Chess Titan

I remembered Windows 3.1 come with a few games: Solitare, Mineweeper. Later version came with Hearts. Good addition! Then there are more solitaire like games (which are a bit boring). Later, games jump out to 3D and there was Space Cadet Pinball! Nice.

Vista added Chess Titan. Of course, chess is THE all-time classic board game.
I am glad this now comes with Windows so it can be enjoyed by even more people. I suppose Microsoft wanted to show Window's new 3D capability with this.
Recently I played it on Windows 7. I am glad there are difficulty settings from 1 to 10. It won't be so fun if I lose all the time. I am a very amateur player (and probably will always be).

I am able to beat level 6 a couple times (I haven't tried higher levels yet). The statistics screen say how many games I win and how many games I play. It didn't say "How many games you lost". That's nice :)

I have a few minor suggestions.
1. That board can spin nicely, how come it doesn't let the player to spin around the board for fun?
2. How come there are no move list? Expert players go back to study their moves and see what mistakes they made.
3. I'd like a few more choices of chess set scheme.
4. I'd like a Hint mode to suggest move (for players who can't decide what to do next)
5. No chess clock? (Expert players use this, but I never think more than 30 secs per move)


Some chess games are too hard for me even at the easiest setting.
For example, this iGoogle gadget beats the heck out of me even at level 0 and even I take back multiple times.