I played a G60 against Chessmaster @ 1800 I drew, only because I blundered in the end. I am not an 1800 player so my question is, are CM ratings inflated?

(V) Here is the game comments appreciated, thank you.

I agree.

I concur.

The ratings strongly depend on the PC you're using. I've seen ChessMaster overrate powerful desktop PCs, e.g. claim 2900+ strength back in the early 2000s.

The other thing to remember about computer chess is if it is rated 1800, that means that it is not playing up to its strongest level, meaning that it consciously picks the second best moves in some cases.  What I am long-windedly trying to say is that if it decides that it will be positionally weak in a game, and that you find that you are positionally strong, you will have an easy time against a personality.  As well, some Chessmaster personalities play perfect chess, but only look 2 or 3 moves deep.  If you are playing a slower game (like G60) against a computer that only sees three moves deep you will have a much easier time against it.  For my blitz training when I started out, I made the computer play perfect chess but only see one move deep.  This was perfect for blitz, because it would punish me tactically if I dropped a piece, but if I had any sort of setup it would fall for it. 

I agree with the others, white will win from here.

Also, the lower ranked personalities in Chessmaster are pre-configured to make tactical blunders from time to time so the opponent can improve his/her game, so no the ratings are not inflated. Try playing with the full engine or one of the GM personalities and see how you do.

@ Natalia: Are you saying that the program is essentially a "braggart" of sorts, and that it cannot possibly be as strong (e.g. 2900+) as it asserts?

@lochness88: I agree with the comments given. Sometimes I perform well against relatively high-rated players, while other personalities rated around my level can give me some grief. Stylistic differences explain some of the disparity. Some of these personalities will accept a draw despite having a winning position... (a low "contempt for draw," as those familiar with CM know).

An engine is completely dependant on the processing power of the computer regardless of how good it "should" be. If I have a faster processor then I could get away with using a weaker engine to win since your supposedly superior one lacks the resources to work at it's best or has less resources than mine.

Some gms are running Rybka with 8 cores just to combat this.

i remember when I first started with chess. I played CM on the Playstation two. There was this one woman, Berry, that was low rated but always destroyed me. I hate her and her name will haunt me to the grave.

@Maradonna: I have the same problem with a few of the other personalities. I still don't understand why that happens.

@AnthonyCG: That is very fascinating. I should have posed my question less vaguely: my PC evaluates Chessmaster at 2960. Is my PC overestimating this, as Natalia suggested, or could this possibly be an accurate assessment?

I think your PC is just very good - on mine it's rated at about 2850, although I've seen it vary.

Thank you everyone for your time and comments.