The Chessmaster is a game where the player has the chance to play against the CPU controlled Chessmaster at a standard game of chess.
To play the game, the player must pick up the chess pieces with their hand cursor and place it in the desired location, within the rules of a standard chess game. There are 16 different difficulty levels, including 2 beginner levels, 13 standard levels (ranging from an average of 5 seconds to 4.5 minutes per shot depending on level), and an infinite level that will keep thinking of a shot until a perfect shot can be made or it is forced to make a move. There is also a teaching mode that shows the player all the possible moves with the selected piece. Two players can play against each other with two controllers and there is also an option for letting the Chessmaster play against itself.
Chessmaster would go on to spawn 11 games over two decades and more than 5 million Chessmaster games were sold, and at one time, it’s chess engine was considered the 14th best in the world.
The man in the iconic image of the Chessmaster that featured in many versions of the game is actor Will Hare. He was the farmer in Back to the Future who shot at Marty with a shotgun in 1955.
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