The last time I played draughts I was roundly beaten by a six-year-old, so I felt far from confident as I settled down to mental combat with this artificially intelligent player. Was it, I wondered, more or less embarrassing to lose to a machine than to a tiny child?

During the first game I found myself thinking that I needn't have worried; I was crushing the thing, Admittedly, it was only on the first of the nine possible levels, but you've got to get your confidence back somehow, haven't you?

As the machine blundered away it was good to see that it was moving very quickly - but so quickly that the human player is sometimes confused as to whose turn it is.

After this magnificent victory I moved up to level four. The program now provided much stiffer opposition and still made its moves reasonably quickly. But even a mediocre player should have little trouble winning.

Screen display in this program is in yellow and green - clear and soothing. One drawback is that the packaging includes no instructions on how to abort a game or restart. But those who like draughts will like Draughts.