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10.5. ChessMac OS X comes with only one game, but it's a beauty (Figure 10-2). Chess is a traditional chess game played on a gorgeously rendered board with a set of realistic 3-D pieces. You can rotate the board in space, as described in Figure 10-2. The program is actually a 20-year-old Unix-based chess program, GNU Chess, that Apple packaged up in a new wrapper. 10.5.1. Playing a Game of ChessWhen you launch Chess, you're presented with a fresh, new game that's set up in Human vs. Computer mode ”meaning that you (the Human, with the light-colored pieces) get to play against the Computer (your Mac, on the dark side). Drag the chess piece of your choice into position on the board, and the game is afoot. If you choose Game New Game, however, youre offered a pop-up menu with choices like Human vs. Computer, Human vs. Human, and so on. If you switch the pop-up menu to Computer vs. Human, you and your Mac trade places; the Mac takes the white side of the board and opens the game with the first move, and you play the black side. Tip: The same New Game dialog box also offers a pop-up menu called Variant, which offers three other chess-like games : Crazyhouse, Suicide, and Losers. The Chess help screens (choose Help Chess Help, click "Starting a new chess game) explains these variations.
On some night when the video store is closed and you're desperate for entertainment, you might also want to try the Computer vs. Computer option, which pits your Mac against itself. Pour yourself a beer, open a bag of chips, and settle in to watch until someone ”either the Mac or the Mac ”gains victory. 10.5.2. Chess PrefsChoose Chess Preferences to find some useful controls like these:
Tip: If your Chess-playing skills are less than optimal, the Moves menu will become your fast friend. The three commands tucked away there undo your last move (great for recovering from a blunder), suggest a move when you don't have a clue what to do next, and display your opponent 's previous move (in case you failed to notice what the computer just did). 10.5.3. Saving Your GamesYou can choose Game Save Game to save any game in progress, so you can resume it later. To archive the moves making up an entire game instead, use the Game Log command, which displays the history of your game, move by move. A typical move would be recorded as "Nb8 “c6," meaning the knight on the b8 square moved to the c6 square.
Equipped with a Chess list document, you could recreate an entire game, move by move. Tip: If you open this window before you begin a new game, you can see the game log fill in the moves as they happen. |
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