Chessmaster Live is your quintessential chess title for the Xbox 360. Featuring a large array of a single player opponents, ranging over every playstyle one could imagine, to global Xbox Live competition using an intelligent rating system that will try to pair you against an equal opponent. If a simple game of chess will take up too much time then you can try out the large selection of chess puzzles on offer, placing you in awkward situations in which you must overcome.
Additional features allow for watching over previous matches to see where you may have gone wrong, a detailed leaderboard to compete with friends and message chess for those who like to stretch a single game over several days. Graphically the game is basic and allows for 2D or 3D views of the board, with additional information such as recent moves optional. If the scene becomes too repetitive you can always purchase more chess sets for 80 Microsoft Points per set.
I’m sure that dedicated fans of chess would see this complete Xbox Live package as the ‘King’ of them all and they may even refer to it as being better than ‘pawn’. One thing’s for sure, here’s rooking at you, kid.