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Chessmaster 8000
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| Description:
For more than 12 years, the Chessmaster series has been the leading force in computer-based instructional and competitive chess game play. With more than four million copies sold worldwide, it's not surprising that Mindscape, now part of The Learning Company, continues to update the venerable series to accommodate the cutting-edge technology of the times. With Chessmaster 8000, the designers have created perhaps the most well-rounded chess game to date. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced chess player, you'll find something in Chessmaster 8000 to suit your style. If you're new to chess or wish to improve the fundamentals of your play, you can head into the classroom section and receive audio walk-throughs and visual game analysis from renowned chess master Josh Waitzkin, the subject of the hit movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. When you're ready to move on to the tournament scene, Chessmaster 8000 offers over 80 computer-controlled (yet very humanlike) opponents, each with a distinctive playing style. Furthermore, 35 grandmaster personalities are provided, including Kasparov and Fischer, when you're ready to challenge the best of the best. Chessmaster 8000 includes so many excellent features that it's difficult to mention them all. A "kid's room" helps teach children 6-12 the basic fundamentals and strategies of chess. A complete game database with more than 500,000 classic grandmaster chess encounters can be viewed and analysed. Also, Chessmaster 8000 includes multiplay over network, modem, or their Internet gaming service ChessmasterLive. An excellent package for any chess fan.--Doug Radcliffe Amazon.com
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3/5 |
I preferred earlier versions for my purposes
(August 30, 2005) |
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The Chessmaster series has been, and probably still is, the most user-friendly,and intuitive of Chess Programs that play acceptable chess. I got several copies of this for a junior chess club (ages 7-10), having used earlier versions very succesfully, but wanted one that suited the computers available, and hoped that a few of the previous bugs would have been ironed out. However, for this purpose CM800 is too big for its boots. Despite having a dedicated Children's Room it is less user-friendly than previous versions.
- on reloading the settings revert to built-in defaults (unlike previous versions where one could set defaults) which means I am constantly intervening instead of the children working independantly. For example the teaching feature which shows moves possible for any piece has to be reset in a very complicated way each time.
- Also it is an admitted memory-hogger leading to frequent crashes, and this characteristic is acknowledged in the Read-me, which points out some annoying bugs in this repect, such as finished but uncompleted games can sometimes be still secretly hogging memory and have to be terminated by entered Windows CTL-ALT-DEL menu. A good size RAM is probably needed, more than the minimum spec.
-One can download patches from the makers site though they do not deal with these problems.
-It plays atrociously at lower levels - misleading for beginners who never use the high levels anyway, and level setting is a major headache, despite the built in personalities, which children like. On the other hand it is useful to have settings which mimic learners play by making bad mistakes.
-Customisation is more difficult than earlier versions too, and the choices, though many, are complex to operate. (And can't be set as defaults- it merely reverts to some of, but not all, of the last used settings)
-The board resizing and orientation stays constantly on-screen and is hard to hide, which means kids are constantly messing with this, and this increases the need for adult intervention.
-However, it is more user-friendly than, say,the Fritz series, and more useful than other cheap chess programs, so I'm not ready to say goodbye to the Chessmaster series yet.The home-user may find it easier to work with. |
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4/5 |
Very good for the price
(August 23, 2002) |
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Like all the Chessmaster products, this is an excellent piece of introductory software. It plays at a wide variety of strengths (the strongest is very strong) and some of the tutorial modules are useful.
That said, its not a path on Chessbase's Fritz (or Junior / HIARCS). Fritz may not have as much eye-candy, but the training features are superb and the added database functionality (partial position searches, annotation searches etc) are a real godsend.
If you're buying a first chess programme, Chessmaster is undoubtedly your best bet. But if you already play and want to move things on to the next level, there are better programmes out there. |
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5/5 |
Great training aid
(March 08, 2002) |
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Being a saddo, I bought a chess computer when I first saw them hit the streets. In the next 30 years the games have improved beyond my most vivid imaginations. Chessmaster 8000 is the first professional chess game I have had for some 10 years. It knocks 3mb downloadables out of orbit. The levels of play available enable players of all standards to meet their match. Mine is Alicia, a young hairdresser. The score
P36
W16
L16
D4. Love best.... .... the rating system. It clearly tells you how good you are. You start with a rating of 1600 and then, unless you're very good, you cry foul as you watch it plummit. You will hit a level, though, and then you can use the excellent training exercises to bring it back to at least where it started. I used the game to show my mother in law how to play and she was hooked. Downers...... .... I would love a paper based handbook. It would be my bedside read for months. I found it hard to navigate through the many loaded games. I wanted to watch and analyse the very best as they made moves. I still don't know how. I am probably using less than 20% of the games functionality.
Please show me how to have even more fun. |
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5/5 |
Chessmaster 8000
(December 08, 2001) |
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A remarkable, flexible, powerful & intuitive program. The help levels and tutorials are excellent & can be tailored to your own skill level, run it flat out & you'll get splatted unless a grandmaster. An excellent program, improving my chess significantly. Only concern is that it can consume too much of your life! |
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