Flash Chess 3D
Flash Chess 3D is an online Chess game, created in 2002 by a company called Media Division ...
You'll find this Chess game embedded on different websites across the Internet; but, wherever you play it, the first thing you need to do is choose which difficulty mode you want to challenge yourself with:
- Shallow
This mode works with a smaller database of moves and programmed rules and is therefore easier to compete against. - Deep
Naturally, you'll find this level more of a challenge, as the program gets to search the full database - however large it is, I'm not sure, but you can expect a tougher battle.
Whichever difficulty mode you choose, you'll then be presented with the main interface, which consists of the Chess Board, on the left hand side, while on the right you'll find a white box that contains the moves that are made, plus a 'Restart' button, underneath.
Layout & Look
Both layout of the Chess Board and the overall look of the game aren't brilliant. You're left thinking that most of the focus has gone into programming the game at the expense of everything else.
Starting with the angle of the board ... Facing it diagonally makes the game awkward to play and it's definitely a distraction.
You also find too many of the pieces simply blend in to one another, making it more of an effort to plan your next moves. Not good.
The green and brown color scheme also looks, er, not good - if we're being kind.
Another criticism of Flash Chess 3D is there's No Castling manoeuvre available, which is a major part of modern Chess.
To their credit, the programmers did manage to provide illumination of squares that a selected piece may legally move to ...
This is always a helpful aid for beginners and is probably the best feature of this particular game.
Other Features
Over to the right side of the interface and you'll see the 'Last Moves' box. This uses very basic Algebraic Notation to record moves made throughout the game.
But, that's all it does - you don't get any mention of whether a capture was made, only the square a piece was on and which one it moved to.
Hitting the Restart button takes you back to Playing Mode screen, where you get to choose between Shallow or Deep levels of difficulty.
By far the most positive outcome from this game is that Media Division programmers continued to develop and improve what they'd started, eventually leading to the creation of Flash Chess III, which is miles better (Click Here to read more about it).
| Flash Chess 3D, Not As Good As Flash Chess III |
