Master Piece

Break SpaceBreak Space Ace

Dave

Dave Sloane

Mpk

MASTER PIECE Jose G.T. PWYW / €2 Mpk's Review For a few weeks now, I've had a sheet of paper on my desk with a bunch of 4-digit codes on it. These are level codes for Master Piece, a modest yet terrific puzzle game that sets single-player chess puzzles. 199 of them in all, growing progressively more devious. One of the hallmarks of a good puzzle game is that you can get stuck - hopelessly stymied - by a level, go away for a while and come back with fresh eyes and just breeze through it. It's obvious, sometimes, when you don't think about it. Master Piece has that in spades. Each puzzle takes place on a 4x4 chess grid, and starts off with a number of chess pieces in place. You can move the pieces as normal for chess, but every move must take out another piece, and you solve the level by ending up with exactly 1 piece (The Master Piece) left on the board. Simple as that. You can always reset the board to the start of the level, and there's no timeout or anything. Each level comes with a 4-character passcode so you can restart at that point after reloading. The 199 levels should be enough to keep you going for a while. It never deviates from the 4x4 space, which sounds limiting, but trust me, you won't be stuck for challenge. This won't be for everyone, but if you like a bit of puzzling and know how chess pieces work, then you'll have a great time with this. Just remember to note down the level code and take a break if you feel your teeth grinding at all.

"You won't be stuck for challenge"

Chessinton World of Adventure

Rooking Hell

If you fancy tearing yourself away from your screens for a bit, you can do worse than pick up a copy of the Solitaire Chess boardgame from the always reliable ThinkFun. Only 120 puzzles in the current version versus the 199 in Master Piece, but hey. You can't have everything.