User Reviews (1 - 11 of 51)

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Not supported on Windows 2000 or NT

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 63 / 94
Date: November 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game crashes in various places on Windows 2000. I reported the problem to The Learning Company and received a snotty email back from them saying: "We have experienced no problems with Chessmaster 8000 on Windows 2000 or Windows NT platforms. However, Chessmaster 8000 does not officially support Windows 2000 or Windows NT" So they basically denied there was a problem and blew me off to boot! What great customer service!

No Windows 2000 or Windows XP support

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 31 / 38
Date: September 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This wonderful product will not run on any Windows after ME.
UBI doesn't even plan to upgrade Chessmaster even though Microsoft will stop producing and supporting the Windows versions that Chessmaster runs on. The product is fine on older machines but will eventually die out unless UBI sees the light and makes Chessmaster useable on the newer operating systems.

Doesn't work on current operating systems.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 32 / 38
Date: June 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game might be fun. The problem is, it doesn't run on any operating systems that have been made in the past FOUR YEARS! Unbelievable as that may sound, it is true. The game will only run on Windows 95 and 98. So, if you have an old computer laying around with one of those operating systems on them, you might have good luck.

However DO NOT believe the reviews that say that this product works with Windows XP or Windows 2000. It does not. When you run the program, the menus do not show up. Therefore, the only thing you can do is play with default settings. There are graphical glitches where grey boxes hang around if you attempt to select a menu option. This obscures the view of the chess board, rending the game useless. The game locked up on me within 5 minutes of playing, and had to be forcibly terminated.

This is just a warning to those who don't have 95 or 98. It is not worth the money. Ubi Soft has stated on their website that they will not be supporting, or writing patches for any current operating systems. It doesn't matter if the OS is obsolete by 4 years (such as 98) or even worse by 7 years, such as 95.

Outdated already. Incompatible with newer Windows versions.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 25
Date: November 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

ChessMaster was once the best chess software on the market for most players, but now UBI seems to have abandoned the program. The newer version contains more fluff than earlier versions, but actually fewer options as to setting up custom boards, etc..

MOST importantly, this is not compatible with any of the newwer versions of Windows, and will shut down at a moment's notice, with no provocation, making it totally worthless. Even Windows' compatibility wizard cannot help this completely flawed program work.

It is a shame that UBI has obviously chosen to abandon ChessMaster and let some other software producer (as of yet, not shown themselves) take the lead in thie genre. They used to make a great product, but have chosen not to keep up.

UBI stated in their technical help that they have no intention of making a version compatible with the newer Windows versions, and MS has no intention of continuing to produce the older versions of Windows.

The question that keeps coming to mind is; Why bother to make this program at all since it was obsolete before it was released?

Absolutly the worst program I have ever used!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 18 / 27
Date: July 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is with out a doubt the worst program of any kind I have ever bought! I mean it is real bad! It crashes so much I can't use it. There are so many things wrong with it I would have to write a book to list them all. Not only can I not finish a game of chess, but I can’t use the other features, such as Josh's game reviews. It is really a shame because the program has great potential. I have Chessmaster 6000 and it crashes quite a bit also, but Chessmaster 8000 is ridiculous! [...] I give credit where credit is dew, but this program is the worst, period. I contacted “The Learning Company”, the folks that brought us this program, and they offered nothing but a bad attitude! I wont be buying any more of there products you can bet on that. If you are looking for a good chess program look to “FRITZ 6” for carefree gaming fun. Hope this review helped. Sincerely, Chris

Stick with Chessmaster 7000

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 21
Date: December 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Stick with Chessmaster 7000 at least it will run 90% of the time.

I have 7000 and at least I can play games with it.

Just bought Chessmaster 8000 and out of 4 games on the 4 or fifth move my computer locked up each time (4 times). I can't get it to play a complete game.

I had no problem going through the classrooms. But, that is not what I bought 8000 for I thought it would be better than 7000.

NO WAY!!!!!

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.

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

Unfortunately Horribly Buggy on Win2k Pro

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 22 / 23
Date: May 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User

After getting trounced in chess games at ... I decided to buy this latest version of the Chessmaster series in order to actually begin learning the game of chess.

People seeing the VERY low rating I am giving this program should understand that the program is packed with goodness. In fact, it IS a 5 star program. A grand master goes over games of note, explaining all the moves he could have made, followed by the move he actually played. This I found facinating. You can play any of a large number of computer players, (all levels) and even customize the difficulty. The tutorials on the movement of the pieces are great for beginners.

Where Chessmaster 8000 suffers is that it is incredibly buggy. I've had this program for a day and it has crashed more than a dozen times!!!

I sincerely hope a patch that addresses this terrible problem is released soon. It clearly devalues the obviously great effort that was put into the product's creation.

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.

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