Chessmaster

Chessmaster brings a full-fledged chess application to the Game Boy Color, offering players a match against a computer opponent with adjustable difficulty as well as the option to play a classic game against a second player on the same console by taking turns. It's a faithful adaptation of the logic game, which has remained practically unchanged since its inception, but on the handheld display it gains a new dimension of portability and availability anytime and anywhere the player happens to be, without needing to carry a physical set of pieces and a chessboard.

The game's interface focuses on the clarity of the board - pieces are clearly distinguishable even on the small display, and controlling the cursor with the D-pad quickly becomes second nature even for players who have so far only played on a classic wooden board with real pieces. The artificial intelligence offers a range of difficulty levels, from beginner-friendly to demanding opponents for experienced players, which gives the game long-lasting appeal regardless of how quickly the player masters the basics and learns fundamental strategy. In the nineties, the Chessmaster brand was synonymous with computer chess programs across a range of platforms, and the GBC port benefited from the series' long-standing reputation.

Unlike most action titles in the GBC catalog, Chessmaster is a game built purely on strategic thinking with no time pressure, making it an exception in a lineup dominated mainly by action and platformers. For chess fans it represented a practical alternative to the board game, one that could always be kept close at hand in a pocket and a game started whenever a free moment arose. Even today it works as a solid handheld implementation of the classic game, albeit without any particular embellishments or innovations beyond the rules of chess itself - rules that need no changing anyway, since their elegance lies precisely in their unchanging nature across the centuries.