The Chess Lv.100 for Windows 8

Pros

• Beautiful graphics on all parts of the game
• Plenty of help available for learning, including autosaves, game history, review mode, and the ability to restart a game from any move
• Level of difficulty selection is subdivided well so it's easy to set the challenge where you need it

Cons

• Movement animations are a little clunky and disrupt enjoyment of the graphics by reminding the player it's a small studio's creation

The Chess Lvl. 100 for Windows 8 is a chess program for Windows that uses an older engine. That is, the game runs on the Crazy Bishop engine but increases graphical fidelity and control over the difficulty to produce one of the best available chess players currently available on the Internet. With the ability to play on a number of different settings, this may be the chess player that will quickly become the standard across the industry for these sorts of games.

To start with, the graphics on this are amazing, especially for a freeware application. The gradients are rich, the pieces are detailed enough to easily tell them apart, and the shadows suggest a consistent light source rather than just a cheap way of making the pieces have depth. Considering it's just a chess game, it's strange to think of the view as beautiful, but it's a pleasure to just to be able to look at this game. Movement is a little stiff, but that's to be expected and it's more than worth it.

The actual choosing of difficulty gives you a wide range of play to pick from, which is nice for people who are looking for the computer to be exactly on their level. The system sets the strength of the computer anywhere from 258 to 2300 in ELO rating so that you're always being challenged, but never feeling like you can't play.

Further, there are a lot of options that make this ideal for people who want to learn how to play chess. That includes the ability to save a game in the middle and engaging in autosaves so that you can go back to an earlier part of the game and try a different strategy. Further, you can access a game's history. This view will detail what happened and will let you start a game over from any particular move. It also lets you engage in a review mode during the game to see how you got to the position you're in. Lastly, there is a hint system if you feel particularly stuck. The creators of this program want you to be able to improve your play and have given you all the tools that you need to do that.

As mentioned above, the movement can be a little clunky at times. While the studio put a lot of work into the graphics, the animations just fall a little short, especially when they've set expectations so high. Otherwise, there is nothing particularly wrong with this game that I noticed during play.

Pros

• Beautiful graphics on all parts of the game
• Plenty of help available for learning, including autosaves, game history, review mode, and the ability to restart a game from any move
• Level of difficulty selection is subdivided well so it's easy to set the challenge where you need it

Cons

• Movement animations are a little clunky and disrupt enjoyment of the graphics by reminding the player it's a small studio's creation