Rating: 
Summary: great software but dont buy this version if you run ME
Review: The manufacturers have stated that the software is for win 95 or 98. MArk their word if you are running Win ME. I find the game play great with a good variety of opponents to chose from however the tutorial's do not work properly; keeps crashing on my Win-ME OS. I upgraded recently to XP and still I cannot get these sections to function properly. Despite this setback I have improved my game from a rating of around 1300 to 1550. What I'm especially fond of is the feature where the chessmaster assigns a certain score to a move you make, so i like going over my moves (from real life matches that i record) one by one with the chessmaster and figure out where I made mistakes thanks to this scoring feature. You learn a lot if you have an average chess rating like mine. Looking forward to chesmaster 9000 which will support XP.One last point: The sections "john nuns puzzles" and "match the masters" are also great to better your game, the annotations given were very helpful.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: This chess software is superb. Josh Watzkin walking you through some of his classic chess encounters is one of my favorite parts of this game. You actually begin to understand what it takes to play chess at an elevated level. One part of this chess program I did have a problem with was playing computer players. Each computer player is rated and they play exactly at that level. What the computer cannot do, unlike a human can is make bad moves. The computer playing at a 1550 rated level plays it perfectly, unlike a player at rated at the 1550 level. A player at rated at the 1550 level may make a few moves at an 1800 level and then make a terrible move that a 1200 level rated player wouldn't even make. Humans make mistakes, whereas the Chessmaster does not. Except for this and the occasional crash (I am running the game on win2000, which is not a gaming platform) this game is excellent. I would buy it again if I didn't already own it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This chess software is superb. Josh Watzkin walking you through some of his classic chess encounters is one of my favorite parts of this game. You actually begin to understand what it takes to play chess at an elevated level. One part of this chess program I did have a problem with was playing computer players. Each computer player is rated and they play exactly at that level. What the computer cannot do, unlike a human can is make bad moves. The computer playing at a 1550 rated level plays it perfectly, unlike a player at rated at the 1550 level. A player at rated at the 1550 level may make a few moves at an 1800 level and then make a terrible move that a 1200 level rated player wouldn't even make. Humans make mistakes, whereas the Chessmaster does not. Except for this and the occasional crash (I am running the game on win2000, which is not a gaming platform) this game is excellent. I would buy it again if I didn't already own it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not supported on Windows 2000 or NT
Review: This game crashes in various places on Windows 2000. I reported the problem to The Learning Company and received a snotty email back from them saying: "We have experienced no problems with Chessmaster 8000 on Windows 2000 or Windows NT platforms. However, Chessmaster 8000 does not officially support Windows 2000 or Windows NT" So they basically denied there was a problem and blew me off to boot! What great customer service!
Rating:
Summary: Windows 2000 experience
Review: This game is so good and UBI Soft is so bad! Based on the other reviews, I decided to take a leap of faith and purchase this game for use on a Windows 2000 OS. Of course, UBI Soft says, explicitly, that they do not support Windows 2000 or XP. But, that's usually legalese to deny liability. Sure enough, Chessmaster 8000 works on my Windows 2000 system even though the install program put DirectX 7a on my system. (When the install was finished, Windows informed me that it was an old version and would not run on Windows 2000.) Nonetheless, I tried running the program and it worked fine. For good measure, I went to the Microsoft Web site and downloaded DirectX 8.1 and installed it. No noticeable change, but I feel better. BTW, do *NOT* install the patch available from UBI Soft Web site. It's an old version 1.0.3 and the CD is 1.0.4. The install patch goes so fast though (without informing you that you're about to install over a newer version) so that I had to un-install and re-install CM8000 to get back to 1.0.4. There's a lot of nitpicky details (such as being unable to turn off the voice that reads the tutorial), but there's a lot of good stuff, too. The graphics are phenomenal. The tutorials are great. And there are a ton of computer opponents to choose from so that you don't get your butt whipped every time you play. All in all, it's a great game, but be prepared to be annoyed by quirks.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't work on current operating systems.
Review: This game might be fun. The problem is, it doesn't run on any operating systems that have been made in the past FOUR YEARS! Unbelievable as that may sound, it is true. The game will only run on Windows 95 and 98. So, if you have an old computer laying around with one of those operating systems on them, you might have good luck. However DO NOT believe the reviews that say that this product works with Windows XP or Windows 2000. It does not. When you run the program, the menus do not show up. Therefore, the only thing you can do is play with default settings. There are graphical glitches where grey boxes hang around if you attempt to select a menu option. This obscures the view of the chess board, rending the game useless. The game locked up on me within 5 minutes of playing, and had to be forcibly terminated. This is just a warning to those who don't have 95 or 98. It is not worth the money. Ubi Soft has stated on their website that they will not be supporting, or writing patches for any current operating systems. It doesn't matter if the OS is obsolete by 4 years (such as 98) or even worse by 7 years, such as 95.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutly the worst program I have ever used!!!
Review: This is with out a doubt the worst program of any kind I have ever bought! I mean it is real bad! It crashes so much I can't use it. There are so many things wrong with it I would have to write a book to list them all. Not only can I not finish a game of chess, but I can’t use the other features, such as Josh's game reviews. It is really a shame because the program has great potential. I have Chessmaster 6000 and it crashes quite a bit also, but Chessmaster 8000 is ridiculous! [...] I give credit where credit is dew, but this program is the worst, period. I contacted “The Learning Company”, the folks that brought us this program, and they offered nothing but a bad attitude! I wont be buying any more of there products you can bet on that. If you are looking for a good chess program look to “FRITZ 6” for carefree gaming fun. Hope this review helped. Sincerely, Chris
Rating:
Summary: Great tool for learning
Review: This program has been the number one tool in my recent chess advancement. Let me use a game I played not long ago to illustrate a point. I was playing a game against my chess partner recently and I made a bad move where the attack of my rook on a key square was blocked. I was about to loose as my opponent would queen on his next move and I would go into an end game with a knight and a rook vs. A bishop, a knight and a QUEEN! But I regrouped and looked at the board again. I found a check in two moves that skewered the newly made queen with my opponent's king. He had no choice an had to step away for his new queen to be taken. My rook sacrificed itself for the queen and I entered the end game with just a knight and pawns. I learned these tactics on the tutorials of this program. I managed to trade of the minor pieces and with my king pawn end game skills (which I also learned from the tutorials presented here) I went on to win the game. My opponent was no more shocked than I was! But the tutorials are not the only important features of the game. I frequently play on Yahoo games and use the analysis engine included with this program to analyze my games. This has really helped me - one game I played recently was a particularly good learning experience. I had blacks king on the run and skewered his queen and king. I got greedy and took his queen, missing the checkmate in two moves that the analysis engine pointed out to me. Don't bother picking up Chessmaster 7000, although it's cheaper it has fewer analyzed games, which are great as they are presented as "chess movies".
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money!
Review: This program has so many bugs in it, it is not even funny. I am sorry I purchased it. Do yourself a favor and let this one go. I have a hard time completing a game without it crashing. To many problems to list here it would take a book to go over them all. To bad as it seems like it would have been a very nice program. VERY DISAPOINTED.
Rating:
Summary: No Windows 2000 or Windows XP support
Review: This wonderful product will not run on any Windows after ME.
UBI doesn't even plan to upgrade Chessmaster even though Microsoft will stop producing and supporting the Windows versions that Chessmaster runs on. The product is fine on older machines but will eventually die out unless UBI sees the light and makes Chessmaster useable on the newer operating systems.
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