Chesh review

Developer: Damian Sommer
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

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Overall Rating:

Chess is an ancient game, and players have had hundreds of years to go over all its rules and tricks.

In other words, experts have over a millennium of strategy at their disposal and, if you're a beginner, you have pretty much nothing. Learning chess from anyone but the most patient of individuals can be a real bear.

That's what makes Chesh so cool though - it puts you on even ground with your rival every time you play.

What even is Chesh?

There are over 500 game pieces, which means it's pretty much impossible to memorize their movement patterns. Moreover, when you tap a piece, you must move it. There's no going back.

But Chesh isn't devoid of strategy. Your "King" and "Queen" pieces do more damage to your opponent's life bar compared to the rest of your pawns, so winning requires you to move them carefully.

Also, there are tons of different adjustments you can make to the playing field. You can challenge yourself with a smaller or larger board, and more or fewer lines of game pieces.

There are a few nitpicks to be found, however. The game feels squished if you play it on a phone instead of a tablet, and the online multiplayer is only capable of matching you with other live players. There's no asynchronous play.

The bottom line

Overall though, Chesh is a sweet and rare blend of strategy and chaos. Unbendable chess purists might have waking nightmares upon seeing the random elements on display here, but everyone else should have a great time just waging war on the fly.