1)Can I play with a friend in chessmaster 9000,or can I only play against computer?

2)In a chessmaster 9000 tournament,can I avoid watching other games?They finish very fast of course,but why should I wait and watch computer players playing?

Ask these questions in the UbiSoft chessmaster forums for the best answers.

#1: Yes, if you're both sitting in front of the same computer. Just change the "computer" icon to a "human" icon for both White and Black. CM10 and CM11 allow playing over the Internet but I doubt that's possible in 2008 with CM9. 

#2:  In CM10 & CM11 you can click on a "Quick Result" button instead of the "Play" button during tournaments. I don't remember if that's available in CM9.

I want to come back to this forum with another question.Have you ever seen a resignation fron an opponent in chessmaster?I have not seen anyone resign,even if they have only a king left and I have many ways to finish the game.

Nope, Chessmaster never resigns.

The last chessmaster and indeed pc i played was Chessmaster 7000. That is how long its been for me, well up until recently with chesspartner here on chess.com.  No chessmaster did not resign any of the games i played either. I even wrote them down and still have them so i checked and found ur right it doesnt have a resign button built into the program.

You have to mate all of its characters to win or them loose on time.

It does teach (force) you to mate which can be lost with human opponents resigning.

I have noticed 9000 uses two cores at 100% so it seems to be multi core capable.

Thank you all for your participation.If anyone has any questions about this progran like me please write them here,so we can exchange information.

WHAT? 9000?!?

ANYWAY,MAKE IT CHESSMASTER,THIS IS THE VERSION I HAVE.AND WHY WOULD I TAKE A NEW ONE?

Get the newest one if you think several hours of audio instruction and interactive exercises by IM Josh Waitzkin is worth $20 (or you want better graphics & less bugs).

The 1st element exists in version 9,but not the interactive exercises,so I may think about it.

Please say more about the "interactive exercises" on Chessmaster 10 (or 11.) Does Josh W. talk you through these?

I have CM 9000 and Josh has some audio tutorial on the 2nd disc. But he talks too fast!

stwils

Josh provides hour more instruction in version 11 than in previous versions.

He explains a principle (text and audio), shows you some positions from his games, asks what you would play, then discusses your move (right or wrong and why). The new lessons in 11 are based on his book The Art of Learning. If you have a previous version, you should already know whether or not you would enjoy his teaching style.

You really want to move up to Chessmaster 10 or 11. The instructional programs built into it are great. It is also a much smoother program. I've been using this program since version 4000 so I have seen the changes through the versions. Try Chessmaster 10 at the very least. It is worth every penny and is very inexpensive for chess software.

I have to agree with Hugh, give it a try CM10. It is worth every penny !

 There is a control panel with stop,pause and start buttons,like a media player.Try using pause and think about the moves a little bit before continuing.

I think I shall have to try the last version of the program.

Does anyone know when version 12 will be ready?Maybe I could wait until then.

Well... Chessmaster 10 = Fall 2004, Chessmaster 11 = Fall 2007.

An educated guess = Fall 2010.

AFAIK, as of yet there's no committed plan or schedule for the next release, although I believe it's likely to eventually be produced.

If your friend is at your house you can play LAN chess with him. 

You may think that is silly but it's nice having the game regulated, and not having to worry about human judgement in determining what moves were legal. 

Actually I'm looking for a better lan chess program though.  It's hard to save the game in CM for some reason.

I never had any problems saving my cm games.Why do you?