Rating: 
Summary: Good Start
Review: I initially wrote this review a year ago and right after I bouthgt the program. A year after and having bought Fritz 7, I would like to update it.I am am intermediate chess player and I found the Chessmaster to be very educational, well designed and rich in tools and characters to play against. In my experience, it is a really good program and may be the best for children and/or beginner players. The reasons are easy to use interface, very rich content of basic educational lessons with some courses developed by Bruce Pondolfini and Josh Waitzkin. In addition, the program has a special kid's room with features specifically targeted at kids to to which my son responds well. Exploring the lessons alone will take you a month and provide great value. The other great feature of the program is the over 85 human-like characters you can play against - from really weak opponents to really tough guys. This saves you from the boredom of playing a really good computer (depressing) or repetitive games against a weak computer. The people who may find Chessmaster less satisfying are probably the stronger players. At one point in your development as a player you would like to analyse your games seriously and Chessmaster is kind of weak there. I have two major problems with the analysis: 1. Weaker analysis (may vary depending on how much time you gove the computer - i use the default 10 secs per move). The analysis is not always correct - it does not always find the best move (try comparing it to a Grand Master annotated game for example). Without being an expert I also think it has a tendency to ignore the position resulting from the last move in the suggested "best" line (sometimes I think I see some real disasters there). It also has a tendency to go for massive exchanges of meterial in the suggested line, probably in an attempt to resolve the numeric value of the position. 2. The strenght of the analysis may not have been much of an issue if the game allowed you a way to explore/evaluate your candidate moves. Other possible candidate moves are never considered in the analysis. Unfortunately, there is also no way to set up a position and switch beteween human player and computer player. To turn the computer player on and off you need to start a new game and loose the position. Overall, this is a great program and I really enjoyed it. A year later I switched to another program BUT I am not sure if I would have appreciated the new program withouth the training I got from Chessmaster.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Game: However, not essential to update from CM 7000
Review: I own several chess-playing software programs, including Fritz 6, HIARCS, Chessmasters 2000-8000, and they all play strong games. Chessmaster 8000 is a great buy for virtually all players, including serious tournament players (though I greatly prefer Fritz 6). However,if you already own a Chessmaster 6000 or Chessmaster 7000, do you really need the update? Chessmaster 8000 isn't dramatically different, although there are improvements in graphics, playing strength, etc. The analysis function is still less than satisfying (I prefer the more professional Fritz 6 annotations) and although the Josh Waitzkin endgame course is both valuable and entertaining, I couldn't say that it made CM8000 a must buy.
Rating:
Summary: Chess Master and Windows XP
Review: I saw all the reviews that said this product will not work on XP. I decided to buy it and try anyway, being in IT, figuring I could make it work. I did get it successfully running on Windows XP. What I did was install windows 98 first, then upgraded to Windows XP. I installed right out of the box and the game came up and worked for me with no issues. It is installed on a toshiba laptop with a 266 processor. Its an excellent game and very user friendly. I know I'm going to enjoy this, as will my daughter. If you have had trouble with this on XP, or you want to give it a shot, I recommend trying what I did. 98 first, then upgrade to XP. It works like a dream
Rating:
Summary: Chess Master and Windows XP
Review: I saw all the reviews that said this product will not work on XP. I decided to buy it and try anyway, being in IT, figuring I could make it work. I did get it successfully running on Windows XP. What I did was install windows 98 first, then upgraded to Windows XP. I installed right out of the box and the game came up and worked for me with no issues. It is installed on a toshiba laptop with a 266 processor. Its an excellent game and very user friendly. I know I'm going to enjoy this, as will my daughter. If you have had trouble with this on XP, or you want to give it a shot, I recommend trying what I did. 98 first, then upgrade to XP. It works like a dream
Rating:
Summary: Some input on chess programs
Review: I still own the "old" Chessmaster 6000 Mac version which runs as smooth as silk on my IMAC and has never crashed under ordinary circumstances, and I just cant justify upgrading at this point. The CM 6000 program plays so strongly in every phase of the game (grandmaster strength openings, grandmaster strength middle-game tactics, and grandmaster-strength endgame technique) that I dont see any point upgrading to a newer version unless you are one of only maybe two thousand people on the planet that can beat these programs at their full 2500 ELO rated strength.
Rating:
Summary: Chessmaster 8K the good the bad and the ulgy
Review: I want to start off by saying I have been a CM buyer since CM5K and have enjoyed all of them including this one. If you have CM7K there are not much new things in CM8K but Ill go over them first. New for CM8K is joshes endgame course. Its very good but not to long and would have been better if it had more lessons. The good thing about it is, it's voice annotated by josh himself and he goes threw the lessons very throughly explaning the whys and what ifs. Next they added more games to the library about 100 more if your into that. Also new is match the masters. I liked this alot but again its too short only 10 games long. What you have to do is guess the moves from some real games played by GMs and IMs and at the end it will give you a rating based on your guesses. But this is only good for 1 or 2 times after that you will start remembering the moves and the rating wont be real. Chessmaster 8000 has a much stronger playing engine my CM7K was rated on this computer at 2700 and CM8K is a full 200 points stronger, rated at 2900. Now unless your a GM the only thing I can see this usefull for is cheating on the internet! That about raps up the new things in 8K there are a few more little things added but not worth telling about. If your a first time CM buyer you will get your moneys worth no doubt and that goes for the first time chess program buyer too. It has over 100 computer players to play from ratings under 100 to GMs at what ever your computer rates at most will be in the 2600 or higher. The good thing about so many differnt players is style of play some are better there rating some not. Infact I have let some 2200 players play vs the chessmaster and it beats it? But most play at there rating and its good to play vs differnt playing styles. For begginers and kids there are lots of lessions to learn from including joshes games. These games are voice annotated and he will explane his moves and his opponents moves and plans making it easy to follow and learn. Sad to say there are no new games added into CM8K one thing I would have like to see more of. The things I would like to see in CM8K is a better chess coach one where it would show the book moves and best moves making it easy to learn openings, also a way to make a computer player play a certin opening every time so it would be easyer to learn the lines in that opening. One thing that I dont like is the speed of the moves alot of players play at. I like to play 1 min games on the internet and would like to pratice some vs a computer players but all the players move faster then any human player can like 50 moves in 5 secs or even faster making it hard to get the feel of a real 1 min game. Also a better game analysis the one that it has dont really do much to help someone learn. CM has a 500,000 games database if your wanting to look at some games by players or openings it comes in handy. You can play rated games vs all the computer players, this helps you get an idea of how good your chess is. I have been playing chess for 3 yrs now and my rating is 2200 on CM8K so I rate in the expert class going by CM rating system. If your in to graphics chessmaster has some of the best out there you can pick the type pieces and boards size and 2d or 3d. That pretty much wraps up my review and all in all its a great program for learning and just playing. Would I buy CM8K again knowing what I know now? No I wouldnt because I have CM7K and its pretty much the same program. So I would wait for CM9K and buy it. But if I wanted a chess program and didnt have one I would go out and get it. Hope this helps you to make up your mind on CM8K. Keep playing chess and enjoy
Rating:
Summary: It's pretty cool!
Review: I'm 10yo and I think that Chessmaster 8000 is fun and easy. I really like the classroom and I've been learning a lot from Josh Waitzkin. Match the Masters is pretty hard for me. I think it's annoying to have to change the CD's between the lessons and the games. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced player, you will like this game a lot.
Rating:
Summary: Upgrader's Dilemma
Review: If you don't own a Chessmaster product, you should get this one. Chessmaster lives up to its claim of being the "best-looking, best-playing chess game" around. The play is good, with many "people" (computer personalities) to play against, from children up to advanced players like "Liam" (whose fictional bio says he is a disaffected ex-CIA agent). You have good control over the game timing options, and there are a good variety of 2D and 3D chess sets to suit all tastes. The teaching in Chessmaster is also excellent. The lessons by Bruce Pandolfini are narrated by a computer voice (albeit a pretty nice one), whereas International Master Josh Waitzkin speaks for himself in his annotated games and his new endgame course. There is enough teaching material in the game to get a good grasp of the opening, middlegame and endgame stages. There are also drills (such as find mate in one, or avoid being mated), which you do against a clock. Good for keeping your eye sharp. Overall the game provides excellent tutorials on the middle and endgame but less on the openings. This is partly a reflection of Josh's style - his exceptional talent for strategy and endgames took him a long way before his loose openings began to hold him back. This is different from how most players learn, but as Josh says in one of his games, by playing and studying endgame situations with only a few pieces, you begin to develop a more intimate understanding of the pieces, and how they work best. This helps in earlier stages of the game by giving you a feel for how to use them effectively. The opening book library contains text annotation on a wide range of standard openings, and there are some Pandolfini lessons on the subject. But there isn't a detailed tutorial dealing with specific openings. There are masses of books around if you're really interested in finding ways to smash the Sicilian or win with the Ruy Lopez. The Kids Room is good for younger players. There are bright colours; some Josh games especially for younger players, plus a nice feature that lets kids track their progress. You can print certificates for them as they attain certain standards of play and complete the tutorials. The windows are well laid out so that kids can easily get at the lessons, or get hints when they need them. So I really rate this product, for sure. The question is whether it's worth upgrading from 7000 to 8000, as I did. I am a big fan of Josh Waitzkin, I think he's the most interesting commentator on chess that I've ever come across. Unfortunately, there are no more annotated games in 8000 (except for the kids), which is a bit of a disappointment. There is a whole new endgame course, which is annotated by Josh and is a lot more extensive than the previous endgame tutorial by Bruce Pandolfini. The course is heavily illustrated by examples from the latter parts of some of Josh's games. There is a new "match the masters" feature, which puts you into a middlegame of a famous match, and gives you a multiple-choice quiz on which moves to make. Nunn's puzzles have been indexed much more effectively, so you don't have to start at page one and fast-forward to where you want to be (which takes a while in a 605 page feature!). There are also many new chess sets, which are much prettier (now in 16 bit colour) than before, but that doesn't bother me as I find the novelty sets annoying and the 3D views impossible. I play with a 2D blue-grey board (find it under custom board) and the Staunton Red and White set. So the addition of (among others) a doggie chess set (with fire hydrants as rooks!) isn't a selling point for me. I am running the game on Windows 2000, and there are some problems. The game crashes occasionally, especially if I have other applications running in the background. Ubi Soft won't support Windows 2000 because it's a business platform. They won't support XP either, though they can't really use the same excuse for that. I think that's rather poor performance, lots of people use PCs for both work and games, and plenty of other games have been released that work fine on Win 2K. But I can't say I wasn't warned. Back to my original question, is CM8000 worth the upgrade? Probably yes if you're a Josh fan. Otherwise this is a new and improved game, but it's not radically different.
Rating:
Summary: XP compatible, Won't be dissappointed
Review: If you have a lot of hard drive space and lots of RAM, do the full install(about 900 MB total), you'll love it.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Impressive
Review: it can be a little labored, having to change
CDs back and forth so much, but
a serious student of the game will find this program
an excellent source of information, and challenges. if you're not a serious student of the game however, and just like to
win chess games online, this is the one to own.
Here's how:
just find one of the many online chess games, i.e. Yahoo Games,
Internet Chessclub, etc., and find a player.
open the ChessMaster 8000 on your desktop, along side the gameroom's browser.
duplicate your opponent's move on the ChessMaster.
ChessMaster will move for you, in response. translate ChessMaster's response for you, onto the online game you're playing.
unless you run into Bobby Fisher online, you'll never lose a game.
i know it doesn't exactly sound fair, but just think of yourself
as an observer. Note: none of this will work if you have a conscience.
| 
