"developing" your pieces really just means moving them into a good position, which is often the middle of the board where they have the most moves available.

I remember my dad renting me this game, and when I played it, it was my first feeling of "wait...this game kind of sucks."

To develop the pieces is to move them from the back line and give them control over central squares and squares on your opponent's side. Basically, don't just get lost moving your first few pieces over and over again while half of your army sits on the back line. Bring all or at least most of them into the game, slowly, methodically, using each one to back up the next so that they are protected from uneven trades. In this way, most or all of your army is in play before you attack, and typically, before you bring out the queen. Something like that.

"oh my god! why am I so bad!" the eternal chess experience

That marble race had more excitement than the whole last season of Formula 1.

This game came out in 1998 and the previous year was the first time a human world champion (Gary Kasparov) was defeated in a match by a computer (Deep Blue). Deep Blue won a game against Kasparov in 1996, but lost the match 4-2.

Crazy they had Virtual Chess 64 back in 1625

This may go down as the greatest marble race of all time

I think that old chess computers fell for sacrifices fairly easily so that might be why sacrificing the queen worked in your case.

When the marble race is the most exciting thing on this video.

« There’s just too much going on », says Thab about a chess board, but not about a 3 min total chaos item abuse tight timer 120 frame perfect inputs New Sup speedrun.

Me going to beasts’ house in 2001: aww no way, you have CHESS?!?

I'm a newbie in chess but I'm pretty sure 'developing' pieces means putting them in places where they can actually do some damage. So out of the back ranks where they're stuck, and more in front and in center.

"My queen and bishop was forked" totally understand 😭😭😭

Hey man. Just wanted to say I love the channel. Beating every game on an old console is a really cool goal. Simple enough, but still a huge undertaking. Best of luck dude, keep it up.

Is that... Is that what the cover art looks like for this game?

Battle Chess was dope back in 93-94. My school had it on our classroom computers. Good times.

After a king's pawn opening, the French defense is black moving their pawn one space, not two spaces

He means all of them

Damn I was really hoping it was going to be Conker's bad Fur Day, especially since you just played a boring chess game. But pokémon is always good. These videos make my morning on Fridays. I'm usually getting on my first break at work so this is a boost for me. Thank you

Titus honestly got screwed over by Warner Bros with Superman 64, they had to follow all sorts of insane requirements, so it wasn't really their fault the game turned out like it did. This game, however, was actually a very advanced piece of chess software for the time, I think the AI even won some kind of prize. But, as a kid, I mainly enjoyed the insane animations lol

Man, this video was hilarious. I could relate so much with finding chess hard to understand. And it is interesting to imagine that chess is one of the oldest games to ever exist. I remember always seeing old guys playing it in the park as a kid with these humongous pieces. I actually had my jaw drop seeing "Hey you pikachu" take the lead. That was my childhood favorite growing up and I know it has not aged that well haha. Great video as usual!

Bro did a Botez gambit like it was a legit strategy as opposed to a meme mocking the Botez's terrible chess 😂

“I am not going to play a single N64 game. And I mean not any of them. And if I were, I’d know exactly which one I’d play next.” - Evil Thab

One time my father mistakenly rented this game thinking it was an adventure game. Worst weekend! I was 7yo I had no idea what chess was! xD

I'm resisting the temptation to skip every gameplay clip in this video to get to the marble race, and I mean all of them

Funny, I remember playing Battle Chess in the late 80's or early 90's. I don't know how the AI compares but I'm pretty sure the piece taking animations were far superior.

Complains about "developing" pieces then proceeds to use the term ad nauseum 😂

The only time I played this game was in a hotel room back when some had N64 controllers in the TVs 😂

wasn't expecting those top 3 for the marble race dang

He means all of them... With each passing video that statement becomes more and more existentially ominous.

I don't expect this to be amazing but I'm here for all of them

These marble races have no right to be this exciting 😆

Fridays are so good. End of the work week and this absolutely awesome N64 game series. 😊😊

That was one of the more exciting marble races haha

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone wasn't published until this game was probably mid-development, but imagine if this game was more like a video game version of wizards' chess as depicted in the 2001 movie? Also imagine if instead of really rough 3D renderings of the chess set, they had used the the best 2½D visuals the N64 could muster, even with no animations - just visually distinct chess sets. Imagine also, if you will, that to progress through the game you beat increasingly difficult opponents, each with visually distinct chess sets. It was actually a decently received game, apparently the chess AI was done pretty well.

Developing your pieces means A) not making repeating moves of the same piece(s) in the opening, and B) getting most of you non-pawn pieces off their starting squares.

100 elo chess in a nutshell

lmfao your commentating of the marble race was the highlight of this one lol your excitement spiked to over 9000 with that wild upset finisher lmao

You should've developed your pieces

Hey you Pikachu is a nightmare. Cant wait!

Now I'm thinking of that Thab vs. Carl chess game

my dad bought this for me to help me get better a chess... I never did get better at chess.. but honestly chess ai has always been pretty legit. My dad had a board in the early 2000s that was computerized and would tell you where to move the computer pieces.

I used to rent it a lot when I was about 9 years old! Especially because was one of cheapest games to rent. About 1 dollar.

This game looked pretty exciting in Nintendo Power 😅

Omg can't wait for next week lol been wondering when this one was gonna show up😂

Well that was the most invested I've been in the marble race so far

This young man's chess abilities are exceptional. His strategic mind never ceases to impress me. Is there anything he can't do?

My mum bought me this for what must have been a birthday present when I was younger. I hated it so much, and she really wasn’t impressed with it, so it’s possibly the only game we ever returned to the store.

I'm glad you developed your pieces.

I loved this game as a kid but never understood those weird characters they used to battle each other lol so strange

Most important thing to do in chess is to cover your own ass. You have to move your pieces as a singular unit, always covering each other. If you lose a piece make sure your opponent pays for it.

Imagine if Thab set the win condition to finishing every chess puzzle

The only thing I understood here was that his Queen and Bishop got "Forked"... and I'm not sure I understood that correctly.

[Chess Simp voice] That blunders a bishop.

Hell yeah Hey You, Pikachu! That was was hella.....well, bad. I can't wait to watch you yell at Pikachu in frustration.

I was the type of teenager who would learn chess just to feel smart. I got ptretty good at it, even to participate in tournaments, but once highschool was over, I was like "Actually...I don't like this game" and haven't touched ever since. Also, I love how the marble race was more exciting than the game, according to how many comments have reacto to it.

Excellent vid as usual, thab. Thank you.

I play a lot of chess, and I enjoyed seeing Thab blunder and then watching his reaction as he realizes the computer is slowly taking his valuable piece from across the board - a feeling all chess players would understand.

You said you don't know why anyone would get this game instead of playing chess online, right after you explained the awesome tutorial section that no other chess game has.

When I leave an elevator alone I press every button, and I mean all of them. This is my journey to making everyone else mad.

I bet the Chess Master from those old 90's chess gamed could trim the herbs!

14:32 All three game titles change to green on the same frame 🤯 that's crazy lol

Hey, it is cool that you liked chess enough to learn opening moves. I am all for people being passionate about stuff they like.

Having to wait 5+ minutes of the computer to make a move on hard mode is actually bonkers. Who would ever want to play that way??

I hope everyone is having a good Friday!

I’m actually mad that hey you Pikachu won.

Bloody ell' the Marble Race segment is always such a treat to watch, it was such a great idea to use the Marble Race to determine what game to do next :)

I'm really into chess and have a friend who mentioned this game, he said it's broken and the computer glitches/cheats. I knew instantly he'd been en passanted as a kid but he refuses to accept it's a legal move to this day.

Even in the 90s, there were better ways to play chess on your own without a computer, like electronic chessboards.

been waiting for this to drop!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉

Thabeast: Develop your pieces. What does that even mean? I hate buzzwords. Also Thabeast in the same video: I developed my knight... You know what the word means because you correctly used it more than once. To develop a piece means to put it onto a square where it does some good. A knight on f3 controls more squares than a knight on h3, for instance. And both a knight on h3 or f3 will do far better than when that knight's sitting at home on g1.

Titus is also the developer of the Prehistorik platformer game series -- so it's not all bad.

Yeah, my chess teachers never taught me anything about the names, so I just figured stuff out as I went and somehow ended up being relatively okay. I’d say the biggest flaw you had was board/safety awareness, like at 8:33 where you could have swept right with the queen to take the pawn without having to threaten with rook. Still would’ve made things annoying cause Bishop would’ve taken pawn at c2, but doing a bit of damage is better than nothing when on the back foot, imo.

definitely not the French defense ;)

I'm gonna write a bunch of stuff up here to keep those looking at the comments from seeing spoilers to the results of the marble race. Still left it vague, stop peaking if you haven't seen it. Heads up, the Mic unit is region-specific and a JPN one will not work with the NTSC game/vice versa.

Wow, that was some horrific chess playing!

Love watching the chat blow up towards the end of the marble races.

When I was a young kid I rented this game from Blockbuster based on nothing but the box art, I didn't even read the name apparently, because I remember getting home and being devastated that it was just a chess game. What a waste of a weekend rental

For a game like chess to be juxtaposed with the most exciting marble race in history is so fitting. Super excited for Hey You, Pikachu! I loved that game as a kid!

19:50 PogChampion dude

People who are the best at chess are those who can memorize theory. The early game is dominated by theory with real skill not really starting until the mid to late game. For a game made so long ago it is still THE game with an almost infinite number of possible game outcomes.

Thab in the thumbnail tho

That marble race was a nail biter lol. Ocarina would have been nice but hey you pikachu should be interesting

That was an insane top 3 in the marble race! :D

trust the process!

This is the game that got me decent at chess as a kid. I destroyed all my peers in 6th grade by a long shot. My skills capped out about there though 😅

I played more hours than healthy with this game back in high school. Yes I was on the chess club. Yes I was a huge nerd. :D

Zelda.... so close to greatness! Hey you Pikachu..... short video incoming! lol

lolol it’s refreshing seeing someone suck at chess as much as I do. loved this video

Every video that goes by that isn't OOT makes me laugh a little bit harder at how far ahead of the release schedule the play schedule is. How long ago was the streaming OOT announcement video now? 🤣 🤣 🤣

I'm so early to this video I can now checkmate someone in Chess in 4 moves.

The funny thing is Titus won a prize for best AI for chess bame back in 1997 or so...

nice i wanna see wtf is up w hey you pikachu lol. btw, you should play both versions, they are different. Play the JP version too!

WILD MARBLE RACE AT THE END!!!

10:38 Btw the fox is Titus' mascot At least they did something right

Thab mentioned yesterday that he was an auctioner before he started streaming. No wonder the marble races are so exciting.

I love the random part but maybe I’d have done them in the order they released. That would be fun too.

I love your videos. Thank you for the free entertainment.

Slayer and Chess sounds like a match made in heaven.