How does Chess.com ratings compared to Chessmaster/Fritz/other chess software ratings? What range of ratings would you recommend for each? I heard that Chessmaster is excellent for beginners because it has a lot of training/tutorial in it (although I'm not sure if their ratings match with Chess.com's). My Chess.com rating is between 1500 and 1700

Thats a really good question...

Fritz is stronger than Chessmaster, but Chessmaster has excellent learning materials. If you're new to chess get Chessmaster and if you get better or really want to get serious then go get Fritz. Don't blow money on engines until you're sure you're ready. Kind of like how a new painter will collect necessary material when he starts out and then buys the expensive stuff when he is more advanced.

Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition is great and I guarantee you will never beat it's highest level.  Fritz is also okay.

The ratings of the 'players' don't mean a great deal, they are just numbers in Chessmaster that can only be really compared to each other.  I am around 2000+ on Chess.com and I have beaten the same level on Chessmaster over 2 hrs each but sometimes I lose.  This isn't necesarily a guarantee of equality though because unlike us the computer always plays at the same level but sometimes we play better or much worse.  You'd need to take a very wide sample to determine what the comparison to real rating was.  Not that it matters a great deal, start playing it on any level and go up/down appropriately and you will soon work out what level to play it on so that you're challenged but not crushed all the time.

It's highest level will only serve to knock your confidence in your ability.

Fritz has amazing training materials. The difference is you have to buy that seperately on training DVDs. Each DVD will come with fritz reader which allows you to use the training even if you don't own fritz though.

I've been an exclusive fritz customer for a while.

Andrew martin, one of the prominent bloggers here, has made many training DVDs for fritz trainer.

Drahcir, mostly the Chessmaster "advanced" content would be at your level:

• 21 "Art of Learning"  interactive games.
• 10 "match-the-masters" interactive GM games.
• 50 puzzles by John Nunn
• 15 "Endgame Course" annotated endgames.
• 19 "Psychology of Competition" voice-annotated games
• 12 additional voice-annotated games.
• 6 "Attacking Chess" annotated games
• Many "Sparring partner"

Reasons to buy Fritz:

• Superior interface (and engine) for analyzing your games.
• Tactical drilling
  

At $20 and $15, my solution was to buy both.

Chess Master is excellent for beginners

Fritz is stronger and i use it for analyzing my tournament games

I do agree on what has been said so far. Fritz is strong at any level.

Even blitzgames.

I ,too, think you should buy both.

Rasmine

Listen, once you have an Chess.com account, you cannot use those programs, otherwise your account will be closed. See:FAQ-Discussion on Cheating.

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Of course you can use you those programs!!!

You can't use them to make your moves for you!

But you can use them as practice partners, as teachers, as study tools, and as analyzers of your games (showing you where you went wrong and what you might have done differently.)

Chessmaster as an easyer interface all amateurs programs tend to have Fritz is more a computer savy program, if you know your way around the PC fritz will always be better otherwise CM is quite OK as for the strenght both of them can beat Anand in blitz games easy lol

Here is a nice analogy for you:

Windows vs Linux if your time as no value Linux is cheaper

I own Fritz and am quite happy with it. The interface is great, extemely easy to use.

I am thinking of purchasing Chessmaster as well, for the training materials. I see LikesForests has made a nice list. Are those all of the training materials? I am familiar with single rook, queen, and two bishop checkmates, and am currently studying tactics, but I am not familiar with many other concepts. Would these training materials be useful to me?

The copy of Fritz 10 I own claimed it came with 'hours' of training materials, but I finished all the ones it came with in a very short time, and apparently the materials it was referring to are the DVDs sold separately.

Bardu> Are those all of the training materials?

For "intermediate" players there's almost twice as much learning content. Here are the additional courses / tutorials that you may find useful:

• Pandolfini's "Opening Moves" course 
• Pandolfini's "Basic Themes"course
• "Tactics & Positions"
• Larry Evans Endgame Quiz
• 10 annotared "Rating Quizes"
• Waitzkin's tactical "Arsenal" course
  
• Waitzkin's "Strategy" course

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LISTEN:

I'm NOT ASKING whether I can use those programs to make my moves in Chess.com (Of course I can't). What I am asking is whether or not my Chess.com rating is comparable to ratings in Fritz/CM, so I can really decide whether I am a beginner or an intermediate player because I knew that Fritz is stronger than CM.

Like I said before, my Chess.com rating is usually between 1500-1700, but I've heard people saying that their actual rating (e.g. USCF) is usually 400 points lower.

I use chessmaster and find it very usefull. It has amazing tutorals, tactics . My chess.com rating is about the same as how I am in in chessmaster so I think it is about the same...(with chessmaster) I'm not sure about Fritz though.

Hey All,

New member here .....

I have both Fitz & CM XI ... Plus, I also have Chessbase 10. The most important issue here IMHO is to take what you can from what you have. Fitz helps sharpen one aspect of my game and CM XI is  used to sharpen other areas of my game. I think you can get into grey areas when you try to find the best of this or that - because it is always subjective.

Bottom line - All these programs are essentially tools and as with all tools ... Its just a matter of how well you learn to use them.

I have chessmaster 11 and it's great, but I think the analysis isn't that great. I heard fritz or rybka are better at that

does anyone have anything to say about Rybka? I was considering buying it, is it better than fritz and CM?

I bought Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition because I saw it for $30. I think the most recent Fritz version is double that...not sure...

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I think that Chessmaster gets a bad rap.  I stayed away from it because of that.  I wish I had purchased it earlier and used IT from the beginning.  The interface is easy, the playing levels are much better for sparring and the instructive tutorials are awesome.  I found myself playing through the "how the pieces move" tutorials just because they were so well done. 

 

Not to disagree with Likesforests because there is no wrong or right answer as far as who has the best interface.  BUT...Each person will be attracted to different things.  I personally have never ever liked the Chessbase (Fritz) interface.  I purchased Shredder a year ago and that has been my favorite interface-hands down-for serious analysis and serious practice (endgames and such).  But that is just me.  The Shredder interface really draws me in and makes me want to work.  So my advice is to get Chessmaster for learning and fun and THEN download trial versions of the various Interfaces such as Fritz (Chessbase), Shredder, and Aquarium and find out which one you like best, and then purchase that one!  You will need ONE of these if you want to get serious about analysis and practicing various parts of the game. (chessmaster isn't the best for that)  They are all great in their own way, you just have to find the one that gets you excited about working and studying.

ChessMaster tutorials are perfect for beginners and still very good for intermediate, and they are interactive which I enjoy.  Fritz trainers are for more advanced players.

For playing the program its Fritz hands down for me, I love the interface and it has various handicap/ sparring systems to weaken the engine for beginner/ intermediate player and very useful analysis. 

A major reason I don’t use CM for playing is it’s a huge CPU drainer and well known for it, I don’t have the same problems with Fritz

CM so cheap worth buying just for the tutorials alone