February 20, 2004 - It's a game older than Charlemagne -- the cerebral sport of kings and serfs alike. It's played out between man and machine on world stages, or between two hustlers in a NYC park. And now, the grand war of chess can be played out in the digital ether, against live competition over Blue Lava Wireless' latest creation: Chess Everywhere.

Features:

  • Play against human opponents
  • Uses world-accepted chess rules

    Chess Everywhere, developed by Mobile pioneer, brings the smarty-smarty sport to handsets -- but your human opponents are not just limited to other cellphone users. Chess Everywhere has an ingenious system that allows you to play against PDA users and PC gamers. This greatly increases the number of potential chess battles, and prevents the annoyance of not having an immediate match -- something which occasionally plagues Sorrent's Mobile Persona-enabled games.

    The game follows the world-accepted rules of chess. Thirty-two pieces on a board, each with their individual movements. If you don't have a firm grasp on how to play, Chess Everywhere is a good place to start -- just don't wade online, or else you'll be cerebrally spanked.

    Over the servers, Chess Everywhere is a smooth criminal. Because this is hardly an action game, lag is a non-issue. Moves happen as they do, and you have plenty of time to decide your own strategy while the other player considers his or hers. Thankfully, when you play over Sprint's PCS Vision network, you needn't worry about using minutes -- one of Sprint's greatest strengths.

    Mobile Pioneer did an excellent job recreating the mental mindbender on the handset screen. The pieces are small, but the sprites are decently detailed -- no confusion between rook and pawn. Played against a nice, white/gray screen, the blue and yellow piece stand out well.

    Closing Comments
    If you are into chess -- either as a leisure game or competitive sport -- Chess Everywhere is a very solid download. The fact that you can almost always log in and find a human opponent within a reasonable amount of time makes it a must-have for fans. (Playing against the computer is fine, but the real deal is against another carbon-based lifeform.) Blue Lava was wise to pick this game up for distribution, and it serves to solidify the company as one of the more consistent suppliers of quality mobile games.

    IGN Ratings for Chess Everywhere (Cell)
    Rating Description See Our Glorious Home Theater Setup!
    out of 10 click here for ratings guideGet Ratings Information
    7.5 Presentation
    Great, clean set-up. Another classy Blue Lava production.
    5.5 Graphics
    Basic, but crip and clean -- gets the job done.
    0.0 Sound
    Cue them there crickets.
    8.5 Gameplay
    A superlative game of chess with simple, easy controls.
    8.5 Lasting Appeal
    Chess made better with the slick online game. An excellent DL for chess fans.
    8.5
    Great    		 OVERALL
    (out of 10 / not an average)    		 See All Award Recipients