Posted July 14, 2009
While ChessMaster 9000 offers the possibility to play games on a level that should be good enough for every beginning and intermediate player as well as many good players, it is just a computer program. For this reason, there's a multiplayer modus via LAN, TCP/IP and ubi.com which I didn't test.
For more "professional" users like me, the program has several holes like the database format that however is exportable to PGN. I still use Fritz for database functions and another online service (Free Internet Chess Server) for playing. ChessMaster 9000 is supporting endgame databases with up to five pieces and a tool can be downloaded, according to internet sources, to create these for it. Today's standard is six pieces so this also is a flaw.
However, ChessMaster 9000 has some particular strength that other chess programs don't have at this price: The training. The program has good but not overloaded interactive tutorials with - however - a few small mistakes. In one example the white king must go to e1 from e3 and only one of the three routes counts as correct solution. Apart from that, it is a great teacher. This was the main reason why I bought the game.
Let's come to the parts of training. For beginners, there's an explanation of how pieces move and on easy tactical concepts like forks, skewers, pins and checks. There's also a kids room with some pieces that seem to be especially designed for kids. For adults there's the normal gaming room but also here the AI can be scaled from beginner to grandmaster by the personality settings. Apart from the big amount of pre-created settings one also can define own settings. This way for each strength a good opponent can be found.
Intermediate players will find tutorials about strategical concepts as well as an endgame quiz (that I'd think is more for advanced players). A rating exam by Bruce Pandolfini is given then and one can practice openings.
For advanced players, finally, ten games are given where one can try to find moves that were played by grandmasters and world-class players. The drills include, however, still what I'd consider for beginners and intermediate ending mates. The only one that fits to advanced would be bishop and knight versus king. Sadly, one only can try the mates but no tutorial is given. This is especially bad for bishop and knight where one should learn how to do it by the strategical manoeuvres (like the W manoeuvre) instead only by trying. In the end, one can solve 50 "puzzles" (chess compositions) selected by world solving champion 2004 John Nunn. These include only orthodox pieces, but range from directmates over studies to helpmates and a few retro puzzles. As an example, puzzle 47 goes: "A game starts 1 e4 and ends on move five when a knight takes a rook, delivering mate. What is the game?" John Nunn states that anyone solving it within 24 hours is doing very well.
Josh Waitzkin (retired chess grandmaster, world champion of Tai chi chuan) presents the other highlight of the training: 12 annotated games, 19 game fragments where he talks about psychology and 15 endgames he played would well be worth your 9.99$ if it were a book.
Ok, to conclude my review (which based on the training aspects) let me add that you seem to can add Winboard engines, there's a library with a glossary help file and some classic games up to 2002 that are annotated. However, there is - in contrary to the trainings - no audio annotation.
Then there's a tournament room where one can play tournaments and CM9000 rated games, a game room where one can play for fun, and last but not least a database.
I could not find ChessMaster 9000 on the CCRL 40/40 complete list so can't tell much about the actual rating. It should be somewhere around 2600 to 2700, I think, but I give no guarantees.
Conclusion: If you have no chess program, you can buy ChessMaster 9000 blindly. If you look for an interactive chess training, you also can have a look. Don't expect miracles but the price is ok for what you get. If you already have a chess program and just play as a hobby, not caring about your rating or strength, you most probably won't need this but due to the many personalities also wouldn't make a mistake. Due to the lack of endgame tutorials instead of just letting one try I however have to lower the rating, so just four stars. For your databases and analysis, a program with the Fritz GUI is recommended.
Plus:
Good training, especially by Waitzkin
Many opponent personalities with many opening books, including real grandmasters
Database and classic games
Kids room
Chess glossary
Multiple accounts
Minus:
Training sometimes not comprehensive
Only classic games as PGN file, ChessMaster 9000 database only in tbg (ChessMaster) format
Database and analysis functions are IMO bad
For more "professional" users like me, the program has several holes like the database format that however is exportable to PGN. I still use Fritz for database functions and another online service (Free Internet Chess Server) for playing. ChessMaster 9000 is supporting endgame databases with up to five pieces and a tool can be downloaded, according to internet sources, to create these for it. Today's standard is six pieces so this also is a flaw.
However, ChessMaster 9000 has some particular strength that other chess programs don't have at this price: The training. The program has good but not overloaded interactive tutorials with - however - a few small mistakes. In one example the white king must go to e1 from e3 and only one of the three routes counts as correct solution. Apart from that, it is a great teacher. This was the main reason why I bought the game.
Let's come to the parts of training. For beginners, there's an explanation of how pieces move and on easy tactical concepts like forks, skewers, pins and checks. There's also a kids room with some pieces that seem to be especially designed for kids. For adults there's the normal gaming room but also here the AI can be scaled from beginner to grandmaster by the personality settings. Apart from the big amount of pre-created settings one also can define own settings. This way for each strength a good opponent can be found.
Intermediate players will find tutorials about strategical concepts as well as an endgame quiz (that I'd think is more for advanced players). A rating exam by Bruce Pandolfini is given then and one can practice openings.
For advanced players, finally, ten games are given where one can try to find moves that were played by grandmasters and world-class players. The drills include, however, still what I'd consider for beginners and intermediate ending mates. The only one that fits to advanced would be bishop and knight versus king. Sadly, one only can try the mates but no tutorial is given. This is especially bad for bishop and knight where one should learn how to do it by the strategical manoeuvres (like the W manoeuvre) instead only by trying. In the end, one can solve 50 "puzzles" (chess compositions) selected by world solving champion 2004 John Nunn. These include only orthodox pieces, but range from directmates over studies to helpmates and a few retro puzzles. As an example, puzzle 47 goes: "A game starts 1 e4 and ends on move five when a knight takes a rook, delivering mate. What is the game?" John Nunn states that anyone solving it within 24 hours is doing very well.
Josh Waitzkin (retired chess grandmaster, world champion of Tai chi chuan) presents the other highlight of the training: 12 annotated games, 19 game fragments where he talks about psychology and 15 endgames he played would well be worth your 9.99$ if it were a book.
Ok, to conclude my review (which based on the training aspects) let me add that you seem to can add Winboard engines, there's a library with a glossary help file and some classic games up to 2002 that are annotated. However, there is - in contrary to the trainings - no audio annotation.
Then there's a tournament room where one can play tournaments and CM9000 rated games, a game room where one can play for fun, and last but not least a database.
I could not find ChessMaster 9000 on the CCRL 40/40 complete list so can't tell much about the actual rating. It should be somewhere around 2600 to 2700, I think, but I give no guarantees.
Conclusion: If you have no chess program, you can buy ChessMaster 9000 blindly. If you look for an interactive chess training, you also can have a look. Don't expect miracles but the price is ok for what you get. If you already have a chess program and just play as a hobby, not caring about your rating or strength, you most probably won't need this but due to the many personalities also wouldn't make a mistake. Due to the lack of endgame tutorials instead of just letting one try I however have to lower the rating, so just four stars. For your databases and analysis, a program with the Fritz GUI is recommended.
Plus:
Good training, especially by Waitzkin
Many opponent personalities with many opening books, including real grandmasters
Database and classic games
Kids room
Chess glossary
Multiple accounts
Minus:
Training sometimes not comprehensive
Only classic games as PGN file, ChessMaster 9000 database only in tbg (ChessMaster) format
Database and analysis functions are IMO bad