Chessmaster 9000 (Mac)

Rating:
Summary: Latest version of perennial favorite has hefty requirements
Review: Highlights:
(1) Make sure you have the necessary hardware/software before buying this.
(2) Of the three documentation sets, the Manual.pdf file CM9000 installs
on your hard drive is the most thorough.

Chessmaster has long been the most popular Mac commercial chess program.
It has been over 3.5 years since the last version (Chessmaster 6000)
was updated (April 2001), so I was excited to receive it today.

Chessmaster 9000 is OS X native and comes on a DVD full of goodies.
The minimum hardware/software requirements are high, though.
Both the package documentation and the publisher's Web site
(Feral Interactive) say you need:
- DVD player ( the Chessmaster DVD must be in your DVD drive to play)
- Mac OS 10.2 (minimum) or higher
- 256 MB RAM, 1.3 GB free hard drive space, Quicktime 6
If your setup doesn't meet these criteria, then Chessmaster 6000 Mac,
which Amazon also sells, is an alternative.

My copy came with a 20 page hardcopy manual, a 54 page manual
in Acrobat format (Manual.pdf) that was installed on my hard drive,
and a 68 page copy of the 2-yr old Windows version manual (?!)
accessible by the Help: Chessmaster Help menu option. The
Manual.pdf file seemed the most useful.

The program features are arranged in five areas:
- Classroom: tutorials, drills, tests, problems, annotated games at four levels
- Game Room: play games for fun, with lots of help from Chessmaster
- Library: View any of 800 classic annotated games from 1619-2002
- Tournament: Play games for score - no hints, takebacks, etc. ;
set up matches between various simulated chess greats
- Database: 500.000+ chess games, searchable by position, or from an
opening game tree of some 2200 initial move sequences.
- Kids Room: Training and games for beginners
- GM Live: Play another person over a LAN or the Internet

The program supports hosted games through the GameRanger site,
but the GameRanger site does not list it at present.

The voice-narrated annotated games and animated analysis are my
favorite features of this product. When Josh Waitzken is explaining
his games, for example, squares light up, ghosted pieces show
alternative moves, and arrows show lines of attack.

Also, Chessmaster is very strong. Of chess programs available
on the Macintosh, Chessmaster 9000 is second only to HIARCS
(based on matches played with the PC versions by the SSDF).
Chessmaster 9000 uses the chess engine "The King 3.23".

Rating:
Summary: Cannot play without the DVD
Review: This program has many fine features but they are useless to those of us with a laptop who do not want to carry the DVD with us.

Each time you load the program you must insert the DVD or it will not work. The manufacturer has every right to insert this copy protection feature but the buyer should be warned. I would not have spent the $40 for this program had I known about this limitation. I am away from home a lot and want to use the program to relax during little breaks from study and writing.

If every program used this kind of copy protection we would have to carry a lot of DVDs with us and constantly search through them for the right one every time we wanted to load a program. This would be ridiculous.

For those who are comfortable with this feature and have all the hardware to run it properly it is a fine value worth five stars.

ADDITION: The program interferes with other programs.

One of the advantages of the Mac X operating system is that you can run a bunch of programs at the same time, switching between them as needed or desired.

Chessmaster 9000 has interfered with two of my programs. Even though I turn all of the sound off in Chessmaster 9000, it blocks iTunes from running. It also stops macros from running in Microsoft Word for the Mac.

The program may not be suitable for users who would like to have it running or loaded while they have another program on.