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I'm glad I bought it!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 30 / 31
Date: December 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have taught children to play chess for about 12 years now and used several different programs in the past to give them a fun way to practice and learn the skills. My favorite program in the past was Chessmates, but it isn't compatible with my new xp machines so I started looking again. I tried Fritz and Chester and it was ok but a bit clumsy in the interface. Then on a whim I picked this up, and I love it! It will still give you the basics for learning chess, though it isn't geared to younger children as well as Chessmates. But my 7 year old son and I are having a lot of fun with the adventures on this game. It's a great way to build your skills and yet it provides some interesting variety too. If my boy hadn't already begun chess with me earlier I think I would have him wait a little to start this. (A lot of the instruction is reading with some basic animation). But we both love the graphics and the fun.

pretty good introduction to chess

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 20 / 20
Date: August 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is a very interesting game to give you an introduction to chess. It does a few things very right. First, there there is adventure mode where it attempts to teach you about chess without it seeming quite so dull. It pulls this off fairly well, I think. It's less instructional than, say, the classroom in the chessmaster series, but it's probably a bit more fun for some younger players.

Second, playing the game against the computer. Here, I expected it to be largely the same as chessmaster, and it is. It uses the same engine ('the king') and it is a decent player, nothing special there. I looked at some teaching modes, and here is where it shines; it explains the purpose of various moves, and seems to handle this much better than any other chess games i've seen, far better than the chessmaster series or the chessbase products (which can explain all the moves, as well as offer text analysis). This is a strong point for the game, and might be worth the cost of admission alone.

Online play, well I did not care for it. I think there are better choices. Of course, chessbase is the only game publisher i've seen that handles online play even halfway decently. There are plenty of web and ics alternatives from yahoo to fics to icc, so I don't think this is a big drawback.

It's around 30$ which is quite a bit cheaper than the chessbase products (around 50) and slightly cheaper than chessmaster (around 40), and comes with a pocketpc version, should you have a windows ce based pda, so it's a fairly good value.

If you are a strong player, you probably won't find much here (say above 1400 uscf) but if you are just a casual player, you may enjoy it.

One word about the graphics and sound; it is not as polished as chessmaster, and I found some mild issues I did not like in adventure mode. In game mode, it was not nearly as bad.

Also, if adventure mode seems unbelievably slow right after you install it, try a reboot. It was necessary for me to reboot after the install, even though I was not prompted to do so (on an xp laptop).

Makes chess fun!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: September 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Majestic Chess is a great game, especially for people who are interested in learning chess but enjoy playing video games. The unique Chess Adventure mode in this game caught my attention so I bought the product, and am very pleased with it! It has rekindled my interest in chess and made learning the game fun. The graphics are great (the best of any chess program I've seen, especially the 3D boards) and there are plenty of other features in the game including online play, an easy to use interface, and a strong chess engine that will challenge anyone. Of course its not as feature rich as a more advanced program like Chessmaster or Fritz, but for a beginner or intermediate player looking for something different, or someone who just wants to have fun and learn the game, its perfect!

Sierra doesn't know what a laptop is

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 20 / 25
Date: September 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Well, if you have a laptop you will most likely not be able to use this program unless you reload it each time. When I first loaded this thing it worked great, and I played several games. Once I rebooted my laptop, it would not run until I uninstalled and installed again.

I called Sierra, and they said, and I quote, "Our products don't work on laptops; we don't support laptops." I asked, "Why does it work right after you load it, and continue to work as long as you don't reboot?" Sierra's answer? "We don't support our products on laptops."

So, with the book and the box in front of me I told the no-support person that there is nothing on the box that says that laptops are unsupported, and it's a major inconvenience for their customers to purchase a product that is known to not work on a substantial number of computers, and it's irresponsible for them to sell it that way. Sierra's response? The no-support person hung up on me.

Back in the old Macintosh days Sierra made good products that they supported. In my experience with them, that's not the case today. I could have run this on my desktop computer, but I returned it. I won't give Sierra any of my hard-earned dollars again.

Fun adventure to learn or improve your chess.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: February 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I think the biggest selling point of this game is the "adventure" that makes learning chess fun for kids, and yet still be very good at teaching tricks and rules as well. The story line is very campy, but still amusing. There are a number of challenges throughout the adventure that, for example, hone your skills in checkmating with only a few pieces, or recognize specific patterns on the board. This is a chess game I'd recommend to anyone looking to play chess for fun but wanting to improve your skills at the same time.

This chess game is good for younger people.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: January 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have played this game for several hours total, now, and I think it would be good for later elementary school, or Jr. High kids. But as a person in my late 20s, I found it a little difficult to use. The story went from basic moves to advanced ones, it seemed. I can't imagine going through all eight boards in story mode. I can't even pass the second one. This is certainly a title to find out about, but if you're an adult, you'll probably want to go with an alternative like Chessmaster, 10th edition (which I prefer to this).

fun but lacking in features

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: November 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Ok to start off with the adventure mode is really fun. for those who are new at chess, it teaches not only the basics, but also some tips and tricks that will help with your game. The story is a bit lame, but who buys a chess program for a good storyline?

The main chess program itself is strong, but not even close to being the strongest. among computer programs it gets trashed even by the free crafty chess engine; though admittedly not much of a concern unless you're rated over 2000.

I found the interface a bit clumsy, and it forces full screen mode even if you just want to play a game of chess. Users of unsupported graphics cards could be in for a headache; anything post year 2000 from nvidia or ati should be clear sailing though.

Overall it's a good program for those who want to get their feet wet in chess, but for experienced players who want to improve their game this would not be my first recommendation. My favorite is Fritz Grandmaster Challenge II; for the same price you get the powerful Fritz 7 engine, and the very useful chessbase game database software, though that program has a severe problem with the Fritz 7 engine where it won't let you change back to it without a very technical workaround. Of course the venerable Chessmaster series will also provide an excellent alternative. Another advantage of both is that you can use literally hundreds of different engines for them; Chessbase supports UCI and chessbase engines while Chessmaster supports Winboard engines.

The adventure mode is a unique way to teach the game of chess to newcomers. But one has to consider for the club player, Majestic Chess does not offer any kind of games database, game analysis and annotations, which both of the alternatives offer (though fritz owns in this regard). That said if you do buy Majestic Chess for the fun adventure mode, scid+winboard+engines or arena+engines are free, and offers all those more advanced features except pre-installed weaker personalities that give you a better chance of winning, which is where Majestic Chess comes in.

Great chess training without opening a book.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: January 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Majestic Chess begins innocently enough as a medieval adventure. It progresses through chess theory tutorials, tactical problems, middlegame positions and endgame puzzles, going from plain beginner's moves, strategy and tactics on to intermediate and even advanced material.

Majestic Chess is marketed to a wide audience, including adults, with the bottom recquiring at least 2-3rd grader reading skills. My kids, 7 and 5, enjoy the game's graphics, the storyline and ethereal musical background, though the text does require some assistance from daddy because a good portion of the sometimes obscure vocabulary caters to a quasi-D&D crowd and is interspersed with humor. I enjoy its puzzles, the variety of challenges and the middle- and endgame positions found scattered around the adventures.

At $9.99, this is a steal. It complements other chess programs by making chess fun (again!) in a most instructive package.

unacceptable technical support

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 13
Date: October 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Even though my new computer exceeded the minimum requirements the program would not install and after three days when i finally got it installed it would not run. during this process the technical support folks took the following positions:

1. had me uncheck some box in windows. When this did not solve the problem they hung up. All support calls are long distance.

2.I did not have the latest firmware from the mfr of the cd rom .
However the program installed on my three year old laptop.

3. Would not return calls.

4. emailed me saying that my video card was not a current version.
not true.
5. The mfr of my new computer said they have major problems with Siera products such as majestic chess .
6, program never ran,

Best chess game I've played.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I just picked this game up yesterday when I saw it at EB. The adventure part is a really good way of teaching you how to play chess. I was able to blast through the first couple levels, but now I'm working my way through the third. It's nice to learn how to play chess without having to sit through pages and pages of text. It actually makes it fun.

In multiplayer it's neat because it tracks a rating for you, so you can play against people around your skill level.

The graphics are stunning too. The 3d pieces look much better than CM9k, and it runs smoother too...

If you want to improve your chess skills, or just want a fun chess game to play through, this is the one to get, especially with the nice price tag.

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