Moreover, a lot of chess software will analyze your games for you and allow you to record them so you can examine your own play.

FORBES: Humans Are Getting Better At Chess - Thanks to Computers

As most Americans ponder the home-run derby between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, software's own Sultan of Swat delights in the sport of mental chess.

FORBES: Digital rules

While chess programs have played at a world-class level for two decades, backgammon software based on the same brute-force approach has never achieved more than a weak intermediate level of play.

ECONOMIST: Stop the war