Master Chess, ZX Spectrum, Mastertronic – IS 0147
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Score - 4/104/10
Summary
Master Chess does exactly what it says and can give you a reasonable game of chess. The lack of a 2-player, human vs. human option though is very disappointing. The instructions describe it as a no-frills chess playing program, but I feel this should have been an option. The customisation of setting up an alternative board and removing pieces is a good feature together with the loading and saving options enhancing the game.
The other main gripe for me is that the game suffers from being far too slow. Before the computer made each move and having to force it to speed up and play a move. Not because I was being impatient, but because the maximum time entered for each move seemed totally irrelevant. At one time, it took over 5 minutes to play a move where I’d entered 30 seconds as a maximum.
User Review
( votes)No Rules?
Just to be very clear from the start, if you don’t know how to play chess, then the inlay card instructions for Master Chess will be of no use to you! There is no explanation of the rules when you load the game either. Luckily, I am a part-time chess player myself so do understand the rules. This review will therefore be based on you already having a basic idea of the game which is to checkmate your opponent’s King.
At the beginning of the game, after choosing whether to play either white or black, it will ask you how many seconds you’d like to have before the player moves. After this, the colour that you play will be at the bottom of the screen (effetely like the board has been rotated 180 degrees).
Can’t Play with a Mate
One of the very first things that you will be of disappointment to you is that you can’t play a friend. This is purely you a 1-player game of chess against the computer.
Odd Arrow Pointing System and Lack of Speed
There are squares labelled A-H (the ranks) and 1-8 (the files), each representing in effect, a co-ordinate of the 64 squares on the chess board. Unusually, Master Chess uses arrow pointer to move around the board (starting from the bottom-left square) which you must move over to the piece that you wish to select to move next. Strangely, I think entering the rank and file (from and to) using the keyboard would have been a much better option.
The minimum number of seconds that you can type is 20 (that isn’t shown) so if you type in less, the computer just beeps at you until you type in 20 or higher. The instructions suggest that you begin at 30 and that 60 seconds will beat most average players. If you then wish, it suggests going up to 180 and if you want a thrashing go up to 600 seconds! I found that the timing for the computer to play each move was well over the time that you typed in. Fortunately, pressing Enter forces an immediate move when it’s the computers go. Trust me, I did that a lot as it is painstaking slow and would test the patience of a saint!
Graphics
The inlay card does mention that in the early development of Master Chess, a 3-D version was investigated and discarded as it difficult to use on screen and wastes a lot of memory. What you see on the back of the inlay card, is exactly what you get. This is one game which has no colour clash whatsoever.
It is clear what each piece on the chess board is and the board is rather bright. With the colour palette on the Spectrum, I can understand why red and yellow were chosen as board colours when the pieces are white and black.
Once you have selected a piece to move (providing it is not an illegal move), that piece will flash three times on the current square and re-appear on the destination square, also flashing three times. When castling, the King flashes first followed by the Rook (or Castle) flashing on the other side of the King.
When Checkmate is accomplished, the Checkmated King will change to being displayed upside-down.
Sound Effects Only
There is no music in Master Chess, and I have no qualms about this.
When you select a piece to move, you will hear a short sound effect. What was rather disappointing though was a piece was taken, there was no sound effect whatsoever. If in Check, you will hear a high pitch beep.
Move Notation
After each move, the move number is noted, with the rank-and-file co-ordinates underneath displayed on the right-hand side of the screen. As more moves are made, the lines move upwards.
When Castling, the letter C will appear next to the notation and when you use En Passant, EP will be shown next to the move too.
Customisation
There are 9 options which you can choose during the game. These are shown in a large black square if you press the Enter key.
One great thing that you can do, is re-arrange the pieces or remove them from the chess board. It can even be used during a game (at any stage so you can cheat, should you wish). The back of the inlay card evens suggests this!
By being able to re-arrange the pieces, you can even do your own puzzles should you wish to improve your game. Amusingly, one or both Kings can be removed from the board too!
Finally at the end of each game, the game can be replayed so you can view what happened throughout the game.
Final Thoughts
When you try to make an illegal move, the computer in no way tells you it’s illegal. An indication of why would’ve have been helpful. Other than that, I didn’t see any issues with the way the game was played. The Castling, En Passant, Stalemate and Checkmate all worked perfectly well.
The promotion of pawn to the top rank gives you choice to press Q (Queen), R (Rook), B (Bishop) or N (Knight). I’m not too sure why N is used instead of a K. Maybe it is to avoid confusion with a King (but a player can’t have two Kings anyway!
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