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Chessmaster 10th Edition (PC DVD-ROM)
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4/5 |
Very good - but annoying faults.
(August 24, 2008) |
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A very good program, which I love using - but there are issues.
Minor fault
Some of the lower ranked 'opponants' on the program make some very strange moves - for example, sacrificing the Queen for no reason at all - when they are winning. This turns the game around immediately.
Major fault ......
The program sometimes calls a stalemate - (thus ending the game) when it is clearly not a stalemate. Quite often, this happens just as I'm about to call an extremely obvious checkmate.
Having said that, I would still recommend this program. |
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5/5 |
Fantastic!
(August 23, 2008) |
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Chessmaster 10th Edition offers so much.
First of all, it is very user friendly. Nothing is complicated about it and everything can be found easily. The logical beauty of the program resembles the logical beauty of the game of chess.
There is so much you can do with the program, a lot I haven't even discovered yet. There is training mode, in which you can use the Chess Coach to give you hints and show you paths, tactics, threats and openings that you might have missed otherwise. You can also take back moves, which let's you realise your mistake and gives you a chance to try another path.
There is ranked play, in which you can choose all different types of 3D chess boards and pieces, even 3D animated ones like the Fairytale, which is brilliantly done and which my kid loves. You can choose all different types of computer generated opponents and watch your rating go up, or down. Unfortunately no take back moves in this section. You can also choose different time settings, like hourglass, moves per minute, minutes per game, or Fischer style.
There is also a section where you can set up different positions, which is good when studying with chess books or going over past games that you have completed.
One of the most amazing things about this program is the wealth of knowledge that comes with it. In the Learn section you have grandmasters giving you essential knowledge of the game that will jump your rating up considerably. And there is a huge advantage of doing tutorials on the computer because certain paths, tactics, strategies, and more are highlighted far better than if you just had a book. I'm almost finished with the grandmaster Josh Waitzkin's Academy, and it is brilliant. So much knowledge and stated in a clear, philosophical way.
Other features of the program are being able to play online, setting up tournaments, analysing your game with the program (which to me doesn't seem that helpful) and a Fun section where you can do chess puzzles and sorts.
I have recently started playing a lot of chess960, which is a variant of chess, created by the former World Champion Bobby Fischer. Fischer's goal was to create a chess variant in which chess creativity and talent would be more important than memorization and analysis of opening moves. His approach was to create a randomized initial chess position, which would thus make memorizing chess opening move sequences useless. The initial position is set up in a special way and there are 960 such positions, thus the name 'Chess960'. This is a great contrast to orthodox chess, which only has 1 set up position, and is now usually refered to as chess1. Since the opening book for each possible opening position would be too difficult to devote to memory, each player must create every move originally. From the first move, both players have to come up with original strategies and cannot use well-known thinking patterns. Chess960 thus becomes a game more of tatics, strategy, and creativity rather than just memorisation.
I recently joined the site www.mychess.de which lets you play chess960 against other people on the internet. The starting positions can be automatically set up by mychess.de or you can choose a number out of 960 and the set up will be created by mychess.de. Once you make a move, an email is sent to your opponent to tell him or her it's there turn, and vice versa. You can also play live over the internet, join tournaments or create your own. It' a great site and I recommend it to people who are interested in chess960. However you can also play chess1 or orthodox chess on the site too, and is a great site for that also.
I hope Chessmaster one day introduces a way of playing chess960 in their program, or one of the other shuffle chess variations; maybe something that gets out of tradition and invents a better, more logical way of castling then chess960 has. I've invented my own actually: One player mixes his minor and major pieces together, along with his King, then without looking picks up a piece and sets it on the back rank of the first square starting from the left. This continues until all pieces and the King are in their positions. The only rule, like chess960, is that the Bishops have to be on opposite colours. However unlike chess960 the King does not have to be between the two rooks. So you can have a setup of a King on the H1 square and the two rooks to the left of the King. The King still has the power to castle with both rooks, and all the same castling rules apply. However, unlike the strange castling in chess960, in which wherever the rook and King is, the final resting positions after castling results to the position of how chess1 or orthodox chess castling position is; with my way, the King just moves two places to the right or left and the rook goes on the other side of the King. If the King can not move over two spaces, because of being to close to the edge of the board, then it just replaces the rook's position, the King thus only moving one position over. If when setting up the pieces and the last piece happens to be a Bishop and the last square would make the Bishops on the same colour, then just take the second to the last piece you put down and switch it with the Bishop. This way also creates more random set positions then chess 960, making it even more interesting and with more possibilities in the opening, and throughout the whole game. The ponds are set up like in chess1 and the other player sets up his pieces so that black and white have a symmetrical position, like chess960.
Concerning Chessmaster 10th Edition - it really is a must buy and will develop your chess game tremendously, along with giving you many fine, entertaining days of chess play. I highly recommended it, and hope one day to see an updated Chessmaster with shuffle chess incorporated.
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2/5 |
Major Problem...
(February 16, 2008) |
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I bought this software when I first started to play chess. It's good, it's very easy to use and has lots of help for people first starting out.
For example there are topics covering how the pieces move, simple tactics (forks, pins and skewers) and some opening and endgame theory. The amount of lessons you get for the price make this software a must for someone who wants to start out and if you are looking for sofware for children it is good for that too as the childrens corner is designed with children in mind (even the set's are quite funny to watch as they attack each other with magic and the like).
But there is a problem...
When you play against the computer it has various levels of strength from about 1 to about 3000. (This should pretty much cover most players!) This would be a great thing if they were realistic. I have found that while playing any opponent they will blunder. It seems that the computer will adjust its playing strength simply by blundering more or less often and more or less severly. Now this may seem like a good way of doing it, because in life the weaker the player the more often they blunder and the more significant the mistake but it doesn't seem to be very accurate. I have played reasonably strong opponents and it has played very strongly, as expected, and then make a huge, probably resignable, blunder. I think that it would be better in your development as a player, and more importantly your enjoyment of the game if the computer just played at a certain level. Yes blunders happen in games but people also win purely by outplaying their opponents, a feature which does not appear to happen in this software.
A few other things to note:
1. If you play friendlies and then rated games the strength of the opponent appears to change (they get stronger) again this may be more "human" but the amount of increase is quite significant I find.
2. If you blunder it appears to play much much stronger! I admit that if you blunder you are playing a worse position but I am convinced it plays significantly above its own level when you make a mistake. This may seem like a good thing, i.e. it will teach you not to make mistakes, but it also implies that if you blunder the game is over which in real life is not always the truth (in fact there are ways of playing after a blunder to catch your opponent out!).
So in summary:
The software is very good for beginners, it is easy to use and understand and has a lot of support material to back it up. If you are above about 70-80ECF or 1300 I would suggest you look elsewhere. I think you would notice the feature I have mentioned with the somewhat variable playing strength and may get frustrated with the software.
I have given Chessmaster 10th Edition 2/5 as the beginners tools are very good and I have not seen any software that matches up with this (Fritz is too strong and complicated for a complete novice in my opinion). I am afraid that I cannot give it any more because of the previously mentioned problems I have discovered. |
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5/5 |
Great Buy
(December 25, 2007) |
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Had Not played chess in long. I recently got a lap top and wanted a light game to run on it as the lap top is not a gammer. Was Hugly impressed with the volume of teaching and reasorces that i received for ten pounds!!!!! Have had no trouble With It crashing Or such like! Although It does goble up ram so i would run the program on its own if you are asking it to anylise chess positions!! |
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2/5 |
More system problems.
(December 02, 2007) |
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Chessmaster frequently slows and/or freezes my computer, despite my system exceeding the requirements stated on the box. The program appears to be significantly more resource hungry than the manufacturers believe, which is a disappointment as otherwise it's good software for chess beginners and experts alike. |
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