3. Story walkthrough
I'll start this walkthrough by guiding you through the single player achievements. This will require either playing through 100 full games, or quitting out of some to save time. You will also need to defeat a high-ranked ELO AI player, among other things. This can be made much easier though, as I will explain below.
SINGLE PLAYER:
To start, enter Single Player from the main menu. From there, select Classic Chess, then Single game. Here you will define the settings for your games, such as game type, color, time rules, and your opponent. When going for achievements, I suggest you choose the following settings
Game Type - Rated (don't worry, this won't affect your multiplayer rating)
Color - White
Time Method - Hourglass
Time Control - 30 hourglass sec.
For this first game, we will be trying to simply win a game. You have multiple options here. AI skills range from ELO 1, virtually no skill, a monkey named Stanley, to 2700, these are extremely skilled players who the vast majority will have a difficult time defeating. You can attempt to defeat these players by your own skill, or you can continuously press the RB button and select Hint from the menu. Using the hints given to you, you are guaranteed to win your matches. And against lower ELO players, the matches will be sped up noticeably. If you're using hints, I suggest you play against Lucy (ELO 1006) to gain 2 more achievements
After you have chosen your method and successfully defeated your opponent, you'll receive the following:
Win 1 game (Single Player).
If you defeated them in 5 minutes or less (using hints, you should have unless you played against the very high skilled players) you will receive:
Win 1 game (Single Player) in less than 5 minutes (personal time).
If playing against Lucy, or any other AI with an ELO rating of 1000 or higher, you will also receive:
Defeat a chess personality with an ELO rating of 1000 or more.
Now, I suggest you play (possibly another) match against Stanley, using the same game options as before. This time, if the hint tells you to place him in Checkmate, do not do it. You will want to capture every piece of Stanley's before going for the King. As he is ELO 1, this should be extremely easy for all. After taking out all of that monkey's pieces, go for the Checkmate. This will grant you:
Capture all your opponent's pieces in Classic Chess (Single Player).
At this point you should have at least 2 wins, more if you did not receive Apprentice, Blitzkrieger, and Champ in the same match. You need to reach 20 wins, using whichever method you choose, against any AI opponent. I suggest playing against Pete (ELO 37), and using the following moves. He will always counter the same way, so this method will work every time against Pete.
1: Move Pawn (Space E2) to Space E4
2: Move Bishop (Space F1) to Space C4
3: Move Bishop (Space C4) to Space D5
4: Move Queen (Space D1) to Space F3
5: Move Pawn (Space D2) to Space D4
6: Move Bishop (Space C1) to Space H6, and capture the Black Knight
7: Move Queen (Space F3) to Space F7, and capture the Black Pawn to place the King in Check
8: Move Queen (Space F7) to Space F5, to place the King in Check
9: Move Queen (Space F5) to Space E6, and capture the Black Pawn to place the King in Checkmate, winning the match
After winning 20 games, you will now have:
Win 20 games (Single Player).
You should have just one AI-related achievement left, for playing (win or lose) 100 matches. If you wish to play full games, you may do so. If not, there is an easier way. You can simply quit out of 100 games without making a move, cutting the time down to anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, much much less than playing 100 full games. When the game starts, you don't even need to move. Press Start, and choose Exit Game. When it asks if you if you are sure you want to quit the game, make sure you press X to Resign, do not press A or it won't count as a game played. You can check your progress by going to "Help & Options" from the Main Menu. Select "Player Statistics" at the bottom, then choose "Results". Here you will see your wins, losses, and draws for each single player game type, as well as a total of games played for each game type. Add each of your "Total" column numbers together, and you have your current games played. After you have done this to reach 100 games, you will get:
Play 100 games (Single Player).
You may be done playing AI opponents, but you are not done with Single Player just yet. Now we move on to the Chess Puzzles mode. Select this mode from the Single Player menu, where you last chose Classic Chess. Here you have 8 options for puzzles. There is no limit to how many times you may complete one type of Chess Puzzle, and you may check your progress during a puzzle by looking in the top-left corner, where it says "Puzzles solved:". These are the different puzzle types. In all puzzle types, it can be done through trial and error. If you make a mistake, simply try another piece until you get it right. Wrong answers give no penalty. You may not use the Show Solution option (Pressing Y)
Hung Piece - You are given one piece, amidst a group of opposing pieces. Using your piece, capture the only piece that will not result in the opponent being able to capture you. I suggest this one, as it was the easiest for me to do 30 times.
Find Fork - You are given a group of pieces, as well as your opponent. Find a move that will place one of your pieces in a position where it has 2 enemies to attack the next turn.
Find Check - You are given a group of pieces, as well as your opponent. Find a move that places your opponent in Check.
Mate In One - Your are given a group of pieces, as well as your opponent. Find a move that places you opponent in Checkmate.
Avoid Mate - You are only given your King, amidst a group of opposing pieces. Using your piece, find the one move that will not place you in Check.
Move To Safety - You are given one piece, amidst a group of opposing pieces. Using your piece, find the one move that will not allow the opponent to capture you.
Pin Piece - This mode is more difficult than all the others, in my opinion. You are given a group of pieces, as well as your opponent. Find the move that puts your piece in position to attack your opponent. That opponent's piece must be in a position that, if moved, would open your moved piece to attack a higher ranking piece of your opponent's.
Random Puzzle - A random puzzle from one of the 7 above.
My suggestion is to play Hung Piece 30 times. After 30 wins from either a single puzzle, or a mixture of puzzles, you will receive:
You have now completed all of your single player achievements, and we shall now move on to the multiplayer.
MULTIPLAYER
For this section, I suggest grabbing a boosting partner, as you may have difficulty finding opponents, especially ones that are not highly skilled. Try to find a boosting partner with at least 1200 ELO if possible, as this will save a lot of time in the future.
Select Multiplayer from the main menu, then choose Xbox LIVE, and Ranked Match. Have your boosting partner create a match using the following settings
Game Type: (Whichever game type they have the highest ELO in)
Color: White
Time Method: Minutes Per Game
Time Control: 10 min. / Game
When your partner creates the match, search for it using Custom Match, searching for those settings. If a random player happens to match with your partner first, have your partner quit before making the first move, so their rank will not change. When you match up with your partner, they will make the first move as White player. After they move, they will resign the game, giving them a loss, and you a win. The higher rank they are, the higher you will rise, and the further they will fall. After your first win, you will get:
Win online against a higher ranked player.
Continue doing this until you reach 1200 ELO for:
Achieve an online rating of 1200 in any type of chess.
If you no longer gain any ELO for beating them, then they have fallen too far below your ranking. This is why it is vital for them to quit before moving if matched against a random.
If you have not already received it, continue beating your opponent until you receive:
Win 10 ranked online games.
You now need to switch game types. Using the same settings as before, have your partner create a match for each game type, and quit out after he makes the first move against you. You will then receive:
Win 1 online game in all chess variants.
At this point, I suggest you move to Player Matches from the Xbox LIVE menu, so the following does not hurt your rank. Create a match for any game type, and match up with your partner. Use the same quit-out method as above until you have played 20 total online games (Player and Ranked) to gain:
If you have not received it yet, continue playing against randoms (if you trust yourself not to lose) or find a new boosting partner with a higher ELO score, to keep winning until you receive:
Achieve an online rating of 1200 in any type of chess.
At this point, you should have all 200 Gamerscore in Chessmaster LIVE, Congratulations!! It is a fun game, and a nice brain teaser once in a while. Just remember, help your friends get that 1200 ELO rating online to keep it going!!
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