Check our handy chess guide

In a stalemate over which chess program to buy? Check here before you make your move and you won’t get rooked!

To help you bring order to the wide array of software available For the T/S1000/ZX81, our writers will look at specific types of programs in each issue. This month we look at six different chess games.

We set up an office tournament which pitted machine against machine, software program against software program, and people against them all. We found that each of these games is a worthwhile purchase; and that, frankly, our game has to improve a bit before we dare rechallenge any of the 16K games. All six use standard algebraic chess notation, but it doesn’t matter if you are unfamiliar with this system: only the Timex Sinclair program does not display the notation.

	Recommends Moves	Allows you to resign	Levels of play	Game analysis	Plays itself	Castles	En passant
Timeware Chess	on levels 2 to 6	No	6	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Chessmaster	on levels 2 to 7	Yes	7	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Superchess	Yes	Yes	10	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
1K Chess	No	No	1	No	No	No	No
2K Chess	No	No	1	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Timex Sinclair Chess	No	Yes	6	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

	Saves a game	Can change sides	Can change levels	Prints game	Screen display rating	Memory needed
Timeware Chess	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	7	16K
Chessmaster	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	8	16K
Superchess	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	9	16K
1K Chess	No	No	No	No	7	1K
2K Chess	No	No	No	No	7	2K
Timex Sinclair Chess	No	No	No	No	No	16K

	Clarity Instruction	Enjoyability of game	Packaging	Speed of response (average)
Timeware Chess	7	9	9	8
Chessmaster	7	9	9	9
Superchess	9	9	7	8
1K Chess	7	6	9	8
2K Chess	7	8	9	8
Timex Sinclair Chess	8	7	9	8

	Play	Game skill	Editor’s rating
Timeware Chess	7	8	8
Chessmaster	9	9	9
Superchess	8	9	9
1K Chess	5	5	7
2K Chess	6	6	7
Timex Sinclair Chess	8	8	7