Yeah, this shocked me as well. I thought there would be more depth to the game and have been a bit disappointed with it (and the lack of customization options). Still, it's nice to finally have a chess game for the DS.
Chessmaster DS
Sort:
Oldest
Oct 25, 2007
0
#2
Seriously, if one can't play with others across the wi-fi - and it sounds like that isn't even available...this will destroy their sales for this product for the DS. I for one would have easily waited another few months for them to put that in. And it seemed like that was the one feature that I kept reading about! What is up, Ubisoft?? 
it is a pretty big letdown. it still serves my purpose, which is to have a strong handheld to play on the way to and from work. although, cmds' rating (1850) seemed low. is the ds' processor that poor?
this really seems more geared towards kids just learning to play. it also seems to be trying to ride the "brain age" wave.
if one can't play with others across the wi-fi - and it sounds like that isn't even available
According to the feature list, the DS version supports wi-fi multiplayer, but there's no mention of Internet multiplayer. They say the PC version supports both.
Tutorials from Josh Waitzkin's groundbreaking book The Art of Learning.
Has anyone watched the new Art of Learning tutorials? What specifically do they cover with respect to chess, and what's your opinion of them?
LeviAJones wrote:
although, cmds' rating (1850) seemed low.
How did you find out the rating for this game? Is it published somewhere? That's pretty disappointing, if the rating is truly that low.
Hmm. Almost picked up Chessmaster DS today at Gamestop. Glad I waited to read these postings and the reviews on Amazon. I think I'll look for a PC based game instead - for now.
likesforests wrote:
if one can't play with others across the wi-fi - and it sounds like that isn't even available
According to the feature list, the DS version supports wi-fi multiplayer, but there's no mention of Internet multiplayer. They say the PC version supports both.
Tutorials from Josh Waitzkin's groundbreaking book The Art of Learning.
Has anyone watched the new Art of Learning tutorials? What specifically do they cover with respect to chess, and what's your opinion of them?
The PC version is amazing, with tons of tutorials and thousands of games with annotations. The DS version sucks, the Art of Learning tutorials are silly as they only cover really basic stuff and don't go far enough. Another bad thing about it is that the higher level opponents take FOREVER to move.
i'm new to chess... i've known the moves since i was a kid, but just got into it for real in the last couple of months. bought Chessmaster Art of Learning and am very happy with it. the tutorials by josh (you must be willing to look past the chess brat cockyness 
haha... i have to say that he's earned the right or i will get flamed by other players on this site) are great and are worth spending the money just for that. josh will verbally annotate some classic chess games and give his opinions on how things are working. i have a couple of books, but it's a real pain in the but to set up the board and read at the same time. the tutorial is like reading a good chess book without all the mess.. there are also tutorials for the pure basics. my son is 2 months old and i plan on keeping this program until he's old enough to want to learn (to beat me, haha).
i also like how it trains openings... where you can practice openings or it will give you opening variations to use during a game (in training mode). again, i'm too lazy to learn openings with an opening book... which would probably be the same price as chessmaster.
on the other side...
there are some bugs in the tutorials. sometimes josh will be talking about moves and the computer shows different moves. and sometimes... in order to proceed in the tutorial, you are required to make the correct move and the computer won't let you. it baffles me that these people can program one of the world's greatest chess engines, and their QA testing misses what should be easy to fix bugs. it's not like the computer was thinking to make these moves... its a historic game. Just listen to Josh and program it in dummy.
Troubleshooting advice:
Not a problem as much as an annoyance.. if it freezes by a glitch in a tutorial and it won't let you hit "next" there is a GO____ prompt in the top left corner where you can enter the next page number. (i.e. you get stuck on page 5 of 72 in a tutorial and would like to see pages 6-72 of the tutorial.... enter "6" next to "Go" and press "Go".
Still an absolutely great buy. A player of my caliber should not be able to find errors in the program... so ..... Shame on you Ubisoft.
OOPSSS !!
my post is for the PC version. spent too long typing it. i'll find an appropriate post and copy/paste.
Jan 9, 2008
0
#11
I don't care about the online capability. . . I just like the portable chess engine.
im downloading it for free and putting it on me ds
hehehehe you noobs are paying
How you doing that? o.O
zephyr86 wrote:
im downloading it for free and putting it on me ds
hehehehe you noobs are paying
ILLIGAL, man!
LeviAJones wrote:
it is a pretty big letdown. it still serves my purpose, which is to have a strong handheld to play on the way to and from work. although, cmds' rating (1850) seemed low. is the ds' processor that poor?
this really seems more geared towards kids just learning to play. it also seems to be trying to ride the "brain age" wave.
It is a bit low but if you can beat it at that level, trust me you don't need Chessmaster to begin with. That rating is 1850 USFC which is not a piece of cake. Also the engine won't make any tactical errors and the more time you give it to think the stronger it will play regardless of the 1850 rating.
Just got the Chessmaster - the Art of Learning from the store and was appalled that there is NO ONLINE CAPABILITY!!!!!! Guess we have to buy Clubhouse Games DS for that. Ubisoft should hang their heads in shame!