Gadget Adviser: In this chess game, you get to make the call.

Byline: Eric Gwinn

The new "Kasparov Chess" mobile game from Glu ($1.99-$3.99 monthly or $5.99-$7.99 one-time purchase) is available for most phones, except smartphones. You can play a five-minute blitz game or use the correspondence mode and send one move per day and play multiple games at the same time.

We corresponded by e-mail with chess master Garry Kasparov on the latest title to bear his name:

Q. When playing on a mobile phone, how do you concentrate on chess amid all the background noise?

A. To a chess player, the only environment that really matters is the one in your mind. If you can learn to control that and focus in a noisy chess club or playing in a park, or on the stage of a world championship match, you can do it while playing on a cell phone. Like anything new, it might take some getting used to.

Thanks to the popularity of chess software and chess on the Internet, there are already probably more people playing chess on computer screens than with the wooden boards and pieces I grew up with.

Q. What was your role in developing this game?

A. I traveled to California twice to meet with their designers and we had several feedback sessions. Then they would send me the latest version and a friend and I would play with it for a while and I'd send back my thoughts.

Q. Against a human opponent, you can read the eyes and body language to determine if he's aggressive or defensive, so you know if he's setting up an attack or a bluff. There are no such signs against a computer opponent. What other human-versus-human elements are missing from a human-versus-cell phone chess matchup?

A. Of course the psychological element is missing, but I have a lot of experience against computer opponents, and there is still specific preparation you can do. (Computers) have distinct personalities, too, with strengths and weaknesses. What's missing in general is the sense of competition, the excitement of matching wits against another person.

I think anyone would agree that it's totally different winning or losing against another human. Your competitive fires get burning. Plus, there's the social element. Chess can really be an international language.

Q. Which is your preference: To play as white or to play as black?

A. Every chess player knows it's an advantage to be white, so that would always be my preference. But if you want to improve it's best to be balanced and play an equal number of games with black and white.

___

(c) 2007, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

_____

TO SUBSCRIBE TO PLUGGED IN

Items in the Plugged In package are not included in your MCT News Service subscription. You can subscribe to the Plugged In package or purchase the items a la carte on MCT Direct at www.mctdirect.com. To subscribe, please call Rick DeChantal at Tribune Media Services at (800) 245-6536 or rdechantal@tribune.com. Outside the United States, call Tribune Media Services International at +1-213-237-7987 or e-mail tmsi@tribune.com.

___

PHOTO (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099).

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.