PART 1 • Some highlights of home computer chess through 1998
interactive nature of a chess program to teach chess concepts to the user
and help them improve. Numerous authors (including myself) contributed to the series of about two dozen titles. The lack of multimedia support,
the necessity for the user to know DOS commands, and changes in the
«host/platform» chess program Fritz caused the series to be canceled
in 1994. Even so, ChessBase University paved the way for the numerous
instructional chess programs which came later (including the Chess King
family of instructional chess programs).
1993: Hiarcs2 became the first (to my knowledge) commercial program
to utilize the «Fischer» (a.k.a. “delay”) clock. It also played a more positional, human-like game than many other chess programs, a characteristic that still applies to newer versions of Hiarcs today.
1993: Chessmaster 4000 introduced a feature which allowed users to
create and edit new opening libraries for the computer's reference while
playing a game. CM 4000 also made great use of then-new multimedia
computer functions; the program included a beautiful “virtual tour” of the
Cleveland Public Library's impressive, legendary chess collection.
1993: Another early software effort to effectively use multimedia was
Kasparov's Gambit. As a game progressed, a digitized video of Garry
Kasparov's face would occasionally appear and make brief comments directed at the user (such as “Nice move”) in Kasparov's actual voice. Even
better (for those of us who had babies or toddlers in the house) was the
ability to suspend a rated game in progress and return to it later.
1995: Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess made the best use of multimedia
yet, as videos of GM Ashley guided the user through a series of chess
problems and exercises; the overall effect was the illusion of having personalized instruction from Maurice Ashley himself. (My children loved this
program in the late 1990's; today, as college students, they still mention
GM Ashley frequently when the subject of chess comes up in the conversation.)
1996: One of the most remarkable commercial chess programs of all time,
Power Chess, hit the market. The entire program was one huge “hook” to
get you to keep coming back for more chess fun. Instead of having “difficulty levels”, Power Chess was populated by an assortment of characters
(pirates, samurai, aliens, clergymen, robots, obnoxious children) ranked
in a hierarchy of playing strength/difficulty; it was hard to not get caught
up in a “virtual chess rivalry” with an especially tough to beat character.
Reigning over all was the Power Chess King, a tyrant whom even his wife
wanted to see deposed – thus the sexy-voiced Queen would coach you
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