Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #553 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Focus Multimedia Ltd
• Released on: 2008-09-05
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: DVD-ROM

PC Gamer
As a one-stop shop for an entire chess-playing and learning family, this package should last until you're all grand masters.

Manufacturer's Description

THE WORLD'S BEST PROGRAM FOR BEGINNERS AND ADVANCED PLAYERS.

Learn from famous Champion Josh Waitzkin subject of the movie searching for Bobby Fischer

"The Art of Learning is a great tool for skill building and is put together in a simple, easy to use package with something to offer everyone." Games Radar

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

Not worth the trouble
This version has so many "issues" it's not worth it. The buffer overload problem from version 10 -- not fixed. Only new features are new, pretty chess board interfaces -- so what? No, no, no -- not good. I regret the purchase and now installilng it has interfered with the running of Chessmaster 10, which I have had to go back to using, because it has fewer "issues", buffer oerloads, and thing that freeze my screen and require me to reboot my computer.

Just stick with version 10 until they can update this properly.

Brilliant!
Chessmaster 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 mistakes and gives you another chance to try other paths.

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. Careful though, for there is 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 manually 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 referred 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 tactics, 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 their 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 you lay a bishop down on the same colour as an already laid Bishop, just move the Bishop to the next square to the right, making it thus on a different colour. If the last piece you lay 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. 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, which insures that there is no start up set advantages. Also, for egalitarian principles, white does not always go first, but a person takes one white piece and one black piece and puts them behind his back. The other player chooses a hand and what ever colour is chosen goes first. This chess variation creates even more random set positions then chess 960, making it even more interesting and with more possibilities in the opening, and throughout the whole game.

Concerning Chessmaster - 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.

Not worth the trouble
If you're new to chess and want to learn how to play, then this is a good choice, but too much like chessmaster 10, and 9, but if you're interested in online play, stay away from this game, full of bugs, when you sort them out, and that will be with very little tech support, or should i say zero tech support, then you will find the place to be pretty devoid of opponents, which is the object of online play. Buy Fritz, if you want online play.