THERE are precious few games that really make the Amiga sweat. Many are simply ported directly from the Atari ST, or worse, are lackluster conversions of 8 bit titles. Discerning Amiga owners, therefore, especially the chess playing ones among you, will be reassured to hear that some companies are prepared to invest their time and money in taking advantage of the additional graphical and sound capabilities their machine has to offer.

Such a company is Interplay, creators of the now legendary Bard's Tale, which has turned its redoubtable talents to the creation of what has to be the most graphically stunning chess game ever conceived.

Battle Chess is more than just a chess program, it's a work of art. The beautifully marbled board is viewed from behind and above your pieces from a more elevated viewpoint than is seen in most other traditional 3D chess games.

Each piece has been painstakingly designed to look so realistic that you could almost reach into the monitor and move it by hand.

Rather than slide clumsily from one square to the next, the pieces come to life and walk to their destination. Each piece is animated in a different way to bring out its own character and importance in the general scheme of things.
The knight, for example, heavily weighed down by his armour, clanks laboriously to his destination, while the Queen, complete with wiggling backside, glides gracefully across the board in true regal fashion.

But my favourite is the rook which, when not moving, appears as a castle tower constructed from huge blocks of stone. When called upon to move, he metamorphoses into a hulk-like creature which stomps from square to square with all the finesse of a JCB.

And what a feast of animation and sampled sound effects the battles are. Each piece has its own method of combat commensurate with its character. The knight fights with a sword, the castle rock-monster hits people over the head and even resorts to eating the queen!
The bishop brandishes his staff, while the queen raises her hands above her head before casting one of a number of awesome spells on her victims who get fried to a crisp, reduced to nothing more than a heap of charred bones.

The battle sequences are both realistic and humorous. The knight-takes-knight battle in particular is hilarious, having been plucked shamelessly from the guardian of the bridge sequence in Monty Python's Holy Grail. Other battles end with a piece being butted in the groin or falling down a hole which suddenly appears on the square it was occupying.

For those who want to dispense with the "distractions" of the battles, a standard 2D board can be called up from the pull down menu which is actually a scroll suspended in mid air by a pair of flapping angels.
Other features include nine skill levels, modem play, and 20 famous games that can be loaded and reviewed in either 2D or 3D.

Although Battle Chess will prove a worthy opponent for the majority of casual players, it falls short of the high standard set by Chessmaster 2000 on the Amiga and Psion Chess on the ST.

So, if you fancy yourself as a chess whizkid and want a tough game Battle Chess may well disappoint. But for average players it will not only prove itself a worthy opponent but a rare graphical and audio treat too.

Finding even a half-decent chess-player in the Format offices is about as easy as tracking down the genuine Santa Claus. To get round this problem we considered playing Battlechess off against itself, but were worried that this might cause the Amiga to question its treasured superiority complex. Then Colossus appeared for the ST and a worthy opponent was found.

Chess has always been considered an ideal game for a computer. It has the logic to make all the right moves, is completely unbiased, does not mind waiting while you think for hours on end and is always willing to tell you what your best move is.

There have been a lot of them, but for some strange reason, none of them have been remarkably successful, except maybe PSI Chess on the Spectrum, but that was mainly due to its large, hi-res representation of a chess board in 3D. Battlechess takes that 3D element, and takes it one stage further.

Battlechess is so called because the game you play is not so much the relaxing pastime originally though up by those incredibly clever Chinese people, but a war between the two sanctions of Blue and Brown sets of pieces in the familiar Isle of Lewis set.

The obvious attraction to this game is the fabulous graphics. Large, sharp and very colourful, every piece is both distinct and recognisable. The one thing that a still shot cannot portray is the action. It changes the standard chess terminology of 'Pawn takes Knight' to 'Pawn takes Knight by kicking him hard in the groin'. You see, every time you make a move, the piece currently under control comes to life and walks to the chosen destination square. The knights, with their 'jump to square' moves, simply barge everyone out of the way in an effort to get to where they want to go. The queen glides, bottom waggling sumptuously, and the rooks (my favourite) transform from small castles into large rock giants reminiscent of Ben Grimm, stomp to their square, and transform back, all in three loads.
Yes, unfortunately, rather than store the graphics sequences in memory, they are all held on disk, each loaded in when necessary. This does slow the game down quite a lot, but as this is a chess program, it does not really detract all that much.

The combat sequences are the best thing about this game. There are at least three sequences for every different kind of capture in the game (Pawn-Pawn, Pawn-Queen, Queen-Pawn etc.) and each one is guaranteed to bring at least a smile to your face. If not a little chuckle or two. The Pawn kicks the Knight in the family jewels to stop him galloping. The Knight freezes, drops his shield, turns to face out of the screen with his hands on the afflicted area, moans, and collapses stiffly (very much like our own Editor when he had an accident while putting his expensive leather jacket. I won't go into details, but it involved the jacket swinging and a large amount of change in the pocket).

The King's attacks are the best, however. For example, he pulls a gun on the bishops, gives a bomb to the knights, and hits the pawns with a set of nunchukas. All accompanied by some great sound effects.

Sooner or later, of course, you are going to get tired with all these nice graphics. What are you left with then? Fortunately, an excellent chess game, full of options (which are accessed by a drop-down menu in the shape of gilt scrolls, complete with accompanying cherubims, wings flapping like crazy!), Ten skill levels - enough to challenge any Grandmaster, complete configure board options, load/save game, 1 player, 2 player, 0 player or even Modem play as well as a full hint facility and the option to take back any number of moves, right back to the start of the game.

Maybe as a chess program it is not the best ever on the Amiga, but it is definitely the most interesting and certainly the most fun.

Many years ago in a land far away, a great battle raged. Two great kingdoms clashed on their borders, trying to expand their own lands. Many losses were incurred by both sides. One day, one of the magicians of the land came up with a solution - one last battle to decide the ultimate ruler.

Representatives of both kingdoms were summoned to the final battleground. Both armies consisted of the king and queen themselves, two bishops, two knights, two guardian rooks and eight pawns. As the two sides faced each other across the misty plain, a crack of thunder sounded, followed by the mysterious appearance of a great chequered board.

The sound of the magician's voice echoed about the warriors: 'The final battle will be in the form of a chess game. All battles are to death using any powers at your command. The death of a king decides the outcome.'

The Red King decided the first move. With a clank of armour his warrior stepped forward...

Interplay's version of chess plays according to the standard rules of the game (forcing moves, en passant and castling) plus a wide range of additional options. These allow you to choose between a 'traditional' 2D or a 3D board (with cartoon animations), set up boards to play historic games, choose from a range of opening positions, and play against the computer at one of ten levels, against a human opponent or even via a modem.

Originally available as a CDTV title, Battlechess (Interplay 0865 390029, £25.99) takes one of the world's oldest board games and adds a dash of 3D animation to bring the pieces and moves to life.

The game features six difficulty levels, a Suggested Moves option to help you out of those tricky situations and the ability to switch to a plainer (but quicker) 2D view when the animations begin to pall.

Yuk! This game is horribly, unforgivably dated. The graphics are poor - with or without animation - and the music and sound effects will soon have you climbing the walls in fits of mild disgust.

The joypad controls are straightforward enough once you get used to the perspective, but pressing the Blue button every time you want to bring up a menu soon gets tiresome. The game's concept is great, but then it's chess, isn't it? Stick to the proper board game version.