Chess has long been a favorite game of mine.  I will be the first to admit I suck hard at it, but I still enjoy playing it now and then.  It has been one of the most popular board games in the world for a long time, and will likely continue to grow.

Online chess is also nothing new.  The Internet Chess Server, and the Free Internet Chess Server  have allowed gamers to play against each other and against computer opponents since the 80’s.

We’ve seen Chess appear on consoles in various forms.  Ubisoft’s venerable Chessmaster series has appeared in some way on most platforms, including the original Xbox and Playstation 2, focusing on the recreational player, while Chessbase gives power-users on PC even more control, with more powerful engines such as Fritz, Shredder, Hiarcs and the ability to use 3rd party engines like Rybka.

Xbox 360 has been home to many classic games.  We already have Hardwood Spades and Hardwood Hearts, Poker, Solitaire, and even Settlers of Catan, all available as a download over Xbox Live Arcade.  But still, Chess, the royal game, is noticeably absent.  Chess seems well suited to Xbox Live Arcade.

So why hasn’t it appeared yet?  I have a couple theories.  An Xbox Live Arcade chess engine will be probably 800 points, and use up the entire 150MB filesize limit.  However, if Ubisoft wanted to release Chessmaster on disk, it would have a hard time moving units when faced with this competition.  I doubt Ubisoft would push Chessmaster to Live Arcade.  The filesize limitation is unacceptable for a strong chess program. While the engine can be fit on something as tiny as a few K (as we see on cell phone chess implementations), strong modern chess applications use tablebases to enable a strong endgame.  These lists of moves essentially tell a computer exactly the correct move to play in certain endgame scenarios, and they take up a lot of space.  A 150mb size limit would severely limit a chess program’s strength in this area.

So if Microsoft won’t publish a chess arcade title, why is Ubisoft waiting on Chessmaster?  Here’s my conspiracy theory:  Ubisoft wants to  allow cross-platform chess play, running on their own servers.  Xbox 360 users pipe in through Live.  PC, Mobile, PS3 and Wii users pipe in their own respective ways.  And anybody who wants to can play against anybody else, regardless of platform.  It’s CHESS, for crying out loud, not Shadowrun.  It shouldn’t be hard to implement, technically.  Bureaucratically, however, it may be extremely difficult.

It’s wishful thinking.  But a big cross platform network for chess could put Chessmaster into the forefront of internet Chess in the world.

[PS- To any publisher out there that makes a chess game on 360.. do NOT make achievements based on winning games online.  This is just going to lead to everybody having their PC calculate moves for them (which is going to happen anyway).   Just let it stay fun.]

Hexus.gaming announced today that at an event in Paris, Ubisoft announced they are working on a game based on Beowulf. This would logically be released in conjunction with the Robert Zemeckis film coming this November. Beowulf is one of those things that half 0f us read and actually enjoyed in High School, while the other half hated.. but as I fall in the first category, I’m looking forward to this.

Microsoft has 2 games on tap for Live Arcade tomorrow. I must say I’m happy with their constant stream of decent Live Arcade titles in the past couple months, so tomorrow is no exception.

Rush N’ Attack looks like a classic side-scroller, where you rescue POW’s.

• Fight through 4 stages to free the prisoners of war
• Up to two players can play together locally or over Xbox LIVE in either Versus or Co-op mode
• Local multiplayer features split screen action with results captured on Leaderboards
• Players can chose to play with either the authentic, original graphics or with enhanced graphics which features fully rendered 3-D models
• All music and sound effects have been digitally enhanced
• Earn up to 12 Achievements and 200 Gamerscore points

Xevious is yet another 80’s shooter, ported from the original arcade title. We’ll have to wait and see if this stands apart from the crowd.

• Play the 100% arcade accurate reproduction of “Xevious” for the first time anywhere
• Test your memory: uncover hidden bonuses that are scattered throughout the levels just like in the arcade version, where shots to the ground uncover power-ups like Sol towers and 1UPs
• Compare your high score against other “Xevious” players from around the world on the Leaderboards
• Earn up to 12 Achievements and 200 Gamerscore points

Stumbled upon this fun little website, you register with your gamertag and your 360 will write blogs about what you do while on live, it’s hard to describe really so go check it out.

360Voice

The word is that this weeks XBLA release, Aegis Wings will released to silver and gold members for free for a limited time. The Shoot-em up was developed by students of Microsoft’s Xbox Arcade Training Program. So grab it while it’s free starting this Wednesday!

Peter Moore of Microsoft has a nice interview with Mike Antonucci of Mercury News where he answers many of the questions we have on our minds in Xbox 360 land.  Concerning the problem of dead 360s, he stresses that you focus on how they’re dealing with customers, not focusing on the faulty hardware.  He says he feels comfortable about Microsoft’s position on the controller front, and says that Bill Gates himself has discussed the possibilities of throwing the massive power of the 360 into some philanthropic direction such as Folding@Home.  He certainly leaves open the possibility:

“Then if we truly believe that we can in some way marshall the resources of a much larger installed base of Xbox 360 owners, with a processer that’s of equal power to the PS3, then you have my have my commitment that we’ll look at that. And if we believe we can add value to solving a gnarly problem such as the medical problems and the health problems that Folding@home seems to be doing, then we’ll certainly look at that very strongly.”

Let’s hope this really becomes a possibility!

The upcoming Xbox dashboard update will not be released today, reports Major Nelson, but it sounds like it’s still on schedule for this week. One of the things I hear (sorry I can’t find the source link) this update will include is nested folders for your files. If this is the case, it will make browsing around my videos in Orb much easier.