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CM 8000-Flaws Hamper Program Enjoyment

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Although most of the in-depth comments about this program from other reviewers are correct, I encountered serious bugs, even on Win 98 Second Edition using the latest release of the CM 8000 program. The program crashed a number of times, and basic features (copying a puzzle game from the Classroom to the Game Room, for example, to have the program solve it for mate) did not work at all. Technical support is abysmal. The technicians do not understand the features of the program, provide incorrect information, promise to respond via email when problems are acknowledged but never do, and they are very haughty and condescening. When basic features fail to work, especially when initially exploring the program, these shortcomings seriously underemine the usability and enjoyment of the program. Older versions of Chessmaster, even though they may be lacking some of the advertised enhancements of this latest version, are much more stable. My advice is to wait until reviewer's comments seem to indicate that the program has been further debugged, and the technical support area has cleaned up its act!

CM8000

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I play this on XP and it works fine, didn't even realize other people have problems... Josh Waitzkin's analyzed games are very useful and informative. I spend most of my time in the "classroom." Does Fritz have one of those? I think I'd only get a new program if I run out of classroom features on this one.

Mostly good, but I'd buy Chessmaster 9 or 10 for stability

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought this and it's a pretty darn strong chess program. Has lots of useful features and good master games to play through. Some good teaching components in it as well.
Weaknesses: when you start the game there is a quiz of what's the best move or how to checkmate and it's OFTEN completely wrong! (E.g., sometimes it says checkmate in 2 moves and it's showing the opening setup.) No biggie, tho'. I just clicked thru to the game mode. The worst thing (remedied in CM9 and CM10--I own all 3) is that when you're accessing the pull-down menus and you mouse across horizontally the program freezes almost every time.
If you're careful and don't do this move you're fine. Another annoyance: you have to have the disk IN the drive when you play (also unfortunately true for CM9 and CM10--bad move for them). One more small annoyance: there's a plethora of boards and game pieces and little focus on the 5 most likely to appeal to players. I mean, does ANYONE really play chess using these bizarre star wars-ish pieces??? Just give me lots of nice Staunton and similar pieces and have done w/ it.
But CM9 and CM10 are both great w/ surprisingly excellent play and tutorials across a variety of levels. Don't own CM11 yet.

bells,whistles and aggrevation

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 16
Date: April 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

chessmaster has chosen not to upgrade or patch 5500.this was a fairly simple chess engine that does what a chess program engine should do. set up the board, set the level of play you desire and play chess.set your timer if thats what you want .try and play cafe style chess with 8000.i do not want to spend my time reading a manual or switching disks nor do i give a damn about josh putzke learning centers ,quizes,rating evaluations,personalities (keep it simple stupid._ kiss

Worth it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 7
Date: March 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

It plays well and has many choices. My favorite part is the Kids Room. It is fun and has many different levels to choose from. I reccomend you get this game now!!!

Still buggy after all these years, and not XP-compatible.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I remember buying Chessmaster 8000 when it first came out, for only $13. It comes on 2 CDs. The current version, with a patch, is 1.04; but the patch leaves many bugs unfixed. Furthermore, as I've experienced the same problems others here are reporting with Windows XP (e.g., graphical glitches and program lockups), I must judge the two to be incompatible. After quite a bit of frustration, I did myself a favor and ordered Fritz 10 as a replacement, and am happy with it so far. It has its own bugs, but they're not as serious as those I've encountered in the Chessmaster series. Most importantly, though, I felt it was time for an upgrade to something that could help me take my chess game even farther than the Chessmaster series already has, or can.

If you are still thinking of buying CM8K (Chessmaster 8000), consider yourself warned. The worst problem by far that I've experienced with it is that, under certain ordinary conditions, the game greedily consumes CPU resources and then doesn't free them back up fast enough. Try this little experiment, for a demonstration of what I mean: set up a board with two kings and a rook, with the rook on the 7th rank and the opposite-color king on the 8th. Let the computer play the side having only a king, and see what happens. Even with a fast computer (I have an Athlon 64 3500+ @2.2 GHz and 1GB RAM), the system is brought to its knees: the sound stutters horribly and animation comes to an absolute standstill. You'll never want to finish this game, let alone make another move! Turn the game's sound features off, and the problems don't improve at all - you'll still prefer watching grass grow.

Despite patch releases, there remain many unfixed bugs in the visual aids accompanying Mr. Waitzkin's lessons and various other exercises (pieces and arrows in the wrong place, for example). Furthermore, the graphics in this version are ugly and unwieldly. I prefer a simple 2D chessboard and a few other windows, yet even these on a 1280x1024 screen can overlap each other or otherwise become cluttered.

I would call it barely usable on Windows XP - but since some people are saying they're not having problems, you might not mind trying your luck; just be prepared to count your losses if it doesn't go well. (I think it's worth spending just a little more money on a newer program!)

That having been said, I do feel I benefitted greatly from CM8K's tutorials and training exercises, which are the main reason I bought the software. It delivers a wealth of accessible and very enjoyable instructional material. Everything from the beginner courses to the more advanced lessons and exercises was useful to an intermediate-level casual player like myself. Josh Waitzkin's teaching style, while perhaps a little conceited at times, is pleasant and engaging: he definitely adds some much-needed excitement and enthusiasm to learning to play better chess. He covers some important essentials, especially for end-game play.

Another instructor narrates the beginner- and intermediate-level lessons and exercises. His lessons aren't terribly boring, because they are still highly interactive and to-the-point; yet, his voice is so dull that it's funny. To me, it sounds an awful lot like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey - that alone amuses me greatly. He frequently employs a very dry sense of humor, too. All that aside, though - this teacher's responses to both correct and incorrect play are worth at least a quick read/listen, as they are very instructive even to more advanced players, in my opinion. (I usually just read along, since he speaks too slowly for my tastes.)

While I highly recommend these teaching features for amateur players of any skill level, you'll probably want to try something more advanced after going through it all and then seeing what programs like Fritz and its ilk can do - or if you're a more advanced and experienced player of chess. That's only natural, since progress requires new challenges. You'll probably have to pay a lot more for the next level of software, but it's worthwhile if you want to continue to develop as a player. I'm no tournament player, and have no aspirations to be one, yet I love what Fritz 10 has to offer in the way of game analysis and instruction.

I am nevertheless very glad I owned Chessmaster 8000 first. I might even get Chessmaster 10th Edition, or wait for an 11th edition, if I find Fritz to be as lacking in good intermediate-level instruction as I suspect it is. I can't decide that now, since I've only just started using Fritz.

Biggest bargain for quality chess program

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Got CM8000 for the absolute bargain of $9.95 Australian (approx US$6) as bargain priced "NEW" software. Nothing for even five or ten times the price remotely compares.

Also have chessmaster 10th edition (V10) which runs on my better 256 Mb computer. But CM8000 will even run on my dinosaur Win95 Dell with only 96MbRam and 200MHz chip.

The look and feel of CM 8000 in my view is much better than than the "trying too hard to be modern" look in V10. You can immediately choose lots of skins and boards in CM8000 which have a classical beauty about them. (V10 by comparison has fewer 2D skins but more resource hungry 3D skins and you must "obey chess fuhrer's orders without question" and play a minimum number of games before you are allowed to choose a new one.)

You can also play CM8000 without inserting a disc after installation. (V10 is a bit of a pain in requiring you to insert disc 1 every time you play but most software companies seem to be doing this these days.)

Other reviewer have said how good CM8000 is. In truth it does have some minor flaws as some reviewers have pointed out but on balance I believe its pros far outweigh its cons especially at its bargain price. It is probably as good as anything else on the market (other than a later Chessmaster) under $100. So if you are a kid with a limited budget,have an old computer, or are just starting out in chess as a casual hobby then CM8000 will give you the most bang for your buck.

chess master 8000 hangs on win2k...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: April 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Just for the record, I use Win2K, and the computer hangs in the middle of the games. very annoying.

Pretty Impressive

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 38
Date: January 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

it can be a little labored, having to change
CDs back and forth so much, but
a serious student of the game will find this program
an excellent source of information, and challenges.

if you're not a serious student of the game however, and just like to
win chess games online, this is the one to own.
Here's how:
just find one of the many online chess games, i.e. Yahoo Games,
Internet Chessclub, etc., and find a player.
open the ChessMaster 8000 on your desktop, along side the

gameroom's browser.
duplicate your opponent's move on the ChessMaster.
ChessMaster will move for you, in response.

translate ChessMaster's response for you, onto the online game you're playing.
unless you run into Bobby Fisher online, you'll never lose a game.
i know it doesn't exactly sound fair, but just think of yourself
as an observer.

Note: none of this will work if you have a conscience.

Raghuraman

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 14
Date: July 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Not a good Chess engine. Try Fritz 6 or Shredder or Junior 6, they play much better game than this program.

Shredder is the current World Chess Champion (machine). I am not sure whether ChessMaster was ever tried for World Championship. Programs like Fritz 6, Deep Fritz are used for enjoying the game and at the same time used by experts for anotating & analyzing Games. Fritz 6 was extensively used to analyze games being played during Fide World Championship etc.

Bugs, crashes are not heard of those programs. They run on all the Windows OS. You get very decent programs on these sites.

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