User Reviews (101 - 111 of 152)

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Love It

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Got it for Christmas, and haven't gotten much past the "fun" mode, because that animated game board is so cute. The kids love it. The 3D glasses feature bugs my eyes, but the non-3D glasses 3d-looking sets are pretty nifty. There is one really annoying thing about this software: it wants you to put a disc in every time you open it. The manual says it only requires this occasionally as a copy protection scheme, but it happens every time. That said, it turns out that Ubi has released some patches online, and if you install them each in turn, that annoyance should go away (in December of 2005, the release of the most recent patch was on the main page but it was not included on the downloads page, but you could follow the link to it from the main page).

You must download the patches!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the better programs to improve your game. You must download the patches, because only then will it work like a charm.

Based on the demo version...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 16
Date: July 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The 10th edition of the Chessmaster series looks to be the best yet. Sporting an entirely new (and much easier to use) interface, it should be easier than ever to get a game going against any computer or human opponent. The new edition will also be including a completely redesigned online module, which is supposedly more stable than the one that shipped with CM9000. If the online support is as good as Ubi Soft claims it will be, the CM community should develop into an excellent place to play chess games.

In addition to the usual Chessmaster offerings, the new edition will be featuring a new "Chess Academy" where Josh Waitzkin will review various chess concepts, while Larry Christiansen will review attacking concepts. The newer 3-D chess sets look many, many times more realistic than the old 9000 counterparts. And finally, of course, the King Engine (the brains behind CM) have been updated and improved as well.

Overall, this looks to be an excellent addition to the Chessmaster series and I am looking forward to it.

Extraordinary learning tool if you give it the time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 16
Date: March 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I can't speak to the copy protection issues addressed elsewhere other than to say CMX hasn't had a fraction of a problem with my off-brand DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive.

I came to CMX with virtually no knowledge of chess other than how the pieces move. After playing through Josh Waitzkin's Academy over the course of a week (taking time to meditate on the strategies he introduces) I have become substantially more capable of taking on CMX's excellent chess personalities.

Since then, the system of rated games - after each victory or loss you're set against a new personality of approximately your own level - has helped me improve my vision of the board. By seeing how personalities of roughly your own competence set up challenges and then make exploitable errors, it's just another step to seeing those same schemes and errors in your own play. Furthermore, the option to have CMX go through your game step by step and point out strategic errors personalizes the middle stages of learning to play. (How else could I have learned that the Bowlder attack was "Not simply misguided"?)

Great since I'm a beginner

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I brought two copies of this game. One for me and I gave the other to my brother. I have a Lite-On CD-RW drive and he has a DVD-RW burner by NEC I think. He has it on his Dell. His can burn all formats of DVD and CD disc. I use nero 7 and I don't know what he uses. I also have ISOBuster and Fireburner install. We never had a problem with the game not wanting to install because of copy protection. After installing the game I downloaded the patch that doesn't require the CD of the game in order to play. It can be play off the hard drive.

I like how easy it is to learn how to play chess. Within the first day I knew most of the moves I can make with pieces, all the pieces on the board, and the names of them. For anyone wanting to learn how to play chess, I recommend this game. Before this game, I only knew how to play basic checkers. Now I can play some chess:)

The game is huge! And the booklet has alot of information.
It has hundreds of games that famous people played from I think way back in the 1920s that show you the moves they made, from looking at the pieces on the board being move.
This game is for the Beginner and the Advance.
I can't believe I'm learning how to play, I'm the type that learn by doing things on my own and not by listening to a teacher explain.
I recommend if your not sure, to ahead over to chessmaster.com and download a demo like I did. you'll find yourself wanting the full game!
The only problem with this game is that it uses 100% of your CPU.
I'm happy! Mabe I'll upload a video on google of this game this week.

Great Teaching Aid

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

While Chessmaster is a great way to play a game if you're missing a human opponent, it's real strength lies in its chess lessons.

I've known *how* to play chess for many years but have never really been very good at it. I would usually lose or, at best, stalemate. I knew the rules and the legal moves of each of the pieces but didn't know how to take those and develop more sophisticated strategies and tactics that might take my game to the next level.

Chessmaster has gone a long way towards fixing that. The lessons strike the right balance of information and "quizzes" (quizzes in the form of "white has mate in three moves - find it" and the like).

I can't recommend Chessmaster highly enough! The value for the price can't be beat.

Chess with Children

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I love Chess, and have played this game extensively. For adults this is and incredible chess engine with fabulous tutorials that certainly have brought my game up several hundred points very quickly.

I however bought this with my children in mind as a tool to help them learn chess with hope they would make it fun. The program could use some work on this.

The tutorials are in no way aimed at children as they progress far too quickly and offer very little time to become familiar with a topic before moving on to the next. There is little opportunity for them to practice those skills outside of these lessons and as a result, they have learned very little, and have had no enjoyment going through any tutorial offered.

Second, in an age of incredible graphics and animation, I am severely disappointed with their animated chess sets. They show this fabulous video on their website of how great their animation is, but don't be fooled, it is nothing like that. That is what I bought it for, as the old Battle Chess is just what got me to love chess as a young boy. It is hardly interactive and certainly not terribly inventive.

It seems to me a chess program with an entire children's section should be in some degree designed to encourage chess in young people. It should be fun, interactive and most importantly, make you want to come back and play it. Instead, it is little more interesting for children then solitaire.

So if you are an adult, this program is wonderful, I certainly have enjoyed it. If you are a family, well I don't know if their is anything better out there, but take a look. I will say it was worth the money, I just wish they could truly have their kids section more pointed towards children instead of being the same as the adult with little more than a child's font.

So in essence, I simply wish this had been more. But don't worry, I found the old battle chess on yahoo, and the kids love it. They sit for hours trying to get one particular piece to kill another, just because they want to see it. But they are learning much more in the process.

Great game, but has bugs.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The best thing about his game is the chess academy. It has English audio, which you won't get if you just download this game from some torrent site. Just buy it, it's only $20. Josh Waitzkin's teachings and commentary is excellent. His academy alone is enough to buy the game.

The bad and disappointingly things about this game are the bugs, many of them. The "play online" feature doesn't work; it returns error 50, great, nice error message, as if I'm supposed to know what do now. The software also aborts when you're playing a chess game and your switch boards, so avoid doing that. The 2D board selection is poor. Chessmaster 9000 had a much better selection of 2D boards.

PLAY S'UM CHESS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: March 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I really enjoy and approve of this product. The opponents are challenging (and go way over my ability if I am in the mood to be crushed), the lessons and exercises are helpful, and the online games are fun and a nice way to meet other chess comrades. If you want to play s'um chess and get better at it, this is the product for you.

I'm not going to buy it after all

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 18
Date: December 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I was going to buy this because I had a version many years ago and it was great. But after reading these reviews I changed my mind. Thanks for the warnings! No way would I purchase software that required me to play directly from the cd. And I don't think it should be the consumer's job to go looking online for a patch. It's amazing how some companies shoot themselves in the foot in their zeal to be "safe." I'm glad I was warned before I bought this as it spared me a lot of frustration.

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