Description
This is an early home chess game. The standard U. S. chess rules are used in this game. To move a piece, place the X on the board onto the piece to be moved then press the red button. Next, move the X to where you want the piece to go and press the button again. If the move is illegal, the 2600 will give a warning sound and not make the move.
To castle your king, the king and rook must not have been moved. You move your king two squares in the direction of the rook to castle with. The 2600 will then automatically move your rook around your king, completing the move. You cannot castle out of check and you cannot castle to the king's side if any squares between the king and rook are threatened.
Another maneuver is called en passant. This move is used to counteract the enemy pawn's initial double move on a adjacent square. To carry out the en passant, you must advance your
pawn to the fifth rank. Your opponent then has the option of moving
his or her pawn one square (where it would be under attack) or two
squares. If you opponent elects to move two squares, the en passant move allows you to take that pawn by diagonally moving your pawn to the square that was skipped over.
Skill levels
These determine how long the computer will think on its move. These times are approximate and may vary slightly, depending on what move you did.
Level 1=15 seconds
Level 2=30 seconds
Level 3=45 seconds
Level 4=2 minutes, 45 seconds
Level 5=3 minutes, 15 seconds
Level 6=12 minutes
Level 7=10 hours
Level 8=10 seconds
Level 8 is a beginner level.
Alternate Titles
- "Computer Chess" -- Atari 8-bit Title/Atari 2600 prototype Title
- "Chess" -- Atari 8-bit UK Title
User Reviews
There are no reviews for this game.
The Press Says
There are no rankings for this game.
Forums
Trivia
Video Chess is the game that inspired Atari to create bank-switching ROMs for the Atari 2600, which allowed games to use more that 4k of memory. Ironically, Video Chess did not use bank-switching ROMs, itself.
Originally, Atari was not going to make a chess game for the 2600 but the original Video Computer System box showed a chess piece and Atari ended up being sued by someone in Florida for false advertising because of the lack of a chess game.
