Power Chess is a chess-playing

Computer chess

Computer chess is computer architecture encompassing hardware and software capable of playing chess autonomously without human guidance. Computer chess acts as solo entertainment , as aids to chess analysis, for computer chess competitions, and as research to provide insights into human...

 video game originally released in September, 1996 by Sierra Entertainment

Sierra Entertainment

Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...

 for the Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 Windows 95

Windows 95

Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...

 operating system.

Engine

Its chess engine is "Wchess" by David Kittinger, which played against Deep Blue in the 1995 World Computer Championship in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

. The game is included as a watchable "Great Game" in Power Chess.

Gameplay

Similar to most other chess programs, Power Chess provides tutorials in helping new players, while analyzing gameplay to improve one's strategy. Advice is given by the game's Queen, who walks the player through the move sequence and points out any mistakes made. The player can play ranked matches by challenging the game's King. A rating is assigned depending on play style and whether the player won, lost or drew the game. Players can also create their own characters with differing gameplay styles and difficulty.

"Great Games"

A collection of famous games is included for review and study, each one narrated turn-by-turn by the Queen. The games include:

• The Evergreen Game
  Evergreen game
  The Evergreen game is a famous chess game played in Berlin in 1852 between Adolf Anderssen and Jean Dufresne.Adolf Anderssen was one of the strongest players of his time, and was considered by many to be the world champion after winning the London 1851 tournament. Jean Dufresne, a popular author of...
  
  , Adolf Anderssen
  Adolf Anderssen
  Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player in the 1850s and 1860s...
  
   vs. Jean Dufresne
  Jean Dufresne
  Jean Dufresne was a German chess player and chess composer. He was a student of Adolf Anderssen, and lost the "Evergreen game" to him in 1852. Dufresne was an unsuccessful novelist under the anagrammatic pseudonym E. S...
  
   (1852)
• The Opera Game
  Opera game
  The chess game played in 1858 at an opera house in Paris between the American chess master Paul Morphy and two strong amateurs, the German noble Duke Karl of Brunswick and the French aristocrat Count Isouard, is among the most famous chess games. Duke Karl and Count Isouard consulted together,...
  
  , Paul Morphy
  Paul Morphy
  Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy...
  
   vs. Duke Karl of Brunswick
  Charles II, Duke of Brunswick
  Charles II , Duke of Brunswick, ruled the Duchy of Brunswick from 1815 until 1830.-Biography:Charles was the eldest son of Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
  
   and Count Isouard (1858)
• Wilhelm Steinitz
  Wilhelm Steinitz
  Wilhelm Steinitz was an Austrian and then American chess player and the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894. From the 1870s onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz was effectively the champion earlier...
  
   vs. Curt von Bardeleben
  Curt von Bardeleben
  Curt von Bardeleben was a Count and a German chess master who committed suicide by jumping out of a window in 1924. His life and death were the basis for that of the main character in the novel The Defense by Vladimir Nabokov, which was made into the movie The Luzhin Defence...
  
   (1895)
• Ruger vs. Gebhard (1915)
• Vasily Smyslov
  Vasily Smyslov
  Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, and was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions . Smyslov was twice equal first at the Soviet Championship , and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won...
  
   vs. Bobby Fischer
  Bobby Fischer
  Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
  
   (1970)
• Wchess vs. Deep Blue (1995)
• Deep Blue vs. Garry Kasparov
  Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1
  Deep Blue–Kasparov, 1996, Game 1 is a famous chess game in which a computer played against a human being. It was the first game played in the 1996 Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov match, and the first time that a chess-playing computer defeated a reigning world champion under normal chess tournament...
  
  , Game 1 (1996)