User Reviews (21 - 31 of 108)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Customer abuse

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 20 / 24
Date: August 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game itself is OK--not great, mind you, but OK. But to be unable to play a piece of software that I paid a lot of good money for until I get up from my computer, track down the disk, insert it, take it out, put it back on the shelf, etc., etc., is such abominable customer abuse that I've now had enough! I refuse to play this game anymore and will NEVER buy a Chessmaster game again. I find it incredible that so many people are willing to put up with this garbage! I have scores of software disks I've bought over the years and Ubisoft is the ONLY one that makes me prove over and over again that I'm not cheating them out of their money. Do NOT buy this game unless you think this gross customer abuse is the way things should be!

great program

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 16
Date: September 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I was waiting for the longest time for UBisoft to make Chessmaster compatible with XP. In this version, CM 9000, they did it and they did it well. This is a great program. It might not have a fancy an engine as Fritz or Hiarcs, but for 98% of the population, this program works just fine. The graphics are better than any other chess program and Josh Waitzkin is just great in his virtual chess master classes. i highly recommend this program to anyone wanting to improve her chess game!

Everything works fine

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: January 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Some of the previous reviews are a little hard on this program. Just for the record, I am running windows XP Home on a two year old computer and haven't had a single problem with this program. The screen can get cluttered if you try to have all the windows open at once, but once you decide on two or three side windows that you like it remembers where you put them and behaves itself. The chess tutorials are top notch, and you only have to put the CD in once every 25 sessions or so, which makes it better than a lot of games I've played.

My advice is: If you are thinking about it, don't let the negative reviews scare you off. If you have an older computer, you can play Chessmaster 7K and the only substantial thing you'll be missing is the silly True 3D boards. Everything else is pretty much the same.

No, I don't work for the company.

I'm not impressed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 16 / 18
Date: February 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

First of all, I want to point out that I run this program on Windows 2000 and have had no trouble...

With that said, I really haven't gotten much out of this game, and I have a few specific complaints. First, I would say that the tutorials are very limited in benefit to anyone that is not a beginner. They explain some concepts of the game, but I have found a couple of questionable moves. Moreover, I have found at least one move that I'm sure is very strong, but the tutorial refuses to even consider it. The same problem will explain why other moves are incorrect, but it totally ignores this one. I have studied the position for a while, and I am sure my move is much better than some of the ones it will analyze. I'm not an incredibly insightful player. If I am finding mistakes, then I can't help but wonder how many others there are.

I also dislike playing against the computerized personalities. In the gameroom, the Blunder Alert feature is a waste of time. It may help true beginners avoid hanging pieces, but on an intermediate level it will warn you when you're about to make intelligent moves. As recently as last night, the game warned me when I was about to play. Although I felt my initial move was strong, I followed the program's advice. I still won, but when I ran the game through the analysis feature, it called the "improved" move an error, and suggested my initial move as the proper line... very frustrating. Also, the computer personalities are incredibly inconsistent. I've seen solid opponents hang the queen, and I've seen 800 rated opponents play impressive tactical combinations. When I play this game, I'm primarily trying to practice at a specific skill level, but the opponents strength seems too random...

Overall, I'd say this game is fine for someone who wants to develop basic chess skills on a casual level. However, anyone that is interested in truly increasing their chess skills would be far better served by a program like Fritz from Chessbase.

Finally, after all these years

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: January 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have been a chess player since early childhood, and, with the coming of the computer age, I have played computer chess with almost every commercially available chess program (I own most of them). For the past few years, I have used chess software to aid in endgame studies (a specialized branch of chess study). In my vast collection of studies, I have at least 4 or 5 that have defied analysis by commercially-available software - until now. CHESSMASTER 9000 knocked out all of these studies in less than 5 minutes - I was simply blown away. I cannot recommend this piece of software too highly. It is everything it is advertised to be - AND MORE. I only wish I could give it more than 5 stars.

Excellent chess program!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: January 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I'll start by saying I'm running XP on my machine, with a GeForce 4 64MB video card.
Now, having said that - this is the program to get. I've had a few others, but none of them could touch CM. The last version I had was 5000, and the only reason I even upgraded was because it couldn't run on an XP machine. The tutorials are tight, and I really liked the different levels of opponents. Haven't had the opportunity to play the monkey yet, but just for laughs, I'll be looking to. On the other side of the coin, from what I've read, there are some opponents that beat some of the best players in the world.

Note to the gamer from SF who complained that this doesn't run on Win2000 - Win 2000 is not a gaming platform, it's used for businesses, and it runs on entirely different code from the Win9x platform. You'll run into the same problem with Win NT 4.0. XP is the beginning of the bridge between these two platforms, however.

I'm a mid-beginner when it comes to chess (unrated), but am also a student of the game, and look forward to many hours of playing with this game!

EXCELLENT TUTOR

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: December 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If your searching for the perfect computer chess program, there isn't one. I own Chessmaster 9000 and Fritz 8, both are very nice computer chess programs, and both could learn from each other. If your looking for a tutor, Chessmaster 9000 rules! The multimedia approach for teaching chess is excellent for both kids and adults! I would have to give Chessmaster extra points for it's multimedia approach to game analysis as well. In addition, Chessmaster 9000 will analyze your game, just as well, in a fraction of the time, compared to Fritz 8. Both programs have an excellent game play interface, but I would have to rate Fritz slightly higher for it's 3D graphics, and 3D interface... Chessmaster still needs a little work in this area. However, I'll give Chessmaster extra points for user friendliness, it is much less complicated to use in comparison to Fritz, in my opinion. Where Fritz blows the competition away, is in it's online game play. If playing against a computer grows old, Fritz comes with a one year membership to playchess.com... if you want to play other people online with a nice chess program, Fritz 8 is the program for you! However, if your looking for a tutor to learn the game of chess, even if you know absolutely nothing, Chessmaster 9000 is the program for you!

Delighted!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 16
Date: March 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've had Chessmaster 9000 for about a month now and just love it. It's a challenging opponent, a wonderful tutor, and has all kinds of exciting features that will keep you engaged. It's helped improve my game significantly.

I noticed that some reviewers here love it while others cite all kinds of terrible problems with the program (in fact, I hesitated to buy the program after someone said it wouldn't run on any Dell PC with a CD-R or CD-RW drive, and that UBI customer support didn't care). I found this to be *completely* untrue. It installed on my Dell 2400 with my CD-RW drive without any problem at all and continues to work perfectly.

I downloaded the v1.02 patch from the Chessmaster website and I have never experienced a program crash in Windows XP. Graphically, Chessmaster 9000 is simply fantastic... I have NO idea why a few people have said that it isn't.

The bottom line, in my opinion: a terrific chess program that is definitely worth the $29.95 investment.

Being a Monopoly Means Never Having to say your sorry.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 22 / 31
Date: July 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I recently upgraded from Win 98 to XP, and my copy of Chessmaster 5500 would no longer work. So I "UPGRADED".

Now really before I begin my little rant here. I would like to say. ChessMaster is still without peer. The personalities give a player a wide range of styles to play against, and the value for money is amazing. For $20 you have access to a machine that plays at the level of an real world IM that?s amazing. Josh Watkins Tutorials are invaluable. Larry Evans Comments on the Grand Master games are very insightful. There is a lot of value here other reviewers have pointed out.

I am however a programmer as well as a chess player. And CM has turned into the worst piece of Bloatware in my experiance. So I would like to challenge the folks at Ubi Soft to get it right!

Chessmaster boasts 150 Personalities in the game. 50 of which are GM's. Unfortunately a new "FEATURE" added since CM5000 is that you can access personalities with-in 400 points of your own. The vast majority of potential players will never come close to being able to access these powerful personalities, Less than 1% of chess players ever crack the 2000 barrier. Its a terrible waste. One of the most fun things about the older edition was Editing Fisher or Alekhine, to get a computer player somewhat above the human player in level but with a style reminiscant of one of the greats.

To access these personalities you will have to create a personality, assign it a rating of about 2400 I called mine GM. Then make a small change, change it back, then save it. So say Fisher becomes Fisher 2. Now you can access Fisher 2. With your normal profile at the level you truly play. This is UGLY INELEGANT programming. You should not have to spoof a program to access a feature. Nor should a feature in a chess program be a EASTER EGG. Easter Eggs are fine for games like Prince of Persia, targeted at game fanatics. Not for the general, vs Chess playing public.

Custom players used to be represented by a elegant silver icon, otherwise identical to the gold Icon used for GMs. This has been replaced by an ugly psuedo marble bust. Im sorry its ugly, Ditch it! Why not provide some options here? Clip art faces like the opponents in say Hoyles Casino series. Also if I Modify the Lili personality, why cant I keep the Lili photo as part of the package? Again small bits of thoughtlessness that just pile up in this program.

The Navigation is a mess, CM has added a series of rooms. One for study one for play. one for tournaments. This is pointless, changing modes was much more elegantly handled before with a simple drop down menu. CM should return to that concept.

I think the room concept was embraced to promote the use of the TRU3D boards. For each room you can have a different look, and a different board. Chess Master has put a lot of effort into their boards. They also promote their 3D environment heavily as part of their sales pitch for CM.

The bottom line is however, a 3D sim board will never compare to a real physical board. The tiny movements made by a player studying a board are not simulated by the jarring- and gross changes in perspective that occur when toggling through the various viewpoint options with the F-Keys. This is not Chess Masters fault, the 3D board, is the Boogyman, of chess programming. It?s a bad idea that will never be a good idea, no matter how many programming man hours are thrown at it in the end.

Serious players want to study a position without thinking about the board, AT ALL! They also don?t want a pawn hidden behind a major piece invisible because of the enforced perspective of the computer board. Because of this I believe the Majority of Serious players will gravitate towards the 2D boards. The Staunton on Maple is beautiful and I recommend it for your base board.

The Help section has been transferred from a windows enviroment, to a unreadable Acrobat file. The pages for topics noted in the table of contents of the Help file do not match the pages in the Acrobat file. This is because each Acrobat Page Represents 2 help pages. Ok so I just have to divide by 2 in my head. Except I should not have to divide by 2 in my head. Its TERRIBLELY UNPROFESSIONAL SLOPPY PROGRAMING, user friendly programming is about making the experiencing of using a program effortless to the user. I would have fired the clown who presented me with this help module if I was project lead for this application!

I have yet to find a single actual improvement in this game. It is unwieldy and much much more user hostile than its predecessor. I really hope they gut alot of these "improvements" in the upcoming release of 10,000. Especially the Help, there is just no excuse for not using a proper windows help file.

From a programmers point of view, my head is spinning, who approved this garbage. Has ubisoft gotten so desperate to incorporate change for changes sake, because they have to come out with CM 12K that they have completely lost track of the value of the product? Looking at CM9000 the anwser seems a clear YES.

Unfortunately Chess Master really is the only game in town. No other piece of software comes close. Even with the flaws. Hopefully another company will see what a bloated dinosaur CM is becoming and introduce a worthy challenger soon!!

Powerful and fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: September 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I cannot believe how far chess games have progressed! Chessmaster 9000 is the most enjoyable chess game I have ever played. The tutorials and lessons are top notch and worth the purchase on their own. Slick graphics and lightening response time make this game a joy, rather than the burden other chess games have been in the past.

Oh, and not to beat a dead horse, but the box clearly states that Chessmaster 9000 supports Windows 98, ME, and XP. The only OS I have had trouble running on is Windows 2000 Advanced Server - which is just as well, otherwise I would spend my whole work day playing chess.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions