Retrogaming meets Chess

[Draco1962]

Thought I'd throw out a link for some of you to drool over, especially if you like Super Mario Bros and also play chess.

[Adultery]

You know what's funny about that is I have that chess set! I saw it in a Halloween store last year and I had to have it! :-)

Never played a single game of chess with it though (Luigi as queen? Should be the princess!!)

[KRC]

That looks cool, I would say it's more for a collector than to play with.

I have a SW Phantom Menace Chess Set which is still sealed, I think it's in my mother's garage somewhere, I don't even know how to play chess.

[Draco1962]

I am not the world's best player, but I do enjoy a good game once in a while. It is a great bonding game with the kids and keeps the mind active.

I have several sets. One is carved marble that my dad picked up in Korea while on military tour (almost identical to the link except that the box is not as ornate on the sides and that the marble colors are black and red instead of black and yellow/ivory).

Another is a weighted Staunton competition set with a roll-up competition matt. This was willed to me from a friend that passed years ago along with his chess clock. We spent many an hour playing before his passing.

My favorite software is Chessmaster 10. even though the Ubisoft servers for it are no longer active, it does support LAN play and has one of the most comprehensive tutorials for learning to play of the game.

[KRC]

It's most definitely something that I would like to learn, but it's just one of those thing's that I have never got round to doing. I could say the same about card games like Poker, I have never been in a situation where I would need to play with cards unless it's Snap with my daughter's.

I will definitely look into some tutorial's etc for chess.

[hansolo77]

Chess is one of those "Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master" type games. I have absolutely no strategy when I play. I just know how the pieces move. If you can learn just that much, you're probably just as good as most other people. Then you have the true egg heads who sit down and spend hours going over books of strategies, identifying strengths and weaknesses, seeing how moves made NOW are to setup traps and endgames for LATER, studying the great master's moves, etc. For the most part, just learning how the pieces move is good enough for most people.

[Draco1962]

I am not ranked but have held my own against some of those that can recognize the various named defenses, offenses, etc. I find equivalents at work - they know all the book stuff, but "real life" events throw them off their game too easily.

Learn the basics and have fun learning a new game. If you go the software route, you can get a decent chess game free with Windows 7. the Hoyle Board games collections will also feature chess as an offering from time to time. Not the most high-powered engines or in-depth tutorials or building you up for ranking, but just good fun. There are also several online chess organizations where you can play in a java-script environment live and online.

[KRC]

I'm currently using an android app called Chess.Com which has various tutorials and different modes, have yet to win a match but I'm hoping I can get there soon

[hansolo77]

I used to be ranked on Chess.com back when I was a teenager. Back then I had an old 286 computer (found in the dumpster, not working, spent a summer fixing, found out it was POS machine from McDonalds!) with a CGA monitor and a 9600 baud modem. They didn't have graphic internet yet, it was all GOPHER menus on the local FreeNet provided by the library. Back then, there was no TCP/IP and PPP connections so you couldn't really just go up and type in www.yahoo.com and go there... you had to browse through dozens of backend menus to find it. Anyway, somebody had developed a graphic interpreter for Chess.com so you could have a point-and-click interface to play chess, and it would send the command to chess.com as your move. We're talking very old archaic times here. Chess.com was essentially an IRC like place, using Telnet. You would be in a central chat room, then create a game, wait for somebody to join, then it would send a crude ASCII artwork of the table and your pieces. You typed in your move using standard chess algebraic notation, the screen would then render a new ASCII board with your move, then you waited until the other person played. I spent HOURS playing with people all over the world with that. Then I learned about MUD's and I started playing those instead. I miss those good old days, playing ASCII chess and text-only (Infocom) MUD's.

EDIT -> I'm only 33 by the way

[Tempest]

Back then I had an old 286 computer (found in the dumpster, not working, spent a summer fixing, found out it was POS machine from McDonalds!)

I'm not sure of the meaning of POS in this sentence.

[Draco1962]

Take your pick - there are at least 2 meanings and it could be point of service or the other.

[hansolo77]

Ok, maybe I should say CASH REGISTER... although there wasn't a till. It was a huge case, with a warning label on it saying to use 2 people to carry it, with a picture of 2 guys, and the weight of about 100 pounds. It was a server mount case, with mounting brackets on the sides, and 2 handles on the front. The hard drive was a full height 20mb (yes, megabytes) that I believe was a customized version of ESDI, thought I'm not sure, and it was over 20 pounds itself. In fact, here's a near identical picture: (http://www.fcet.staffs.ac.uk/jdw1/sucfm/1987harddisk20Mb.jpg) The expansion slots were all full-length ISA cards. There was the CGA video card, the floppy controller, the HDD controller, and the parallel controller. The modem was external, connected to the parallel card. There was a floppy drive but it was a 5 1/4 inch. There was also a fan in the front of the case, about 90mm, and it had a weird filter in front of it that looked like a scour pad for your dishes. Still, it was fun to tinker with and get working.

[Draco1962]

Fun days to be sure. There are some free online chess sites that are pretty good. FICS comes to mind. I may have to sign back on there and schedule some time to play with someone.

[DazzleHP]

Thought I'd throw out a link for some of you to drool over, especially if you like Super Mario Bros and also play chess.

Awesome set! Thanks for sharing

I used to be quite good when i was a youngun, was in the school team lol how nerdy is that?! Imagine me, the "chav" of the team My fellow team mates would get all embarrased when i played because i brought the banter "there is a timer dude, that would suggest to hurry up - so move already" etc etc hehehe it worked though!

I had no strategies as such (apart from making people sweat through banter) or read any "pro" books but i did have a knack of seeing multple routes 30-50 moves ahead within seconds which is what gave me an edge over some of the "real" nerds trying to pull off the pro strats.

I've not played in 20 years though so would probs get my Bishop handed to me these days Great game though and it's one i think all kids should learn. It teaches patience, forward thinking and most of all how to be a gracefull loser

[hansolo77]

Off topic, but has anybody played GO? (link) I really want to learn, but can't really find any good instruction stuff. I had an app on my Kindle Fire for playing it, but there were no instructions, so I'm lost. It's an ancient game, like Chess, so it's right up there as one of 'THE' games to learn.

[Draco1962]

I play a derivative called Pente from time to time. If you search Go-moku, gomoku, or gobang, you are bound to find tons of rules, PC versions, as well as dedicated sites and forums for enthusiasts.

[Draco1962]

I came across SparkChess 6 in the Google App store. It looks promising with all the features that the full version offers. At $8.99US you can get it for Windows, Mac, Chrome, iPad, Android, and Playbook formats. Likely you would have to shell out the cash for each platform you wish to play. It is my guess that it is possible to play "cross platform" against online opponents, which makes this an interesting proposition if you have a chess buddy with a different OS. I can see myself playing from my PC against my son on his Kindle Fire, or one of my GameEx buddies from their iPad or Galaxy3.