I had that Gameboy 4 in 1 Fun Pack game and actually played it quite a bit since it was one of the few GB games I owned.( I think there was also a fun pack 2)

I think Reversi(Othello) was my favorite on there. I played chess on it a bit too, but for any challenge it took too long to move.

Computers are good st chess, not because it can become a math problem, but because they can play out, and keep track of all the possible moves "in their head". They make a tree of all the possible moves so many moves ahead and then make the move that leads to the best board position. They also use databases of openings and end games.

I actually played Atari Video Chess for the first time the other night and was surprised by how decent of a game it played. It was probably on the low end of difficulty compared to modern chess games but the fact its running on a 2600 and doesn't take forever to make a move is pretty amazing.