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Good chess teacher, reservations about software

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 28 / 29
Date: June 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Don't know how to play chess? Wish you could play better? Looking for an all-inclusive tutorial program, plenty of classic and well-annotated games, a monster chess engine, and hundreds of chess puzzles that will make you a better player? This game is for you. Looking for a perfect chess program with robust programming, good graphics and sound, and easy of use? That chess program hasn't been written. Hopefully we'll see that in Chessmaster 10K.

The Chessmaster series is far and away the best chess software out there for people who are serious about learning chess. A lot of work went in to preparing this program to be just that. Unfortunatley not a lot of work went into the interface, which is horrible. The graphics could have been improved with minimal effort - the 3D boards are so horrendous they might as well not have been included. It is difficult to navigate from one section to another. The online feature is particularly poorly designed and basically useless - but there are so many free online services that I consider that irrelevant.

Despite its flaws, this game is still the game to buy. If you are a novice and think playing this game's tutorials will make you a master - think again - but plenty of games against Chessmaster's excellent "personalities" of all levels will prepare you for serious play and certainly make you a better chess player. Chess players seeking to hone their skills will find this program incredibly useful, since the mentoring aspect and advanced strategy sections are complete and easy to understand.

This is definitely a program to own if you are interested in chess. Those seriously concerned with sound and graphics may want to hold off until the next version, but if you intend to start playing chess now, click and buy this software now. At less than $40, it is an amazing value compared to expensive chess books.

Review by Class A chess player

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 34
Date: May 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

As a class "A" chess player rated at 1850, I can say that chessmaster is probably the best chess program available if you are serious about chess and want to improve your game. If you are looking for better graphics, it doesn't have a whole lot to offer (in fact, it doesn't even have my favorite "bird's eye" view like CM 5000). However, there are so many tutorials on every aspect of chess that it is almost certain that you will come across something you didn't already know. One could easily spend a month going through all the tutorials and annotated games it has.
Also, the skill level has increased to being on par with the world champions (appx. 2800). If you are a novice chess player, then you probably won't notice the increase in skill level (it will whip you like all other chess programs), but if you are an advanced player, then you CERTAINLY will notice the difference. I could at least make CM 5000 work for its victory, but CM 9000 freakin' demolished me! It has improved my game significantly, and renewed my interest in the game.

The best way of learning chess

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 21
Date: May 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

It becomes clear that a system, a habit or a routine is in place when critiques of the perennial Chessmaster always begin with a few diatribes. How do we justify the purchase of a fully priced Chessmaster this year compared to the previous edition? Then the reviewers turn towards the product feature sheet. What's added? Is the artificial intelligence improved? Is it noticeable? I think the artificial intelligence has progressed so much that a good majority of Chessmaster players can't tell the difference. The final question always boils down to: Whether it warrants purchasing. I don't think any other game has caused critics to ask this question so much that game reviewers themselves are turning into cynical Wall Street analysts. Where are the profits? What's your guidance? Do you have positive cash flow? How can you justify your share value?
Humor aside, Chessmaster has actually gotten friendlier with the years to come. Nowadays, you can find a simple game of chess, even multiplayer chess on casual gaming sites. Yahoo and MSN, for example, feature parlor activities for new players. I know at least a few non-gaming peers who take part in these and think it's a way to cool off from a day's work. So why in the world would these people buy Chessmaster? So they can be beaten in a few more million ways? Yes, but Chessmaster 9000 also features a bundle of high points to turn any casual player of chess into a pro.

Still, it can be intimidating. Chessmaster has a refined kids-look now to cater to the young ones. You get to play with players of your own age (if you were 8 or 10 years old) and the layout becomes a lot simpler. For example, you won't be bogged down with the A3 to A2 type of speak. There are also tutorials and quizzes to guide you through the game. These are lengthy in nature. I believe one of the tutorials to explain and test you on forming forks and defenses ran at least 170 dialogue pages (not actual pages but still) which are fully narrated. The tutorials usually explain what the objective of the particular lesson is and then follows it up by guiding you through a few set matches. After that, they'll give you traps and puzzles from which you are to make the correct move. It's good for a refresher but most tutorials, even for simple things like capturing pawns en passant, run at least twenty dialogue pages. So if you are prepared to go by the book, you're going to commit some time to it.

The most productive way of learning, I found out, was just playing the game itself. You can select from a variety of players and as you play more games, you'll find out your true rating compared to the professionals. Chessmaster will also pitch similarly classed players against you but I found at every level, they were pretty smart; not prone to make any overtly stupid moves. The piece de resistance of this part is the fact that you can take back your moves anytime you want. Chessmaster won't punish you for it. And, the game has aids to show a lot of things to help you develop your game. You can have pieces that are threatened turn slightly transparent. A blunder monitor lets you know if you're about to expose your defense. It doesn't work constantly, per se. I've had it not warn me about some very bad moves but it keeps you on your toes. There's also a coach that'll constantly give predictions and analyze a defined number of moves ahead (by default it's ten) for you, so you can benefit from the artificial intelligence. But these aids are all in chess notation, so if you're not comfortable reading letters and numbers, you might want to try the analysis function which takes a few seconds timeout to churn out an end-game strategy for you. I'm not about to judge whether these strategies beat real computers like Deep Blue (in fact, they rarely work out the way the computer thinks it will) but I imagine it's doing something good if it chews up about 50% of my CPU time while I idle.

Chessmaster includes a comprehensive glossary of opening moves and defenses you can pull, organized by name. Savvy players can even search its libraries by moves. The best resource by far for learning is the classical library of chess matches included. It also happens to be the strength of this game, in my humble opinion. A number of brilliant matches from the 19th century up until last year are recorded here. Each game begins with a little blurb on how the match was setup and what its significance was to the world of chess. Chessmaster 9000 not only replays these classics but also offers analysis at crucial junctions. What if Kasparov did this instead of that against Deep Blue? How did Kramnik beat Kasparov to dethrone one of greatest chess players of our time? You can see it all play out and I only wished the chess mentor could offer such advice at critical junctures in my own games but that may be asking for too much.

Finally, Chessmaster 9000 plays its multiplayer over ubi.com, which supervises all the ranked and tournament games. You can also play directly over TCP/IP or LAN. Chessmaster's engine lets you save your moves at any time, even dump your game to ASCII boards, so it's great for people who need material to try to improve their game. But for novices, you might be better sticking with the parlor players unless you really want to improve your chess game.

first class

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 22
Date: July 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The finally got their act together. I originally used version 5500 with good results. Then I tried a version between 5500 and 9000 and it was dismal. They subscribed to the software philosophy of switching features instead of adding features. This version 9000 has all of the features with none left out. They finally got their act together.

There is one problem. On my XP SP2 computer every 50 times I shut down the program the computer hangs up and I have to hold the power button down until the computer shuts down. Then I restart the computer. It is best to run this program when no other programs are running.

CM9K on WIN2K ...YES!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 21
Date: September 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Absolutely no problemo on a Dell 530 workstation running Windows 2000! ...

Quick observation - it's the best CM ever. The defaut settings are more appealing in the past - a lot more mix and match with the pieces and boards - although I still like the black and white metal with the black and white figurine sthe best.

Rated games with winboard engines - that's cool. (You can use CM9K with over 200+ freely available WINBOARD chess engines - that's like having the ability to play over 200 different chess programs - all from within the CM9K GUI)

The biggest ++++ - besides the world class engine with all the goodies and much larger tournament capability - IM Josh Waitzkin's "The Psychology of Competition" course. That is a top tier chess course that alone is worth MORE than the [money]. If you had to pay for a chess lecture that good - you would easily pay [much more money]. He's an excellent speaker and makes very good analogies and points regarding chess competition. Anybody who listens to the full course will play better in their next tournament IMO.

This program will be a top seller and is a great stocking suffer for anybody interested in chess from the raw beginner to the master and above level

I have never been a big fan of the CM series - but they started to win me over with CM8K - they hit a home run here.

Congrats to the Cm9K team!

Excellent for a wide range of players

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: November 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is an excellent chess program that will be challenging and instructive for just about all levels from beginners to at least 1500 ( I wouldn't know beyond that but I'm sure it could give just about anyone a test). I've tried Kasparov's Checkmate and this is definitely better. I have not tried Fritz. The ability to toggle the skills of the computer opponent is very valuable and makes the program useful both for myself and for my 8 year old son. Having fictional players in the computer (with pictures and everything) also makes it fun -- you get to climb your way up the rankings. That personal element is especially fun for juniors. The program is also very good with managing tournaments, where you can play a variety of ordinary or club level players or even one of the many historical grandmasters whose profiles are available.

Incidentally, I don't have a very large screen and I was not distracted by any graphics issues. I found it all to be quite clear and simple.

I can't imagine a better chess program.

Decent program and Excellent value for the money

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: December 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

CM9000 offers excellent value for your money. You will get very good graphic, decent playing modes, training modes, fun drill, ok quizzes, etc,... Some lectures are good as well.

I never had any problems with Windows XP on my 3 year old PC. Also, a nice feature - you don't need to insert the original disk every time, only once in awhile.

My only complain is - when you select opponent Under 1500, as I did to observe some of my younger students playing, the program plays in a weird way. It makes terrible moves at first and then begins playing strong. This would not be an unusual opening for 1300 PC player "Annie" playing as Black - 1.e4 e6 2.d4 Ke7. Another words - when you want CM to play like 1300, CM plays like 500 for a several moves and then like 2400.

Overall - far from superb, but excellent value for your money. For children beginners, I would strongly suggest Learn to Play with Fritz and Chesster. For older and stronger players CM is OK, also check other products from the Fritz "family."

One of the more important things is to be able to properly evaluate your current level and find how to improve. You may want to check my new book - Chess Exam and Training Guide: Rate Yourself and Learn How to Improve - to get accurate self-evaluation and more suggestions on books and software appropriate specifically for you.

Laptop users beware of this product

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 19 / 21
Date: March 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

UBI Soft uses some inane "CD Refresh" copy protection so that you have to keep the CD with you constantly. If you have travel with any frequency, it's just not worth the trouble to use their software.

Challenging and Exciting Chess

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: February 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Chessmaster 9000 is a nice improvement on Chessmaster 7000, the version I previously owned. The graphics are better, there are a few more nice features. Overall it is an excellent product.

This can be a very valuable training tool

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: October 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If you've never been exposed to Chessmaster before, you need to. With a multitude of opponents with varying degrees of abilities, you will always be able to play a game against someone comparable to yourself. The courses are very useful, not only for those who are just learning to play, but also for those who have been playing for years and are wanting to improve their game. On the other hand, if you already own Chessmaster 8000, there is no compelling argument to upgrade to 9000. There are some lessons that have been added, and new boards and sets, but otherwise there really have not been any serious changes.

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