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If chess is a little too violent for your delicate sensibilities, if you'd rather run away than attack and capture, perhaps you need Pensate from Penguin Software.

In this game, the object is simply to get from the bottom of the 8 x 8 board to the top while avoiding the computer's pieces.

The computer has ten different pieces available, some of which move in a different way depending on how you move. The direction arrows always move the way they are pointing, but the other pieces are more devious.

For example, the piece with black and white arrows always moves in the opposite direction to you. The piece which looks like a continental roundabout sign moves left or right if you move up or down, and moves up or down if you move right or left.

The two horse pieces have a chess knight's move, but in a particular direction depending on which way you go.

There are two basic modes - practice and tournament - and you'll need to start in the former. In this, you can choose which pieces the computer has on the board and also their starting positions.

In practice mode it's very easy to win if you're desperate to. Simply give the computer a couple of pieces that will do nothing but move out of your way.

Of course, the more interesting games are played in tournament mode. Here you get to specify the skill level at which you play and this determines the complexity of the playing pieces which the computer chooses for itself.

However tournament mode also requires you to play at least two moves ahead. That is, you specify your next two moves each time.

Your first move is taken, then the computer moves its pieces one at a time. Then this process is repeated with your second move, following which you specify your next two moves.

Once you really get the hang of it you can choose to play up to four moves ahead. If the computer has a few complex pieces on the board it can get quite tricky to see into the future.

You win by getting to the top of the board and you lose by coinciding with one of the other pieces. However if one of the computer's pieces lands on another it makes it own move again.

The computer has the added advantage that its pieces "wrap around". If they hit the edge they reappear at the opposite edge. If your pieces hit the edge they get flat noses.

While you're learning, you can set the speed option to slow and watch the pieces make their moves. The manual promises that once you've mastered the moves "a faster speed will allow victory to come swiftly". Yes, but victory for whom?

At lower levels, Pensate is a little tame and you get blase about the victory tune. However, once you get involved and move up a few levels it's a real brain-bender. It's then that the tune becomes a true reward.

The facility to start very simply makes Pensate a very accessible game, but don't be fooled. If it grabs you it could change the way you move around the office.