Ed Chess

Chess on a computer — that sounds like something that should have been solved long ago. But Ed Chess from 1994 is that curious attempt where the developer said: what if we tried to make this actually interesting? The content is clear — chess against the computer on MS-DOS, nothing more, nothing less.

The game looks like a classic chess engine. You set up the board, load the file, and start moving pieces. The computer looks. The computer thinks. The computer moves. Formally it works — there are no round figures or 3D effects, there's just alternating moves. The playing field is plain, with letters and numbers around it, black and white squares, clear. Like you're looking at an old textbook, just on a screen.

But that's where the problem starts. Ed Chess isn't a game that beats you with elegant thinking. The computer plays — yes, tactically it works, it makes moves with logic. But that package isn't as clever as it should be. It plays like an opponent that knows the basic rules and has a goal, but not like a strong player. After a few games you feel like you're getting bored because you're a few moves ahead. The computer treats you like a coach, not like a rival. It copies the position, but it doesn't act like a fool — more like moderately advanced tedium.

What could have been interesting in the nineties — the ability to play chess offline without a chess club, without paper — isn't appealing today. Chess engines in today's browsers are thousands of times stronger and more complex. Ed Chess keeps its role as a thing from a time when not everyone had internet and played with what they had at home. Today it's more nostalgia than a functional tool.

You're a hundred years old, you remember the nineties, and want to play old chess? It's quick, it's not ugly, and the computer at least keeps up with you. But if you're looking for challenge or some special trick — you're in the wrong place. Ed Chess is just a purely functional chess simulator without trying to be more than what you see.