Developed and published by Ripstone Ltd., Chess Ultra acts as a successor to Pure Chess. While some people play chess competitively, I’ve always enjoyed it more casually. I was in chess club in high school but the feel of it was more of an after school hangout and nothing ever serious. Chess can be played by virtually anyone of any skill set, though it requires great forethought to master.
For players unfamiliar with the rules of chess, there is an in-depth tutorial that does a wonderful job at explaining the game. From the basics like piece movement and capturing to more advanced techniques, the tutorial goes over everything a player needs to know before jumping into their first match.
Chess Ultra has six slots in its Single Game section that can be played either against an AI opponent or another person online. The level of customization is impressive, with players able to choose the location of the game, the material of the chess sets, the difficulty of the computer, and more. This is likely the best digital chess game available through its amount of content.
If you grow tired of ordinary games, you can test your skills through challenges. Challenges are comprised of puzzles such as obtaining a checkmate in 1-7 moves. In addition, Historic matches are featured which allow players to view famous chess matches from real life and lets them complete the matches themselves. For example, a chess match from the 1800s puts players in the shoes of American chess master Paul Morphy. With the board already set up and eight moves away from victory, players must see if they can obtain his historic checkmate. There are ten such historic games in Chess Ultra, giving players a taste of what it means to be a master.
Though Chess Ultra features cross-network play, it still takes forever to find an opponent. The idea of playing chess against someone else online is good in theory but bad in practice in this case. There just aren’t enough people looking for a chess match and playing against the computer isn’t the same. You can even play against yourself in a local match or hop onto the Tournament mode and compete or spectate other matches. Spectating can be odd as no one ever made a move in the games that I attempted to watch. I chalked this up to the players carefully thinking about what moves to make, but for all I know the connection may have been severely slow. Without seeing them in person, it just made the game boring.
On the visual front, players will find Chess Ultra to be a beautiful game with realistic locations and pieces adding to the immersion. Unfortunately, the default camera angle sometimes blocks pawns and other small pieces from your view depending on which chess set you choose.
Summary
From a technical standpoint, Chess Ultra excels at digitally recreating the board game of chess for fans to enjoy. The problem is that a certain aspect of chess just doesn’t translate into pixels on a television screen. There’s a spark and magic to sitting across from another person and actually playing against them in a battle of wits. That’s lost when you turn it into a video game.
Newcomers and experienced players alike can find value in Chess Ultra’s variety of challenges, but it doesn’t exactly break the mold in terms of innovation. Playing against the computer can feel impersonal, though you’ll encounter difficulties otherwise inaccessible to some, and the online multiplayer is a barren wasteland. It is competent at both teaching the game and providing an outlet for players to experiment and learn themselves. If you don’t have anyone to play with, Chess Ultra is great for its convenience, but I recommend playing it in real life if possible. You can easily go out and pick up a cheap chess set for the price of this game.
Jennifer is a games journalist, former games journalist and PR Manager at Gearbox. They contributed 234 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: went on to write for Windows Central and later managed PR for Gearbox Software.