Virtual Kasparov

The main mode of the Game Boy Advance is the story mode. The player starts with two continents to play on, Africa and the Americas. After four players on one continent are beaten, a fifth opponent is unlocked. When four players from both Africa and the Americas are defeated, two new continents are unlocked Asia (sans Russia) and Europe (sans Russia). Once four players from both Asia and Europe are defeated the player is granted access to the subcontinent of Russia. There are a total of 31 opponents in Virtual Kasparov. Opponents are of various ages, backgrounds, experience levels, and geographic locations. Every opponent has a short backstory in story mode.

The Game Boy Advance version received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Steve Butts of IGN said the same handheld version "suffer[s] from some considerable shortcomings, most notably in the area of presentation. The AI is still good enough to make the game enjoyable and challenging, but the lack of some key features leaves you feeling somewhat unsatisfied." Will Grigoratos of PlayStation Illustrated was pleased with the PlayStation version's 2D graphics, but felt the "3D mode leaves a lot to be desired." Grigoratos called the tutorial for chess beginners "excellent", but concluded the game to ultimately be "a run-of-the-mill chess game, with a few neat frills".