the legal move restrictions and hints. There is no variation or comment support on your games. And no support to store the other player's name or date or event, etc. Minimal profile information - first name and rating. In fact, the menus are so big that they force you to scroll to see all the selections - I missed the scrolling at first and couldn't find all the options.Īlthough there are 2000+ historical games on the machine, you can only store two of your own games named Game1 and Game2 - really lame. The menus force more clicks and take much more space than necessary - I don't see why this was done. When doing practice games it has an annoying habbit of talking with you, flashing a red light to get your attention. You cannot remove fritz from the game even with all help off and playing a multi-player game on one DS - this makes it unsuitable for tournament game recording. Only supports stylis functionality and forces you to play it sideways (but it supports left or right-handed users.) Menus are kinda wierd - you set Fritz strength under the historical game menu instead of the game play options. Otherwise it beats MonRoi hands down and is 1/20th the cost!Ĭool dual and single DS multiplayer support with a demo so you can do it even if you only have one card but two DSs.Ī clearly rendered board with lots of style options.įritz can kick your butt or let you win.
I bought Fritz looking for an alternative to which till now was the only pda size chess game recorder you can get (and it I had hoped that Fritz could replace it - but not quite - at least not for tournaments.