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Well, I've always loved chess and was excited to learn that there was a version of Chessmaster for the Nintendo DS. The biggest question I had was, "can I use the internal blue-tooth of the DS to play against someone?" The answer is an absolute "yes". You only need one (1) game cartridge to play against another DS owner (in the "Single-card Play"). To be clear; you both do not need to have a game cartridge to play a game of chess against each other. The exercises/mini-games seem to be very helpful and also build upon one another. For example: "Breaking the Lines" involves capturing as many pawns on the board (with your knight) without being captured, but you need to watch out because every 15 moves or so an opposing rook, queen, or bishop is placed randomly on the board (making capturing the remaining pawns even tougher). The next level is harder than the last and has more pawns/major & minor pieces.... Other mini-games include: Fork my Fruit (using the rook/queen/knight/or bishop to fork certain pieces on the board), Masterpiece (using the chess pieces to finish a painting [kind of like the old Atari game "Q-bert" when each time you land on a square it flips back and forth]), Chain Reaction (connecting like pieces by their moving capabilities - tough to describe), Pawn Charge (promoting your pawns to the 8th rank without being captured), and lastly Minefield Chess (Clearing hidden mines with your chess pieces). Other skill test include "Chess Puzzles" and involve timed solutions where you are timed to complete one of several chess puzzles. You can challenge yourself to beat your previous best times for each respective chess puzzle. The Chess Puzzles include: Capture Piece (where you find the white move that captures an unprotected black piece), Find Check (where you find white's move that checks black's king), Move to Safety (finding the white move that saves it from black capture), Find Fork (where white safely forks black's king and another black piece), Pin the Piece (where white pins one of black's pieces against a more powerful piece), Avoid Mate (white avoidings mate on black's next move), and finally Mate in One (white's move that checkmates black's king). Again, the Chess Puzzles are timed and you have the opportunity on each set of 10 (from whichever puzzle you choose) to beat you last time for the set. You also have the opportunity to just do puzzle after puzzle after puzzle for say the "Find Fork" to sharpen you skills (I did over 100 in a row of the Capture Piece puzzle). This option is available for each of the above "Chess Puzzles". There's also a Practice Puzzles option available. To say the least, I really enjoy this version of Chessmaster for the DS, yet there is always some flaw right? While Chessmaster does track your Analytical Reasoning, Memory, Focus, ELO rating, how many games you've played/won/drawn/lost, your Mini Game levels/scores, and your Chess Puzzles' Best times......... it does not allow you to go back and see your moves from games you've played. That's it! If your not worried about the inability of being able to pull your notated games, then you're golden. I still wish it had this option.... oh well.. I hope this review helps you with your decision process, as I tried to cover every question I had before I purchased the game. Enjoy your game!!-) kc8mjeRead full review
Great game at a great price.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
very nice game
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
This game is just O.K.,It has no "take back move" option during play and the board colors are not easy to see (grey and light grey)The save options are also had to use, on every game start you must nav. all the same options like language selection? Nothing special here.
As specified
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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