For reasons I don't quite understand, I have decided to learn Chess. This ancient, complex boardgame is more accessible than ever thanks to a glut of internet resources and hundreds of digital versions featuring smart, challenging AI.
Battle Chess Game
I started to get the better at beating the basic novice AI, trying to hold in my head the differences between the 'queen's gambit accepted' and 'queen's gambit declined' openings. In the midgame I could just about fumble my way to victory with some improvisation. Afterwards I watched some grandmaster games with commentary, and started to understand what an extraordinary game Chess is. I began to appreciate the huge amount of learning and experience needed to get good at it.
So I baulked. When you're at the bottom of the mountain the climb can seem impossible. I needed to soften the challenge, so I turned to a small subspecies of the grand old game: battle chess. There have been many variations on this concept, which equips pieces with close combat animations as they take each other off the board.
1988's original classic Battle Chess (opens in new tab) is available on Steam for just a few bucks, but I wanted something modern, with a bit of gore, and with big Orks in it. Warhammer 40,000: Regicide (opens in new tab) fit perfectly, and it has been a great palette cleanser between bouts of trying to learn the game seriously.
You can play classic Chess with Space Marines if you like, but you're more likely to find high level AI in dedicated chess games. Instead it's Regicide mode that has provided amusement between bouts of reading articles on efficient early game development.
Battle Chess follows the same rules as traditional chess; the battles always play out so that the capturing piece defeats its target. Since there are six types of pieces for each color, and a king cannot capture a king, there are 35 battle animations. The rook, for example, turns into a rock monster and kills a pawn by smashing his head. There are some pop-culture homages; the knight versus knight animation references the black knight fight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail , and the king versus bishop fight pastiches the short battle between Indiana Jones and a swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Battle Chess is a quite typical chess game, but it comes with a twist: all pieces are represented by small, realistic figures that walk around on the chessboard, and when one piece takes another, they both take part in an animated battle. There is a different animation for each permutation, depending on which pieces are capturing or being captured. You can also play in 2D without animation.
The game can be also played in a 2D version with no animations, and the Amiga CDTV version features a fully voiced introduction describing the movements of the pieces for the benefit of beginners. Digitized sound is utilized in the DOS version for all battle sound effects and is played through the PC speaker, without the need for a sound card, using a technique akin to RealSound.
Battle Chess,a mass market chess program famous for its animated move and specially capture sequences in 3D mode, released for various home and personal computer platforms as well as video game consoles, beside others for Apple II, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, IBM PC, Apple Macintosh, Acorn Archimedes, 3DO and Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was developed by a team around Brian Fargo and Michael Quarles, including Jay Patel, Bruce Schlickbernd, and Todd Camasta [2], released in 1988 by Fargo's company Interplay soon after ending the relationship with Electronic Arts [3].
If you love D&D, and you love Chess (like me!), then you're sure to enjoy D&D battle chess. The rules are fairly straight forward and during sessions you can ask me (the DM) to come over and clarify. I'm hoping to get at least 20 regular players so we can start tournaments and leader boards.
Chess (by AI factory limited) is the highest-ranked paid chess game on Android. It has 12 playing levels from novice to expert. Apart from the usual single-player and multiplayer mode it also has a casual mode which helps you understand the game better with hints and move take backs. If you are a serious player, the pro mode is the best as it does not hold back any punches. You can also track your history which will help you improve.
The game lets you play online as well. You can choose between a wide array of 2D and 3D chess boards. You can also review your previous game. It has a 4.7 rating on Play Store. There is also a free version available which has over 1.5 million downloads.
This version has a more minimalistic approach to the game. Despite being simpler than other versions available it lets you play in analyse mode, choose between different playing engines, adjust the playing strength. It also has different colour themes, animated moves and even a blindfold mode. Third-party engines are also configurable in this game to boost the diversity of moves of the opponents. It has a rating of 4.6 on the Play Store. The game is closing in on 16,000 downloads.
It has five humanoid chess sets: Barbarian, Dwarf, Skeleton, Orcs & Spartan. There are three difficulty levels. You can also play the game online. However, if you are into the game and not into graphics, this is not the one. The Battle Chess 3D has a 3.7 rating and over 37,000 downloads.
Battle Chess is a quite typical chess game, but it comes with a twist: all pieces are represented by small, realistic figures that walk around on the chessboard, and when one piece takes another, they both take part in an animated battle. There is a different animation for each permutation, depending on which pieces are capturing or being captured. You can also play in 2D without animation. The game's opening library includes 30,000 different moves, ensuring a variety of games will unfold across the 10 skill levels. Multi-player support can be extended to modem and/or serial port play.
In 16 years of keeping up with online chess software, one of the most frequent question is, "Where can I get Battle Chess?" For those of you not familiar with Battle Chess, it brought our game to life by combining a chess logic system with colorful, humorous, and dramatic three-dimensional animations. For its time (1988), it was very cool.Fast forward to 1991 and Battle Chess Enhanced by Interplay was released and available for the PC. But the last version was released in 1994 and soon Battle Chess was not playable on Windows PCs. The franchise lagged and became obsolete.In 2010 Topware developed a similiar program to Battle Chess called Battle vs Chess. Immediately, Interplay took them to court for copyright infringement, preventing the game from being released to the public. The court case was settled in Interplay's favor which led to the release in 2014 of Battle Chess: Game of Kings, playable on Steam.
Pokémon Battle Chess (Japanese: ポケモンバトルチェス Pokémon Battle Chess) is a series of board games published by The Pokémon Company in Japan, based on the game of chess, with some aspects of shogi, in which the traditional chess pieces are replaced with Pokémon.
The first version of the game, Pokémon Battle Chess BW Version (Japanese: ポケモンバトルチェス ＢＷバージョン), was released on December 26, 2011[1], and prior to this a demo was made available for players online as Pokémon Battle Chess WEB (Japanese: ポケモンバトルチェス WEB). A second version, simply named Pokémon Battle Chess, was released on May 18, 2012[2] and a final version named Pokémon Battle Chess W (Japanese: ポケモンバトルチェスＷ) was released on December 28, 2012[1].
Each player starts with two Patrat, two Zoroark, one Serperior, one Emboar, one Samurott, and one Egg containing Victini. Each player also has Reshiram and Zekrom, so-called "Legend Pieces", that take up a 2x2 grid on the board and that can only be placed in certain circumstances. The aim of the game is to beat the opponent's Victini.
Pieces are only allowed to move and attack in certain directions. Unlike chess, there is a concept of power: if the attacker has more power than the defender, then it attacks instantly. If it has less or equal, it draws a Plus Power card, boosting the power +0, +20, +30, +40 or +70 (note that +0 is in the deck twice). If a +70 is drawn or if the deck runs out, all the cards get shuffled back into the deck immediately. If the attacking Pokémon has more power after the Plus Power, the defender is damaged; if the defender has more, the attacker is damaged. If they have the same power after the Plus Power, no one is damaged.
Pokémon Battle Chess W (Pokémon Battle Chess Double) is a combined set of the two previous versions. In addition to all of the Pokémon pieces from both sets, the Plus Power cards, and a 6r7c black-and-white game board compatible with the eight-on-eight setups from the previous versions, it adds: 2ff7e9595c
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