I’ve seen quite a few chess apps on the App Store but I’ve never really ever tried any. I was given the opportunity to check out 99Games’ Chess Pro. It’s a sleek and simple chess app with some pretty cool features.
Graphics
When you first launch the app your greeted with a sleek and simple menu. Unlike some other games that I’ve played on the iPhone/iPod touch things move very quick. There’s no hiccup in the movement between menus and transitions. So that’s always a nice way to start when you go to play. When you start playing the game it’s a really nice and simple set up. You have a few themes you can choose from, like a Metallic or Wood chess set or you can play in 2D. While the 3D is nice looking and everything I just prefer to play in 2D because it is much easier to tell which piece your playing with. On the desktop there are chess apps that just go way to fancy with the look, because of which I lose my concentration. Chess Pro has done pretty much everything right when it comes to this.
Gameplay
After you get past the modest glitz and glamour the real fun is in the actual game. I myself have never really been a good chess player so I usually lose most of my matches. When you first launch the app it’s really easy just to get right into a new game. Selecting “New Game” brings you to another menu where you either choose to start with White or Black, 2 Players, or a Chess demo. So when you first choose which side you’ll start with the game starts. The chess board fills up pretty much the entire screen; oh and you can’t play in Landscape only portrait. On the top you can see who’s turn it is and how long they have been on the turn. At the bottom is a few buttons for getting back to the menus, getting a hint, saving the game, and an undo button. Actually playing the game you basically select your piece and it will give show you the available places it can go and then you can either drag the piece over to the spot or just select the spot.
As far as the computer AI goes, there are 3 difficulty settings (Easy, Normal, Hard) and the computer does a good job. Although, if I start a new game on Easy, and do the same moves I know what the game will do. So in essence I suppose you could eventually figure out what the computer is going to do next. Maybe that’s how you get better I suppose, the Hard difficulty is less likely to do this.
Now there are three game variations you can play with, Normal, Suicide, and Losers. I’ve never heard of the last 2 before so I was a little confused but the game thankfully includes a pretty good explanation of what they are. Basically Suicide and Losers is like a backwards Chess game, your objective is to become the first to lose all the chess pieces. It’s a different way of thinking and Losers is an almost combination of Suicide and Normal where you still want to lose your pieces but the King still has the same value as in Normal. There is also the option to play with someone else (just basically pass the phone back and forth) and watch the computer play itself. Overall it’s well done and fun to play even for the non chess type people.
Final Verdict
If your a Chess player you’ll probably like this app quite a bit and even if you don’t normally like chess this app still might be worth the cost [$3.99 - iTunes link]. If your not a hardcore chess player but still like the odd game, there is a lite version for $0.99 [iTunes link] that has just your basic game of chess. [Ed: You can also check out the more expensive, but slightly better looking, Deep Green chess review]. Games can be nice and short for on the go and the extra game variants is a very nice feature. If you want to take a break from playing Sudoku or have a slower pace than Frenzic this app is perfect for you. I liked it and I’m sure most of you will like it as well.
