Mastering chess can be difficult. Very difficult. Even if you have time, patience and a gift for strategic thinking, you’ll still need to find plenty of challenging opponents to develop your skills.

Still, if you’re running short of real-life candidates then you could always turn to your computer, where there’s plenty of help for players of every level.

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As much we like to believe that computers are helping the world to connect, and enabling people to learn, let's be honest -- people just want to game. We all convinced our parents at a young age that we needed a PC to write papers and access things like Encarta encyclopedia, but our true desire was Wolfenstein 3D.

It's not just computer users that want to get in on the gaming -- companies want to do it too. A good example is Microsoft. Sure, the company creates some amazing productivity software like Word, Excel and Access, but it also makes the Xbox. In other words, the company likes to work hard and play hard. Today, the company acquires SyntaxTree, which shows a commitment to gaming.

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When it comes to tapping into our fondness for old computing and gaming platforms, Stella has always been at the forefront. This cross-platform Atari 2600 VCS emulator first saw the public light of day back in 1996, and now -- 18 years later -- it may just have delivered it most significant update yet with the release of Stella 4.0.

Version 4, also available in 64-bit form, sees the emulator ported across to SDL2, which brings many new features and performance improvements.

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When it comes to portable gaming, the iPad and whole ensuing tablet explosion saw the start of a shift away from traditional gaming handhelds, and a new piece of research has underlined this with the news that tablets have now outdone the Nintendo 3DS.

The study from Futuresource Consulting posed over a hundred questions to children aged three to twelve across the UK (and also the US, Germany and China). It found that in the UK, tablets are now the most popular personal device owned by kids -- with 44 percent having a slate, meaning that they've overtaken the 3DS as top gaming dog.

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Google I/O 2014 started yesterday and, thanks to a lengthy first-day keynote, the search giant has already made plenty of headlines one after another. And for good reason, as it unveiled new software, new hardware (albeit none of it was Nexus-branded) and a number of sweeping changes to its portfolio. Say what you will, but Google sure had plenty of interesting things to show without even announcing a new Nexus tablet (as we were used to in the past two years).

The amount of information from the conference is overwhelming, so here is the tl;dr version.

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One of my favorite movies as a kid was Back to the Future 2. In it, Marty McFly, the protagonist, shows off his gaming skills to a bunch of kids using an old Wild Gunman arcade machine. The children scoff at his efforts, as you play the game with hands. The children explain that only baby-toys require you to use your hands! Sadly, in 2014 we are still mostly playing games with our hands, with the exception of some novelties with Kinect and others.

Today however, Steelseries announces a new product that will enable future PC games to interact with your eyes. Yes, you will eventually be able to control games using your peepers, but that functionality is a ways off. The immediate functionality is video game training and coaching. You see, the camera watches you playing the game and analyzes your eyes so it can train you later. Creepy? Kind of. Cool? Absolutely.

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From the moment the Xbox One went on sale, I've been silently waiting for drivers for the controller to be released for Windows. While I am sure the actual console is awesome, I simply don't game enough to buy it. However, I do casually game on my PC, so I want to own the best controller.

Earlier today, my waiting ended, as Microsoft released the drivers I desire. I ran down to my local Walmart to buy the limited-edition Titanfall controller. Why did I buy that one? It looks cool and only cost $5.00 more. As soon as I got home, I ripped-open the box, inserted the batteries and plugged it in. After installing the drivers, I was off to the races. But how well does it work on Windows?

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I love First-Person shooter video games such as Call of Duty and Quake 4. For that genre of game, my trusty keyboard and mouse is the optimal way to interact with my on-screen character. However, for all other games like fighting, racing and platforming, I need and demand a quality controller. While there are many to choose from, the Xbox 360 controller has proven to be the most reliable and comfortable for many. Drivers exist for Windows, so gamers can connect it by USB or buy a wireless variant and dongle.

Sadly, Xbox One controller drivers have been absent for Windows. This is puzzling as Microsoft is behind the controller and operating system. This new controller is wonderfully built and designed, so gamers have been eager to use it on their PC gaming rigs. Well, today the wait ends -- Microsoft has finally delivered the drivers we have been waiting for.

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The evolution of the computer mouse is well documented. When the first mouse was invented, I am sure no one at the time expected to predict the insane future that gaming mice would create. For the most part, people can get by with a 2 button mouse -- hell, Apple stuck with the single-button mouse for quite a while, punishing its users for some ungodly reason. But I digress, extra buttons such as back/forward and scroll wheels are appreciated extras that many cannot live without.

Gaming mice however, take things to a different level; the craziest I've ever seen being the Logitech G600 MMO mouse that features 20 programmable buttons. Today, ROCCAT unveils a new mouse with 16 programmable buttons, spread out across the pointing device. While that does not best the previously mentioned G600, it does have something extremely odd -- a dorsal fin. Yes, much like a dolphin, this mouse has a dorsal fin. Please let that sink in for a minute.

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Believe it or not, system builders are a diverse set. Some people focus on looks, others on performance and some on value. However, gamers are typically the ones that push the boundaries with performance and high-costs when building rigs. While some people will write-off video games as a silly time waster, they are actually a vital driver of personal computing innovation. Hell, it is also good financially for the hardware business -- new games need better hardware and gamers are willing to pay to play.

Beyond expensive video cards and overclocked CPUs and RAM, gamers are constantly looking for a way to gain an edge. Anything that can make a game load faster, even by seconds, is extremely attractive to them. Today, SanDisk announces the Extreme PRO SSD -- a storage solution for gamers that want to utilize SATA III rather than much costlier options. PlayStation 4 owners will want to take notice too.

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When you think of gaming PCs, your mind may immediately conjure huge ATX towers with LED lights, and massively large and expensive graphics cards. Yes, the rigs of many a gamer will resemble the previously envisioned computer. However, why does it have to be this way? Not all PC video gamers are teens looking for flash and pizzazz. No, some of them are adults and want something more mature and subdued.

Today, MSI unveils gaming all-in-one desktops that are mature and tame in design, but still sexy. The machines pack a significant amount of power, but the footprint on a desk will be no more than a typical monitor. In other words, the gaming PC has grown up.

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When it comes to computer building, Asus is one of the top brands; I am speaking from experience here. Building systems is one of my favorite hobbies and when selecting a motherboard or graphics card, Asus is always one of the brands at the top of my list. Of course, with great quality sometimes comes a high cost, but while Asus hardware sometimes costs more, I respect the adage of "you get what you pay for". I am willing to pay more for reliable, well-built components, whether it is Asus or other manufacturers.

Today however, Asus turns the volume up to 11 with a new gaming brand called Strix. What does "Strix" mean? The company says "taken from the ancient Roman and Greek word for owl, Strix means the keenest hearing and sharpest eyesight. Strix means feeling your environment so that you detect and react to the slightest movement. Strix means survival on the very edge of instinct. Strix is in your blood, as it is in ours". Deep stuff, bro. What does it mean to me? Kick-ass gaming hardware! Check this stuff out.

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Germany and Nazism have history; one doesn’t have to be much of a history buff to know that. But the aftershocks of Hitler's Germany are still being felt; the country is still rather sensitive, shall we say, about the whole idea of the Nazis. So touchy, in fact, that as part of post-World War Two denazification the display of Nazi symbols (or "use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations") is illegal. This presents an issue for the game Wolfenstein which concerns itself largely with escaping from Nazis, killing Nazis, tracking down Nazis... there are lots of Nazis involved. Ultimately this meant that the popular game series was banned from Germany since it was first conceived back in the early 80s.

The latest installment in the series, Wolfenstein: The New Order, is set in the 1960s after a Second World War won by the Nazis. But this time around the game got a German release -- yesterday in fact. Bethesda's Pete Hines said last month that Germany has "a thing about Nazis", describing the country as "a little touchy" about the subject. So how was the release possible? This is not because the country has relaxed its laws -- the display of Nazi-related material can still result in a three year jail term -- but because the game has been censored.

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The web browser has become one of the most important inventions of all time. It has become ubiquitous in our lives -- hell, for some of us, it has become our lives. Many of us spend hours on the web, navigating around with Safari, Chrome or Internet Explorer to name a few. And so, the browser has actually become a computing platform in itself. Google's Chrome OS and Mozilla's Firefox OS are both built with that philosophy in mind.

Today, the ever-increasingly cool Microsoft announces that it has teamed up with Ubisoft to bring Assassin's Creed: Pirates to Internet Explorer (and other modern browsers too) by embracing HTML5 and other technologies. The results are breathtaking.

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The past week was one dominated by privacy and security related stories. A court ruling in Oracle's favor means that the company is able to claim copyright protection for APIs subsequently used by Google in Android. The long term effects of the ruling are yet to be understood, but they could certainly be far-reaching. Privacy hit the headlines again as SanDisk works on a self-encrypting SSD, and Google was told that users can request that information about them be removed from search results -- of course it didn't take long for the requests to start rolling in.

New research shows that there has been an increase in online suspicion, indicated by a huge increase in the levels of encryption used. The UK government approved the use of Samsung KNOX devices which could help to allay fears about BYOD. Google announced GAME -- Google Apps Message Encryption -- to provide end-to-end encryption for email outside of the Gmail ecosystem.

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