Mini Chess on Watch

One of two things happen when I play this game. 1) I lose. Even the Novice setting is difficult with so little room to move around and only one of each back row piece. 2) It locks up. I’ve been stuck many times with every move I try being illegal. I’ll keep playing and update my review if it gets any better, but overall it’s not as much fun as I was led to believe.

Hi I’ve got my knight in the center of the board and it won’t move anywhere. What gives?

This game has repeatedly declared a stalemate on the hardest setting when I’m just about to win. Best avoided.

This doesn’t work on my watch. I have a 5.0 iWatch. Can I get my money back?

what’s interesting is that it’s a completely different game when you cut it down to this size. Not easier. Not harder. Just as much fun, which surprised me.

Though the game is great at the start and deserves 5 stars, by a week later I can continually beat the game by performing the same 8 moves. At the start I thought the AI was reacting to my moves based on previous moves and at least somewhat looking forward. Instead the AI reacts to all moves the same way. This is how I realized the 8 moves that will always lead to a checkmate. 1) (W) Queen Pawn move forward (B) reacts with Bishop Pawn takes Queen Pawn 2) (W) Knight to Queen Pawn’s starting square (B) reacts with Rook Pawn forward 3) (W) King Pawn takes pawn (B) reacts with King Pawn takes pawn 4) (W) Bishop Pawn takes pawn (B) Knight Threatens Queen 5) (W) Knight Pawn takes Knight (B) Queen Pawn takes pawn 5) (W) Queen put King in check (B) King moves in front of Queen 6) (W) Knight puts King in check (B) Queen takes Knight 7) (W) Queen moves up in line with King (B) Checkmate If you want I can send you a video. Please make AI somewhat smarter and get 5 stars from me. (Edit) I didn’t know that there was an expert level. I have now set it to expert to see what happens. I added a star now that I know this. I tried Intermediate and can beat the game using the same combination of moves. I will now move on to expert. I finally won in Expert mode. If you’re willing to sacrifice important pieces you can in fact win. 5 stars. Ok Expert is tougher.

At first it was a great, challenging way to spend time. However, I soon noticed it would glitch and i wouldn’t be able to make specific moves that would otherwise tip the game in my advantage. For example, my bishop wouldn’t move in a certain diagonal direction when it should, or my pawn wouldn’t move forward into an empty space. It’s incredibly annoying. It also frequently freezes and I end up having to delete the app and redownload for it to work again.

I guess my fault. I wanted a full chess board and didn’t realize it’s half the pieces. My fault, signs are there. I just missed it. Mini chess takes everything I love about chess and throws it away. Sorry, this game is not for me.

Mini Chess for Apple Watch is extremely fun and an incredible way to pass time. The only thing that was not great (and the reason for only a 4 star) is how difficult it is. If you have no prior experience with chess this is not the place to start. It took me almost 30 tries to win Novice mode. It is possible, so don’t listen to reviews that say otherwise. You can also find ways to beat it off of YouTube, google, etc.

Nice game. Really tough to beat though. Gor the developer, is there any way to change this to an easier difficulty level?