The Chessmaster FAQ written by Semioldguy (Email: semioldguy@aol.com)
System Console: Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Game Title: The Chessmaster
No current revision updates for this FAQ
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
2. How to Play Chess
3. Controls
4. Menu/Options
5. Playing Chess (tips)
6. Conclusion
7. Disclaimer
1. INTRODUCTION
One of the very first electronic chess games was The Chessmaster for the NES
system. At its time in 1989 it was also the most advanced of its kind, today
most people would just laugh at its strategies and programming. Now and then
I still play this game, even though it presents little challenge for me
anymore. With chess being on Yahoo! now nobody really cares about playing
chess on the NES anymore. In this FAQ I will provide the basics of this game
and the basics of chess. If you already play chess well and want to improve,
go buy a book!
2. HOW TO PLAY CHESS
If you have this game and don't know how to play chess it makes me wonder why
you would even have the game. But for those of you (if any) who don't know
how to play I will tell you how each piece can move, capture other pieces and
what check is and all of that stuff. There are also two "special" moves that
I will explain known as En Passant and Castling.
PAWN - The pawn is the piece that you have the most of on the board. It can
move forward one space at a time with two exceptions to that rule. On its
first, and only its first, move it is given the option to move two spaces;
though it is not required to move two, you can move it one if you like. Also
when the pawn captures a piece it must move diagonally upward and must land
on an opponent's piece. The piece is then removed from the board. If a pawn
reaches the opposite end of the board, you are awarded any free piece other
than a king in its place.
KNIGHT - The knight is probably one of the more complicated pieces to use in
the game, for some reason people can have a hard time fully understanding its
capabilities and advantages. First of all the knight can pass through other
pieces (both yours and your opponent's), this is something that none of the
other pieces can do. To the knight moving and capturing is the same, as well
as all the rest of the pieces. It first move two spaces either horizontally
or vertically than one space of the opposite direction. When I first learned
how to play chess I remembered how the knight moved by saying to myself "one,
two and over." This may or may not help you, but it worked for me.
BISHOP - The bishop is probably the most underrated piece. Its potential is
hardly ever fully recognized. Don't neglect your bishops, they can be the
deciding factor in many games. Bishops move diagonal for any amount of spaces
as long as they continue in the same direction. At the beginning each bishop
is on different colors, the bishop will always stay on the same color
throughout the game because of the way it moves.
ROOK - The rook is an excellent piece and is very powerful in board control.
The rook is similar to the bishop, only a little bit better. Instead of
moving diagonally the rook moves vertically and horizontally for any amount
of space in the same direction. The rook is commonly used for creating a
"boundary" for the opponent's king since king may only move a space at a
time. Try to get your rooks into play early in the game.
QUEEN - So powerful that only one is given to you at the beginning of the
game. The queen combines the powers of a bishop and the rook into one piece.
This gives it the power to move in any direction. The queen is the most
powerful piece on the board and is not worth giving up unless you will
checkmate soon after or you capture more than it is worth. A queen is usually
the best choice when moving a pawn all the way to the other end of the board.
KING - The King is the one piece that is most important on the board. If you
lose your king you lose the game; simple as that. The king can move in any
direction, but only one space at a time. You should not try to get your king
out in the open, keep him protected at all times if you possible can. If the
king is in check he must move. The king also cannot move into check, and you
wouldn't want him to anyway. The king is also the only piece (other than the
pawn) that you can't get by moving a pawn to the opposite end of the board.
CASTLING - Most people should be familiar with this option. To do this play
you must have not yet moved your king and not moved at least one of your
rooks. Once you have moved either you no longer are able to do this play.
There also must be a clear path between the unmoved rook and king. Performing
this play is simple. Move the king two spaces toward the rook and the rook is
placed on the opposite side of the king. As the king moves his two spaces he
cannot pass through check. This means that neither of the two spaces he moves
into would result in your king being in check. Also, when performing this
move, ALWAYS pick up the king first or you will ruin this opportunity.
EN PASSANT - It is really annoying when you try this move while playing
against someone who doesn't even know the rule! Many chess players do not
know of this rule and would claim you were "making it up" if you tried to
explain it to them. Fortunately the designers knew the rule so you may use En
Passant during game play against the Chessmaster. En Passant is when your
opponent moves his pawn onto his fourth file. In doing so he must have moved
this pawn to be even with your pawn (side by side). For example, Black moves
his pawn to B5; if you have a pawn on either A5 or C5 you may choose whether
or not to use En Passant. Not to explain what En Passant really is about.
Once in this position you may take your pawn and move up one diagonally, as
you normally would to capture a piece with a pawn. In doing so it will
capture the pawn below it. If I lost you here is an example scenario: Black
moves his pawn to B5, you take you pawn on A5 and move it to B4. This removes
his pawn from the game in a very tricky way. This move is know as En Passant
and may catch many players by surprise.
3. CONTROLS
The controls used for this are very simple.
CONTROL PAD - The control pad is used to move around the hand cursor during a
game and the selection arrow when you bring up the menu.
START BUTTON - Used to start the game (big surprise).
SELECT BUTTON - Used to switch back and forth between the Chess Board and the
Menu Screen.
"A" BUTTON - Used to pick up the chess pieces and release them. It is also
used to select items from the menu.
"B" BUTTON - This button is used to take back moves (you can even take back
moves after you have lost to fix you mistakes, why this feature is included
is beyond me. It allows you to "cheat" without any codes or Game Genie.).
This also enables the replay mode (as if any move would be as exiting as to
replay it?).
4. MENU/OPTIONS
The Menu screen is used to select option or change the current settings of
the game. Not all the Menu item will be available all of the time, there will
be certain circumstances in which ones will or will not be available to. The
ones not useable should be marked in red to denote that it can't be selected.
Most options are pretty much self-explanatory.
START NEW GAME - This will start a new game and will discontinue any game
currently being played.
PLAY AGAINST CHESSMASTER - This allows you to play against the Chessmaster.
CHESSMASTER PLAYS AGAINST SELF - The Chessmaster will play both sides during
this game and you can sit and watch, press select at any time during the
match to the menu up.
PLAY AGAINST ANOTHER HUMAN - This option allows you to play against another
person in the room, as long as you have a second controller hooked up to your
NES. There is a minor problem with this mode in my opinion, the first
controller can still move the cursor when it is Black's turn which may cause
that player to prevent the second player from getting to one of his pieces.
CHANGE SIDES - During your turn you may choose this options which allows you
to switch places with the Chessmaster. Thus taking his pieces and side of the
table and giving him yours.
FORCE CHESSMASTER TO MOVE - this option will force the Chessmaster to make a
move during his turn. If you find that he likes to think a lot you will
probably use this option a lot. I have found that the Chessmaster will only
think about his moves while in the war room, if you do not have that setting
enabled the Chessmaster's thinking should not be a concern for you.
ENTER TAKE BACK/REPLAY MODE - In this mode you may use B to take back any
amount of moves, and A to replay them. At any point during this mode you may
press select to resume play, regardless of where you left off in the game
before you entered this mode.
ENTER SETUP MODE - This option allows you to setup the board in any way that
you like it. You may also remove pieces from play; any piece may be removed
except for the kings. Pawns cannot be placed on row 1 or 8 due to the
restrictions of normal game play.
CLEAR THE BOARD - This Clears the board of all pieces except for the Kings,
thus resulting in a draw.
SET UP INITIAL POSITION - This will place all pieces In their positions as it
would at the beginning of a game.
SIDE TO MOVE FIRST IS WHITE - You may toggle between black and white to
decide which player moves first in a game.
SETUP COMPLETE - This will return you to your game.
LEAVE AND ABANDON CHANGES - This will return to the game and negate any of
the changes you made on the menu setup screen.
SOLVE FOR MATE - This will make the Chessmaster solve for a forced mate
within any given number of moves. You may not use this option during a game
between two humans. If one is found it will automatically be done and you can
use the replay to see what he did. To interrupt the Chessmaster when it is
solving for mate press the select button.
MATE IN 1 MOVE(S) - used in conjunction with solve for mate option.
LEVEL OF PLAY IS ____ - In The Chessmaster there are a total of sixteen
different levels of play. Newcomer 1 and Newcomer 2 are the very easiest
levels and will likely present little challenge to most non-beginning
players. After the two newcomer levels there are levels 1 through 13. Each
level will increasingly get more difficult. The highest level of difficulty
is "infinite". The numbers after the level indicate how many moves the
Chessmaster will make in a certain time. For example level 1 is 60 moves in 5
minutes, while level 7 is 30 moves in 45 minutes. On the level infinite the
Chessmaster will think until he has decided upon his best move or until you
force him to move.
DEEP THINKING ON/OFF - Deep thinking on allows the Chessmaster to think
during your turn and when it is off he will only think during his own turn.
OPENING BOOK IS ON/OFF - When the opening book is on the Chessmaster will
consult his personal moves book during the beginning of the game, if it is
off he won't.
TEACHING MODE IS ON/OFF - If you have read My FAQ you should never consult
this option. This option is most useful for those just learning how to play
chess. If Teaching mode is on whenever you pick a piece up the Chessmaster
will show you all available moves with that piece.
BOARD COORDINATES ARE ON/OFF - When the board coordinated are on, the rank
(letters) and file (numbers) coordinates are displayed along the edges of the
board.
WHITE PIECES ON ____ - this allows you to choose which direction the board
will face, with white on the bottom, top, left or right side of the screen.
THE VIEW IS ____ - There are two views available for your use. The Chessboard
allows you to only see the chessboard. The War Room has a smaller chessboard
and several other information types of windows (this is not suggested for
smaller television screens. The Move list shows the last three moves by each
player according to the rank and file. The thinking window allows you to see
what the Chessmaster is considering as a move. During your turn you can
receive hints from this box as to what your best move is in the Chessmaster's
opinion. And the captured pieces window show all the pieces that have been
captured and removed from the board during this game.
5. PLAYING CHESS (TIPS)
As most expert and advance chess players do is create a good opening game
which allows the to control the center of the board, and provide a decent
defense against an attack. Online or in bookstores you may find books that
are written to help improve a players chess game. I highly recommend that you
read a few books when you feel that you aren't improving much by just laying
other people. My uncle, Alex Dunne, is a very successful chess player and has
written several good books that have helped me improve my game. To get you
started here are two of his books: How to Become a Candidate Master and The
Sicilian Defense. I have a few other helpful tips for you as well, always try
to castle early off in the game as to prevent your king from too easily being
exposed. Always look to take advantage of an exchange or an extra piece,
especially against better players. The rank of pieces from weakest to
strongest are as follows: pawn, knight and bishop are fairly equal, rook,
queen and you never want to lose you king anyway. Other that all I can say is
always look for the best move and double check once you think you have found
it as well as considering any of your opponent's threats
CONCLUSION - This concludes my FAQ for The Chessmaster. I hoped this helped
you with the game in some way. If you have any questions, comments, concerns,
or contributions please send them to my e-mail address .
Put 'Chessmaster FAQ' as subject or your mail will be ignored or deleted. If
I feel that your contribution would make a difference on this FAQ I will
update it with proper recognition to the person who provided it.
DISCLAIMER - Myself, Kyle Dunne , wrote this FAQ. This
FAQ is Copyright (c) 2001 Kyle Dunne. This FAQ may not be used for any
promotional or profitable purposes. Only unchanged in its entirely, including
this disclaimer, may this FAQ be posted on a website or homepage and you
first must notify me (that means before doing it).
