The weekend’s over; did you have any fun? Well, if you didn’t, then you should pull out the shooter game Scorched 3D and start relieving your frustration on anyone else on your LAN, or even over the Internet. Now be careful and thoughtful since each shot uses up your turn, and if your opponent is any good, he or she can just as easily waste you with his or her cannon.

If Chess is your game, instead, then perhaps this chess training tool is up your alley. Since it is written in Java it will work on any machine - even Windows. You can program the game engine to lag a few plays behind or ahead, and you can even hide a quadrant or two to force you to imagine where the pieces are located. Because of these features, there is not drag and drop of the pieces - after all, how can you drag a visible piece to an invisible square in a hidden qaudrant? So moves are made via text (i.e. e2-e4, g8-f6, or e2e4, g8f6).

Captures, i.e. e4xd5, g5xf6, or e4d5, g5f6.
Castling, O-O and O-O-O (that’s an ‘O,’ not a zero).
Promotion, i.e. d7-d8Q, e2-e1R, or d7d8Q, e2e1R.

It is so nice to be able to actually beat someone(thing) for once. [Steven Leach]