Rating: 
Summary: The best chess program ever!!!!
Review: If you haven't gotten any of the chessmaster programs yet, then get Chessmaster 9000. It's just like Chessmaster 8000, but much more improved. There are:1. Awesome 3d chess sets 2. More Josh games 3. Blunder alert 4. Tons of other stuff
Rating: 
Summary: Being a Monopoly Means Never Having to say your sorry.
Review: I recently upgraded from Win 98 to XP, and my copy of Chessmaster 5500 would no longer work. So I "UPGRADED". Now really before I begin my little rant here. I would like to say. ChessMaster is still without peer. The personalities give a player a wide range of styles to play against, and the value for money is amazing. For $20 you have access to a machine that plays at the level of an real world IM that's amazing. Josh Watkins Tutorials are invaluable. Larry Evans Comments on the Grand Master games are very insightful. There is a lot of value here other reviewers have pointed out. I am however a programmer as well as a chess player. And CM has turned into the worst piece of Bloatware in my experiance. So I would like to challenge the folks at Ubi Soft to get it right! Chessmaster boasts 150 Personalities in the game. 50 of which are GM's. Unfortunately a new "FEATURE" added since CM5000 is that you can access personalities with-in 400 points of your own. The vast majority of potential players will never come close to being able to access these powerful personalities, Less than 1% of chess players ever crack the 2000 barrier. Its a terrible waste. One of the most fun things about the older edition was Editing Fisher or Alekhine, to get a computer player somewhat above the human player in level but with a style reminiscant of one of the greats. To access these personalities you will have to create a personality, assign it a rating of about 2400 I called mine GM. Then make a small change, change it back, then save it. So say Fisher becomes Fisher 2. Now you can access Fisher 2. With your normal profile at the level you truly play. This is UGLY INELEGANT programming. You should not have to spoof a program to access a feature. Nor should a feature in a chess program be a EASTER EGG. Easter Eggs are fine for games like Prince of Persia, targeted at game fanatics. Not for the general, vs Chess playing public. Custom players used to be represented by a elegant silver icon, otherwise identical to the gold Icon used for GMs. This has been replaced by an ugly psuedo marble bust. Im sorry its ugly, Ditch it! Why not provide some options here? Clip art faces like the opponents in say Hoyles Casino series. Also if I Modify the Lili personality, why cant I keep the Lili photo as part of the package? Again small bits of thoughtlessness that just pile up in this program. The Navigation is a mess, CM has added a series of rooms. One for study one for play. one for tournaments. This is pointless, changing modes was much more elegantly handled before with a simple drop down menu. CM should return to that concept. I think the room concept was embraced to promote the use of the TRU3D boards. For each room you can have a different look, and a different board. Chess Master has put a lot of effort into their boards. They also promote their 3D environment heavily as part of their sales pitch for CM. The bottom line is however, a 3D sim board will never compare to a real physical board. The tiny movements made by a player studying a board are not simulated by the jarring- and gross changes in perspective that occur when toggling through the various viewpoint options with the F-Keys. This is not Chess Masters fault, the 3D board, is the Boogyman, of chess programming. It's a bad idea that will never be a good idea, no matter how many programming man hours are thrown at it in the end. Serious players want to study a position without thinking about the board, AT ALL! They also don't want a pawn hidden behind a major piece invisible because of the enforced perspective of the computer board. Because of this I believe the Majority of Serious players will gravitate towards the 2D boards. The Staunton on Maple is beautiful and I recommend it for your base board. The Help section has been transferred from a windows enviroment, to a unreadable Acrobat file. The pages for topics noted in the table of contents of the Help file do not match the pages in the Acrobat file. This is because each Acrobat Page Represents 2 help pages. Ok so I just have to divide by 2 in my head. Except I should not have to divide by 2 in my head. Its TERRIBLELY UNPROFESSIONAL SLOPPY PROGRAMING, user friendly programming is about making the experiencing of using a program effortless to the user. I would have fired the clown who presented me with this help module if I was project lead for this application! I have yet to find a single actual improvement in this game. It is unwieldy and much much more user hostile than its predecessor. I really hope they gut alot of these "improvements" in the upcoming release of 10,000. Especially the Help, there is just no excuse for not using a proper windows help file. From a programmers point of view, my head is spinning, who approved this garbage. Has ubisoft gotten so desperate to incorporate change for changes sake, because they have to come out with CM 12K that they have completely lost track of the value of the product? Looking at CM9000 the anwser seems a clear YES. Unfortunately Chess Master really is the only game in town. No other piece of software comes close. Even with the flaws. Hopefully another company will see what a bloated dinosaur CM is becoming and introduce a worthy challenger soon!!
Rating:
Summary: The best chess program I have ever played
Review: I think this is the best chess program. There are more Josh games and more classic games which is in the library. There are it's just like chessmaster 8000 it's just that chessmaster 9000 has more stuff.
Rating:
Summary: The best chess program ever!
Review: Chessmaster 9000 is the best of all the Chessmaster Games, and probably the best chess computer game period! It is an improvement of Chessmaster 8000, which is almost as good as 9000, in some ways: 1. I think it has different players 2. Josh Waitzkin made another chess course, "Psychology of Competition". 3. "Larry Evan's Endgame Quiz" is in the classroom for the intermediate player. 4. There are more classic games in the library 5. The new 3d chess sets are some of the most awesome things in Chessmaster 9000 These are probably the best new things in Chessmaster 9000. However, if you don't know if you should buy it or no not right now, then you probably shouldn't. Chessmaster 10th Edition will be available on August 10th, I think, so you should probably just wait for that one. So don't buy Chessmaster 9000, now that the 10th edition is coming very soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Must have chess software
Review: I really like chessmaster and i think its one of the best chess softwares out there. The interface is more user friendly that fritz. What i really like about this book though is the different personalities that is has and that you can play against. This is what makes it by far a better program than fritz especially for amateur players who dont care about hardcore move analysis and the strongest machine ever. The 2 things that could be improved are:
a)game asks for the cd without any warning in advance so if you are out of town with your laptop and not the software cd you have no idea when the game is going to stop working and ask for the cd again.
b)i use high resolution monitor and the chess board is quite small. Fritz board is much bigger.
Rating: 
Summary: No printer or internet--you can't load this program
Review: My 80-year-old husband likes to play computer games. However, he does not have a printer, nor does he have an internet connection.
This program CANNOT be loaded unless you REGISTER. You can either register online, or you can register by filling out the form and printing it. If you do not do either, you cannot resume loading the program. PERIOD.
This is just another example of arrogant young techies who feel that anyone who does not have the latest equipment is useless and not to be considered. It does not even cross their minds that not everyone has everything they have.
A very, very frustrating and sad Christmas Day for an old man. I'm in tears.
Thank you UBI for not even having an e-mail contact. You obviously only want to sell, sell, sell, and you don't give a hoot about anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Decent program and Excellent value for the money
Review: CM9000 offers excellent value for your money. You will get very good graphic, decent playing modes, training modes, fun drill, ok quizzes, etc,... Some lectures are good as well.
I never had any problems with Windows XP on my 3 year old PC. Also, a nice feature - you don't need to insert the original disk every time, only once in awhile.
My only complain is - when you select opponent Under 1500, as I did to observe some of my younger students playing, the program plays in a weird way. It makes terrible moves at first and then begins playing strong. This would not be an unusual opening for 1300 PC player "Annie" playing as Black - 1.e4 e6 2.d4 Ke7. Another words - when you want CM to play like 1300, CM plays like 500 for a several moves and then like 2400.
Overall - far from superb, but excellent value for your money. For children beginners, I would strongly suggest Learn to Play with Fritz and Chesster. For older and stronger players CM is OK, also check other products from the Fritz "family."
One of the more important things is to be able to properly evaluate your current level and find how to improve. You may want to check my new book - Chess Exam and Training Guide: Rate Yourself and Learn How to Improve - to get accurate self-evaluation and more suggestions on books and software appropriate specifically for you.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for a wide range of players
Review: This is an excellent chess program that will be challenging and instructive for just about all levels from beginners to at least 1500 ( I wouldn't know beyond that but I'm sure it could give just about anyone a test). I've tried Kasparov's Checkmate and this is definitely better. I have not tried Fritz. The ability to toggle the skills of the computer opponent is very valuable and makes the program useful both for myself and for my 8 year old son. Having fictional players in the computer (with pictures and everything) also makes it fun -- you get to climb your way up the rankings. That personal element is especially fun for juniors. The program is also very good with managing tournaments, where you can play a variety of ordinary or club level players or even one of the many historical grandmasters whose profiles are available.
Incidentally, I don't have a very large screen and I was not distracted by any graphics issues. I found it all to be quite clear and simple.
I can't imagine a better chess program.
Rating:
Summary: chess
Review: A great way to lean chess or review for thoes who have been out of the for a few years.
Rating:
Summary: The best chess program I have ever played
Review: I recently upgraded from Win 98 to XP, and my copy of Chessmaster 5500 would no longer work. So I "UPGRADED". Now really before I begin my little rant here. I would like to say. ChessMaster is still without peer. The personalities give a player a wide range of styles to play against, and the value for money is amazing. For $20 you have access to a machine that plays at the level of an real world IM that?s amazing. Josh Watkins Tutorials are invaluable. Larry Evans Comments on the Grand Master games are very insightful. There is a lot of value here other reviewers have pointed out. I am however a programmer as well as a chess player. And CM has turned into the worst piece of Bloatware in my experiance. So I would like to challenge the folks at Ubi Soft to get it right! Chessmaster boasts 150 Personalities in the game. 50 of which are GM's. Unfortunately a new "FEATURE" added since CM5000 is that you can access personalities with-in 400 points of your own. The vast majority of potential players will never come close to being able to access these powerful personalities, Less than 1% of chess players ever crack the 2000 barrier. Its a terrible waste. One of the most fun things about the older edition was Editing Fisher or Alekhine, to get a computer player somewhat above the human player in level but with a style reminiscant of one of the greats. To access these personalities you will have to create a personality, assign it a rating of about 2400 I called mine GM. Then make a small change, change it back, then save it. So say Fisher becomes Fisher 2. Now you can access Fisher 2. With your normal profile at the level you truly play. This is UGLY INELEGANT programming. You should not have to spoof a program to access a feature. Nor should a feature in a chess program be a EASTER EGG. Easter Eggs are fine for games like Prince of Persia, targeted at game fanatics. Not for the general, vs Chess playing public. Custom players used to be represented by a elegant silver icon, otherwise identical to the gold Icon used for GMs. This has been replaced by an ugly psuedo marble bust. Im sorry its ugly, Ditch it! Why not provide some options here? Clip art faces like the opponents in say Hoyles Casino series. Also if I Modify the Lili personality, why cant I keep the Lili photo as part of the package? Again small bits of thoughtlessness that just pile up in this program. The Navigation is a mess, CM has added a series of rooms. One for study one for play. one for tournaments. This is pointless, changing modes was much more elegantly handled before with a simple drop down menu. CM should return to that concept. I think the room concept was embraced to promote the use of the TRU3D boards. For each room you can have a different look, and a different board. Chess Master has put a lot of effort into their boards. They also promote their 3D environment heavily as part of their sales pitch for CM. The bottom line is however, a 3D sim board will never compare to a real physical board. The tiny movements made by a player studying a board are not simulated by the jarring- and gross changes in perspective that occur when toggling through the various viewpoint options with the F-Keys. This is not Chess Masters fault, the 3D board, is the Boogyman, of chess programming. It?s a bad idea that will never be a good idea, no matter how many programming man hours are thrown at it in the end. Serious players want to study a position without thinking about the board, AT ALL! They also don?t want a pawn hidden behind a major piece invisible because of the enforced perspective of the computer board. Because of this I believe the Majority of Serious players will gravitate towards the 2D boards. The Staunton on Maple is beautiful and I recommend it for your base board. The Help section has been transferred from a windows enviroment, to a unreadable Acrobat file. The pages for topics noted in the table of contents of the Help file do not match the pages in the Acrobat file. This is because each Acrobat Page Represents 2 help pages. Ok so I just have to divide by 2 in my head. Except I should not have to divide by 2 in my head. Its TERRIBLELY UNPROFESSIONAL SLOPPY PROGRAMING, user friendly programming is about making the experiencing of using a program effortless to the user. I would have fired the clown who presented me with this help module if I was project lead for this application! I have yet to find a single actual improvement in this game. It is unwieldy and much much more user hostile than its predecessor. I really hope they gut alot of these "improvements" in the upcoming release of 10,000. Especially the Help, there is just no excuse for not using a proper windows help file. From a programmers point of view, my head is spinning, who approved this garbage. Has ubisoft gotten so desperate to incorporate change for changes sake, because they have to come out with CM 12K that they have completely lost track of the value of the product? Looking at CM9000 the anwser seems a clear YES. Unfortunately Chess Master really is the only game in town. No other piece of software comes close. Even with the flaws. Hopefully another company will see what a bloated dinosaur CM is becoming and introduce a worthy challenger soon!!
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