Chess Titans - The Cheating Computer

[Robert G]

Did anyone tried out the games in Windows Vista, specially the Chess Titans? If not try out, the computer is actually cheating with me. Here is the situation. I recently installed Windows Vista and love to play Chess. I was trying out the new Chess Titans and was doing really good too. At a stage when i was down to the Queen, a Rook and of crouse my King. The computer is down just it's King. I start narrowing in on the computers King and it get's to a point that it can't move, you know .. Checkmate and what does it do? A nice message box comes up and says the game is a draw. 8-|

Isn't it a cheating?

[DENNI$SON]

Well thats not the bug Robert. Actually when your king is not currently in check but any move will place the king in check, then it is a draw. Its the rul of the game and we cannot do anything in that.

[Robert G]

Wow..that sounds good but i have a small confusion. I mean, how it can be a draw if there are still some moves left? I think it should still allow me to place the computer's king in check mate, isn't it?

[LaKisha]

But what if there are no legal moves left? I think the OP is saying that only. He received the message saying Game is drawn because there is no legal moves left. Unless you have a single move left, game will go one. But in case where you have only one position left for your king to move and that is a check mate zone, you cannot move it right?

[Madammare]

Halfway through game; possible checkmate against computer in 2 moves at level 2; Black has a pawn 2 away from my pawn-rank. I need to move up alongside it to move in on its king, and it makes the diagonal move onto the empty square BEHIND my pawn, squelching it into oblivion!!! THIS HAS NOW HAPPENED FIVE TIMES!!! I have tried repeating my move four or five times to tell it it is wrong, but how do you get through to it?
There was also a game where I had put Black into check early on, yet later it castled; I thought this was only allowed when nothing had 'sullied' the king or his castle in any way?

[EINSTEIN_007]

Halfway through game; possible checkmate against computer in 2 moves at level 2; Black has a pawn 2 away from my pawn-rank. I need to move up alongside it to move in on its king, and it makes the diagonal move onto the empty square BEHIND my pawn, squelching it into oblivion!!! THIS HAS NOW HAPPENED FIVE TIMES!!! I have tried repeating my move four or five times to tell it it is wrong, but how do you get through to it?
There was also a game where I had put Black into check early on, yet later it castled; I thought this was only allowed when nothing had 'sullied' the king or his castle in any way?

This chess titans game is difinitely bugged and it seems that microsoft programmers didnt get much time to play it off and clear all the bugs. Every time I win the game and go to the statistics then it tell me that the game was drawn? This game surely has a lot of bug and still there are no patch fix made for same.

[Madammare]

Lol! At least it hasn't done that to me! I've been credited with winning about half the games thus far, usually having been check-mated on the same game prior to that. I wish it wouldn't obscure the final move by sticking that 'you've won!' message up; I'm still learning, and often wonder what I did to win; it woud be nice to study the way it looked at the end...
The few stalemates are annoying, and now I'm more au fait with it, I make sure I arrange things so it can't happen again, poor old king sitting on the only square not 'covered' and no other pieces to move instead; definitely far from satisfactory!

[Madammare]

PS, still no thoughts on why the pawns behave so strangely, but I was amazed to have the computer offer me exactly the same 'illegal' move recently. I have to assume it's a variant of the game I was taught, because now I have learned to try a pawn in such a position, and it has given me the move twice now!?

[EINSTEIN_007]

Well, if for a an instance the pawn moves two spaces then an enemy pawn can take them on the next move by attacking the square that they missed out (it's called En Passant).

[Madammare]

En passant? Never heard of it, and I'm not sure I approve, but as it has offered me the same move I can no longer complain. Am I wrong about 'checking' the king as well?

[EINSTEIN_007]

En passant? Never heard of it, and I'm not sure I approve, but as it has offered me the same move I can no longer complain. Am I wrong about 'checking' the king as well?

En passant (from French: in passing) is a move in the board game of chess (Brace 1977). It is a special pawn capture which can occur immediately after a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position, and an enemy pawn could have captured it had it moved only one square forward. More information over here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_passant

[Madammare]

Yes, but my disapproval stems from the fact that this situation often accurs from other positions on the board, and I think it's a daft proviso, besides, I associate the term 'En passant' more with fencing, or maybe it's some similar term. Still doesn't answer my query about whether the king may castle after he's been in check...?