Chessmaster: The Art of Learning

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $14.83

Features:

• Learn from champion Josh Waitzkin - Using the principles outlined in his book The Art of Learning, Josh puts players in his shoes during some of the most riveting moments of his career, then walk through the classics, introducing beginners to the fundamentals of the game and providing revealing commentary about the road to mastery
• Multiplayer wireless - Two players can battle each other using the wireless option on the DS including varieties such as Dark Chess (opponent's pieces are invisible), Extinction Chess (first player to capture all of the opponent's pieces), and Losing Chess (first player to lose all of his/her pieces)
• Six original mini-games - Each mini-game is packed with its own music, sound effects, a high-score record and 20 levels of gameplay such as Minefield (chess pieces are used to locate mines hidden in the board), Breaking the Lines (the knight is moved to capture all of the pawns) and Fork My Fruit (uses chess pieces to fork fruit of the same kind, among others)
• Famous games - Players have access to 900 of the most important chess games, which are analyzed to provide key tactics
• Checkmate - With an arsenal of 600,000 games, players will never run out of fun

Customer Reviews:

Not bad [Posted on 2008-07-10]
If you are choosing between buying this for your Nintendo DS or for your PC, obviously go with the PC. The AI in the DS version leaves much to be desired. It is a much simpler, trimmed-down variation.

With that said, however, for a small, compact and portable chess game that you can play virtually anywhere, Chessmaster on DS is pretty excellent. Some common complaints include: You cannot play a friend by handing the DS back and forth; you cannot give one person more time than the other on the clock. Two of my own complaints are that the "people" in the game (programmed personalities accompanied by a photo) tend to respond to the same move in exactly the same way (not so on the PC version). This takes a lot of fun out the game. Also, you cannot set the clock below 10 minutes. My biggest complaint of all is that you have to go through far too many screens to get to rated play. There should be an icon that takes you straight to it. Also, you should NOT have to select what language you want EVERY time you turn the game on. Ridiculous. On the plus side, moving the pieces with the stylus is a lot of fun. I also really like the graphics, the way the pieces look--simple, but elegant. I also really like the optional music that you can have on while you play. Very suiting.

Great Fun and Educational Game [Posted on 2008-08-15]
My 6-year old and 7-year old love this game and the fact that they can play chess with each other using only one game card. They are novice chess players, but with this game they can really expand their skills.

Great game but, like many items, not eligible for Amazon Prime [Posted on 2008-08-29]
This, like its PC Game counterpart, is a great chessgame (at least as far as games available for Nintendo DS and the PC go). However, and unfortunately, because it is actually sold by Target and not Amazon, it is not available for Amazon Prime benefits like free shipping. I have noticed that more and more items are being sold thru Amazon by third parties. This makes Amazon less useful and the Prime account virtually useless! So, I ordered this game for under $16.00 (including free shipping) elsewhere on the Internet (google it!) instead of the $24.00 (including shipping) it would have cost me on Amazon. My online shopping experience, especially as Christmas approaches, has now become much more complicated thanks to Amazon's deterioration into relying on third parties. I cancelled my Prime account since there is really no benefit anymore to having one. Bummer...

You pay for what you get [Posted on 2008-09-08]
This is a good title for the value. There is a lot of gameplay to be had and it is nice playing against seemingly realistic people complete with photos. The music isn't totally annoying either which is a plus because I've had to play games with truly annoying music that you can't turn off. What is lacking? Obviously wi-fi capabilities, however, if they added it it would increase the price I'm sure. Also, the board and pieces are really boring. They should have added unlockable boards and pieces to add to the fun. Marvel Superheroes chess would be cool, for example. With so many cool features from previous chessmaster or other chess games out there, it is a shame that they couldn't do more for this game. I thought that games were suppossed to get better (evolve) rather than devolve. Anyway, I'm satisfied that I can take this chess game around town with my DS and I think it was worth the price.

Good Game [Posted on 2008-09-27]
The game itself is great. Its easy to figure out, which is a good thing, since the vendor I purchased it from sent it to me with a book entirely in french. This is my first time delving into the world of chess, so as a novice this game is a good tool to learning the ins and outs of the game.

Click here for more details and discount information...