Pogo V. MSN Chess

POGO

I've been playing off and on with Pogo since 2002. It offers a lot for a beginning player but as you progress good competition gets harder and harder to find. It has its share of immature players and kids who are flaming other players and sometimes using programs raise to their rating. Also, if a player leaves the game prematurely it can cost your rating. If his rating is higher than yours and you press end game immediately you will take the loss. Which is pretty lame, but its not as bad as yahoo and in my opinion yahoo chess has gone completely out of control.

Pogo uses standard chess rules and is similar to most programs you'll find on the web. It has some graphics and sounds when capturing and checking that can be disabled if it annoys you as much as it does me. the rating system is relatively accurate. It will rate you about 100 points higher than a chess organization and can be manipulated but over all it plays out well. You can select an opponent from a "room" filled with chess tables. Its wise to check their profile and make sure they have played a reasonable amount of games and that they haven't skipped out leaving a bunch of unfinished games in their wake. The rooms max out at around 100 but Pogo is so massive it is never a problem finding a game. Pogo has only two main drawbacks. One, the players can suck both in personality and game. Few serious players actually play their. Two, if you have an older computer it might give you some problems. My brother has to play with his laptop sideways. Thats a pretty bizzare handicap.

MSN Chess

you'll have to download messenger for this. Which is a pain in the ass and it will try to take over everything you do. Be sure to uncheck everything it asks you to install. It will also hit you with ads pretty regularly...Welcome to commercialized chess. Its not a better world, just faster and more efficient.

Some good. Instead of having rooms to choose from a total gambit of players it offers a rating match and will set you up in a game with an appropriate opponent. This eliminates people who hunt lower rated players for fun. But it will start you out pretty low at first so be warned it will take a few wins or losses to get your rating right. Like Pogo you can send the move history to your email with one click. That's a cool feature for both. Also, it takes on a more coffee shop feel of the game. The board and pieces are a little trendy and a piece will light up when you click on it giving your opponent a clue as to what your thinking. It breaks the "touch move" rule but I kinda like it. Their are sounds that you can adjust but no real graphics to speak of. If you listen to music while you play then you know the sounds get a little irritating but if your away from the board it lets you know that your opponent has moved. It also doesn't display a captured pieces screen. That's odd. It confuses the draw by move repetition rule. Sometimes it will call a draw even if only one of the players has repeated a move three times. The rating system leaves a lot to be desired. So far it is rating my brother and I a couple hundred points high. The skys the limit. All in all I like it, the opponent match idea is really genius. If you already have messenger definitely give it a roll out.