Chess Elite – Lives Up To The Name

(written by guest author Tim Giron. follow Tim on Twitter @timgiron)

Chess-Elite-Splash Even though I am primarily a Go player, I still like to play chess from time to time. Chess Elite [iTunes] from 99 Games has features to satisfy all types of players, from novice to experienced and 9 different board looks to tailor the visuals to taste. The game offers 4 different ways to find an opponent: play against the device, pass & play, play against your contacts and play against an online community.

First up is the play against device mode, which sports a strong chess engine with the ability to customize the strength to suit your current level of play. At the least challenging setting, the iPhone opponent will take just 4 seconds to make a move while at the strongest setting it will take approximately 2 minutes. The "give me a hint" functionality, which is great for novice players looking to improve their skills, also appears to be affected by the strength setting, which makes perfect sense. Also available is an unlimited number of undo/redo actions, so you can back up in the game and try a different tactic, a great feature for the chess student.

Chess Elite 3   Chess Elite 6

Next up is the pass & play mode which is great when you have an opponent in the room, but only one iPhone. Two styles of board flip accommodate either truly passing the device back and forth -or- setting it up like a little tiny chess table in between you. As would be expected, there is no "give me a hint" when you are playing against another person, however the undo/redo is still available (mainly, I guess, to accommodate when a piece is unintentionally dropped in the wrong place).

Chess Elite 1   Chess Elite 2

Playing against your contacts is really just a flavor of playing against the online community, since it merely generates an email to your contact and invites them to join the 99 Games community (and also gives them a handy link to buy the app if they don’t already have it). To initiate an online community game, you login with your credentials (or register directly in the app) and issue a challenge. Once your challenge is accepted, you are notified via push and the game begins. As of this morning, there were about 100 registered players. I sent out a few challenges, but haven’t gotten any response. I would presume that the undo functionality is disabled in the online games, since it would get annoying to have to reconsider moves that you already made. It would be handy to see the win/loss record and the date of last move for the online opponents.

Chess Elite 5   Chess Elite 4

Other features that are user controlled are the display of legal moves when you select a piece, the highlighted indication of the last move made, rank and file titles (which I learned are called measures) and the sound effects. As with other 99 Games offerings, I found the app to be rock solid and well designed.

August 23, 2009 | Filed Under anti-KRAPPS, Games, Guest Authors 

Comments

  • 99Games

    Thanks a lot for the review Tim! We're very happy to know that you think Chess Elite lives up to its name. Win/Loss record has been incorporated in the next update. So you can check out a player's statistics before challenging them. We're also working on a rating system to spice up the game.

    You can challenge us to a game anytime. We go by the username '99Games'.
    Do let us know if you have any other suggestions for us and we'll be happy to look into it.

    Cheers!!!

  • 99Games

    Thanks a lot for the review Tim! We're very happy to know that you think Chess Elite lives up to its name. Win/Loss record has been incorporated in the next update. So you can check out a player's statistics before challenging them. We're also working on a rating system to spice up the game.

    You can challenge us to a game anytime. We go by the username '99Games'.
    Do let us know if you have any other suggestions for us and we'll be happy to look into it.

    Cheers!!!