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what can you say. I've never once had the analysis be right or even very helpful. And the graphics are great. It typically beats the pants off me. It's about what I expected. I find it's tutorials useless. it's like all the other chessmasters. The bad-move alert is cool though.
The recommended moves are pretty silly. And it projects your opponents moves badly, even when the opponent is your computer. The computer opponents are quite challenging. Personally, I'd stick with this version, rather than buying the latest one.
Program uses up 1.6 Gigs of space on my hard drive and still requires the CD be installed in the drive to play a game. Installed as the system admin, single user, and still have this problem. Enough said. Don't waste your time or money.
The different levels of expertise and the analysis after the game help my kids stay challenged and develop a love for the game. I bought this product for my two children and they love it. The interface is engaging to 5 & 7 year olds as well as adults. there are a few bugs in this version - occasionally, the ownership of the pieces get mixed and thus you can't move your own. Despite that, I think this is good value for the money and to develop interest and skill in the game.
This continues until all pieces and the King are in their positions. The ponds are set up like in chess1 and the other player sets up his pieces so that black and white have a symmetrical position, like chess960, which insures that there is no start up set advantages. One of the most amazing things about this program is the wealth of knowledge that comes with it. I've invented my own actually: One player mixes his minor and major pieces together, along with his King, then without looking picks up a piece and sets it on the back rank of the first square starting from the left. You can choose all different types of computer generated opponents and watch your rating go up, or down. I have recently started playing a lot of chess960, which is a variant of chess, created by the former World Champion Bobby Fischer. There is also a section where you can set up different positions, which is good when studying with chess books or going over past games that you have completed. The initial position is set up in a special way and there are 960 such positions, thus the name 'Chess960'.
I'm almost finished with the grandmaster Josh Waitzkin's Academy, and it is brilliant. The logical beauty of the program resembles the logical beauty of the game of chess. This is a great contrast to orthodox chess, which only has 1 set up position, and is now usually referred to as chess1. You can also choose different time settings, like hourglass, moves per minute, minutes per game, or Fischer style. I hope Chessmaster one day introduces a way of playing chess960 in their program, or one of the other shuffle chess variations; maybe something that gets out of tradition and invents a better, more logical way of castling then chess960 has.
So you can have a setup of a King on the H1 square and the two rooks to the left of the King. In the Learn section you have grandmasters giving you essential knowledge of the game that will jump your rating up considerably. There is so much you can do with the program, a lot I haven't even discovered yet. Unfortunately no take back moves in this section. However you can also play chess1 or orthodox chess on the site too, and is a great site for that also. You can also take back moves, which let's you realise your mistake and gives you a chance to try another path.
You can also play live over the internet, join tournaments or create your own. Chessmaster 10th Edition offers so much. If when setting up the pieces and you lay a bishop down on the same colour as an already laid Bishop, just move the Bishop to the next square to the right, making it thus on a different colour. This chess variation creates even more random set positions then chess 960, making it even more interesting and with more possibilities in the opening, and throughout the whole game.
It' a great site and I recommend it to people who are interested in chess960. Other features of the program are being able to play online, setting up tournaments, analysing your game with the program (which to me doesn't seem that helpful) and a Fun section where you can do chess puzzles and sorts. The starting positions can be automatically set up by mychess.de or you can choose a number out of 960 and the set up will be created by mychess.de. His approach was to create a randomized initial chess position, which would thus make memorizing chess opening move sequences useless. And there is a huge advantage of doing tutorials on the computer because certain paths, tactics, strategies, and more are highlighted far better than if you just had a book. There is training mode, in which you can use the Chess Coach to give you hints and show you paths, tactics, threats and openings that you might have missed otherwise. Once you make a move, an email is sent to your opponent to tell him or her it's their turn, and vice versa.
Nothing is complicated about it and everything can be found easily. [.]. So much knowledge and stated in a clear, philosophical way. However, unlike the strange castling in chess960, in which wherever the rook and King is, the final resting positions after castling results to the position of how chess1 or orthodox chess castling position is; with my way, the King just moves two places to the right or left and the rook goes on the other side of the King. The King still has the power to castle with both rooks, and all the same castling rules apply.
First of all, it is very user friendly. The only rule, like chess960, is that the Bishops have to be on opposite colours. However unlike chess960 the King does not have to be between the two rooks. I highly recommended it, and hope one day to see an updated Chessmaster with shuffle chess incorporated. From the first move, both players have to come up with original strategies and cannot use well-known thinking patterns.
Chess960 thus becomes a game more of tactics, strategy, and creativity rather than just memorisation. There is ranked play, in which you can choose all different types of 3D chess boards and pieces, even 3D animated ones like the Fairytale, which is brilliantly done and which my kid loves. If the last piece you lay happens to be a Bishop and the last square would make the Bishops on the same colour, then just take the second to the last piece you put down and switch it with the Bishop. Fischer's goal was to create a chess variant in which chess creativity and talent would be more important than memorization and analysis of opening moves. Since the opening book for each possible opening position would be too difficult to devote to memory, each player must create every move originally.
If the King can not move over two spaces, because of being to close to the edge of the board, then it just replaces the rook's position, the King thus only moving one position over. Concerning Chessmaster 10th Edition - it really is a must buy and will develop your chess game tremendously, along with giving you many fine, entertaining days of chess play.
Chessmaster franchise has already crossed the point where it needs any kind of review on how good or bad it is. For a child or young adult to a newbie to chess, it is undoubtedly the best software. If you are an advanced player, there are other options out there.Installing and running the game was as simple as any windows software, the annoying part was to enter the CD every time, then from another review I found the link to the update, after installing the update, it is running fine without the CD.Here is the link:http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/Info.aspx.pId=1103&tab=download&dcId=63 My son is loving it, even I am enjoying it, the mentoring mode is awesome, a very good gift for any one who enjoys cerebral activity.
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