Product announcements accelerate as the year end holidays approach. Here are recent product and service announcements from Konami, Symbian, Cellufun, Glu Mobile, and more.

Looking first at chess playing software, we'll start with an upcoming product for the Sony PlayStation®Portable. • Konami Online Chess Kingdoms • 'Online Chess Kingdoms is the definitive chess strategy title for the PSP® system and will be available in Fall 2006. Taking full advantage of the PSP® system's wireless connectivity, Online Chess Kingdoms will feature extensive multiplayer modes including gameplay over the Internet. In addition, the game will offer comprehensive single player modes that will challenge the skills of even the most experienced players.' • Compare Prices
_{(Photo © Konami)}

But that's not all.

The hottest area for chess software is undoubtedly for mobile phones.

• Chess Professional • 'Regardless of your playing level, ZingMagic's multi award winning Chess is a stimulating and challenging game for beginners and champions alike.' [13 June 2006; Symbian]
  
  
• ChessGenius • 'Packed with features for beginners and experts. The author's chess programs have won ten world championships.' [5 October 2006; Symbian]
  
  
• Cellufun Releases Multiplayer Mobile Chess Game • 'Game Offers Challenging AI Play and Capitalizes on Cellufun's Unique Human Opponent Matching Algorithm While Supporting Real-Time and PBM Play.' [27 June 2006]
  
  
• Glu Mobile Announces Plans to Launch Kasparov Chess • 'Glu Mobile Announces Plans to Launch Kasparov Chess; Leading Publisher Teams with Legend Garry Kasparov to Develop and Publish Kasparov Chess for Mobile Phones.' [17 August 2006]
  
  

These days you can play chess on just about anything that has computing power. A recent example that raised eyebrows worldwide was a voting machine programmed to play chess: E-voting machines successfully hacked [5 October 2006; SiliconRepublic.com]. Here are some more down-to-earth applications.

• Chess software for visually challenged • 'India, currently hosting a global chess-for-the-blind meet in Goa, has just launched a software that helps the visually impaired chess players. Called ‘Talk 64’, the software has been launched at the 11th Individual World Chess Championship for the Blind 2006, currently underway at Varca in South Goa.' [12 October 2006]
  
  
• Multiplayer Championship Chess • 'Multiplayer Championship Chess is the strongest Chess game ever created for a PDA or mobile device with an AI rated above Grand Master.' [August 2006; Palm OS v1.32; note download trial]
  
  
• Chess Titans • 'Chess Titans, a 3D version of the classic board game, joins Solitaire, FreeCell, Minesweeper, and Hearts to form the core of Windows Vista's casual game collection.'
  
  
• Learn advanced JavaScript techniques with this free chess game tool • 'Whether it is determining the position of a pawn on a chess board or a button on a Web interface, properly coding JavaScript requires thorough knowledge of the underlying logic.' [August 2005]
  
  

Chess sets don't receive as much publicity as chess software. Here are a couple of announcements that, for different reasons, caught our attention.

• Chess Teacher: Built-In Cheat Sheets for Airheads • 'The Chess Teacher helps beginners learn the ancient game with crib notes inscribed on the back of each piece, showing how they're allowed to move.' [8 August 2006]
  
  
• $36,000 Formula 1 Chess Set • 'Formula 1 auto racing may not be as popular here in the U.S. as, say, Nascar, but that shouldn't exclude us from enjoying this attractive chess set made of old Renault parts. Priced at a reasonable $36,511, this chess set uses every part of the car, just how we were taught that Native Americans used every part of the animals they killed.' [20 July 2006]
  
  

Finally, there are always a few announcements that don't fit in anywhere else.

• Batsford Chess Area • 'Welcome to the Batsford Chess Area. Download our latest Batsford chess brochure.' [August 2006]
  
  
• Zero G Games Completes Development Of New Yahoo! Chess • 'Zero G Games is happy to announce that they have completed development of Yahoo! Chess, which is now live on Yahoo! Games, the leading game portal for casual games.' [9 August 2006]
  
  
• Free Online Chess • 'Free Online Chess (www.chessmaniac.com) is now beta testing a new tournament format know as the Swiss System Tournament.' [4 September 2006]
  
  

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