Kasparov Chess
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| Kasparov Chess

How's about this for an amazing fact from the noble world of chess? The number of possible chess games is far greater than the number of electrons in the universe.

Sounds absurd, right? But it's apparently true. The number of electrons in the universe is estimated to be a mere 1079, while the number of unique chess games is 10120. In English, that's a thousand trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion games!

Pretty impressive, eh? Here's another one.

Grandmaster Garry Kasparov's ELO chess rating of 2851, held between 1999-2000, is the highest ever achieved. He's also been ranked 1st in the world a record 23 times.

You find such facts and more in the short bio of the great man that's tucked away in the mobile game that bears his name. Can Glu's effort fully live up to the challenge? Not completely, but it's certainly one of the more polished mobile chess games we've seen.

Kasparov Chess features two game modes. There's Solo Play where, as the name suggests, you can play directly against the AI . The other is Pass 'n' Play, where two human opponents take each other on by passing the phone back and forth. It works pretty well.

Before you start, though, you can dig into the setting menu. Options include various themes for the game's playing pieces, changing their shades between the likes of ebony, rosewood and sandlewood

You can also select to have the vibration and sound on or off (the sound includes a few beeps and clicks and the tapping of the chess piece being placed on its new position when moved). Other choices include whether the pieces are displayed in 2D or 3D – we'd suggest you go for 3D as, although it's not fully three-dimensional, it does give a better visual experience.

But whichever you choose, overall the presentation of the game is pretty clear and helpful. For example, when you actually get down to a match, as you select a piece the game highlights the squares where it can be moved to legally. Of course, if it can't be moved at all, which occasionally happens, it's simply marked with a red cross.

Not the sort of thing we'd expect Kasparov to need, but it's obviously helpful for players learning how to play chess. Speaking of which, the game's difficulty curve is nice and smooth, too. There are five options (beginner, novice, intermediate, advanced and expert) and so something for everyone, although if you're a real beginner be warned that the game won't teach you how to play – it merely refines the game of those who already possess a working knowledge of chess.

Helping you learn from the games you do play is the option of looking back at a complete moves history to see where you went wrong or drove forward the advantage. And there's also a helpful 'undo' option if you need to back up from a move that you've made in error.

So, overall this chess game looks and plays fine. It possesses what you'd expect from a chess simulator and everything's handled in an efficient, no-nonsense manner. Not unlike Kasparov, then. If it's chess you're looking for, you'll certainly get a great number of the 10120 possible games out of this.

Kasparov Chess

As well as being a good starting point for learners, Kasparov Chess will keep experienced players on their toes
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Chris Maddox
Chris Maddox
Liverpool fan, Chris, loves to watch the mighty Redmen play. In between matches however, he's an avid mobile games reviewer for Pocket Gamer. Chris has assured us that he only thinks about Liverpool FC a mere 80 per cent of the day.