I am a fan of Chessmaster, so I purchased the new Grandmaster edition of Chessmaster over ther weekend.  It is a waste of money if you have the last version.  I am very dissapointed.  I started looking at the box to see what the supposed differences are and noticed something odd.  They even recycled the photograph of IM Josh Waitzkin.  Then I took a closer look, and what was odd, became disturbing.  Josh is not wearing a shirt.

Why is Josh shirtless ? 

 I really like the tutorials he recorded on chessmaster, but now they are ruined.  I won't be able to listen to them without wondering if I am listening to a shirtless (or worse) IM. 

Is there anyone who can explain what the point of the grandmaster edition is, or why Josh lost his shirt ?

If it was a shirtless female it would be a scandal.  Did nobody notice, or do we just accept it because he reminds us of the cute kid in searching for bobby fischer ?

Put a shirt on Josh! 

His lack of shirt probably has something to do with his martial arts career.  You know those crazy martial arts people never wear shirts.

I always follow the old saying:

Beer before liquor, wear a shirt for your chessmaster photograph.

Elwood wrote:

I always follow the old saying:

Beer before liquor, wear a shirt for your chessmaster photograph.

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 that made me laugh really hard while i was on an important phone call :)

Maybe chess.com should send Josh a shirt.

Elwood wrote:

I always follow the old saying:

Beer before liquor, wear a shirt for your chessmaster photograph.

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 That's one of the funniest things I've heard in a LONG time!

Thanks guys.

I almost didn't post it because I thought my comedy lacked something in type.

Sorry I messed up your call erik.

Is Loomis the guy who wanted a chess.com T-shirt if he reached 10,000 chess.com points ?

You must be thinking of someone else, Elwood. But I did laugh at your beer joke.

Elwood wrote:

Thanks guys.

I almost didn't post it because I thought my comedy lacked something in type.

Sorry I messed up your call erik.

Is Loomis the guy who wanted a chess.com T-shirt if he reached 10,000 chess.com points ?

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 Yes, but It was only 1000 pts, hence the large number of incoherent ramblings.

Reserves, if you can find a post where I said anything about getting a shirt for member points, I'll change my posting habits however you like, even if you never want me to post again. If you can't, maybe you'd like to admit you're just badgering me for no reason.

Yikes!  sounds like Loomis and Reservesmonkey have some history.  Hope I didn't contribute to any bad blood. 

Cant we all just...

get along ?

 

...or at least settle it ove the virtual chess board.

Maybe you guys are just palyin'.  I see Reservesmonkey voted for Loomis in the Member of the year thread.

I just want to tell you both Good luck.  We're all counting on you.

Elwood, I actually don't know what's gotten into Reservesmokey, all of a sudden he has some strange compulsion to write a snide remark about me in every thread. I don't know why he doesn't just enjoy the nice website we have here. Maybe he's just one of those types that can't live without starting fights.

I hope you guys work it out.  I say battle on the chess board not in the forums.  Hit him with the hyper modern crouching tiger queen's gambit!  (don't do that.  I just made it up.  It probably won't work, but it sounds really cool.)

Maybe if we convince erik to give us all chess.com T-shirts we will all be friends (and irresistable to the ladies!).

 

There was/is a thread about free chess.com tshirts for achieving a certain number of chess.com points.  Reservemonkey must have seen it too.  I don't remember who posted there, but it exists somewhere.  When you mentioned the free T, I thought it might be you.  It all comes back to Josh.  If he would have worn his shirt for the picture, none of this would have happened.  I challange Josh!  (If he is willing to give me 2 rooks & a knight odds.) 

So are there any new features on chessmaster grandmaster edition?

 

I had it just long enough to figure out it wasn't worth $40.  Get 10 - just as good for half the $.  I did not find any new content in grandmaster edition before I returned it.  Supposedly there is a Josh "where's my shirt" Waitzkin art of learning thingy.  If that is worth $20 bucks to you, you have too much money.  I have some pocket lint & old, ahem- strike that- vintage He-Man action figures I'm selling.  $84,299.94 and they are all yours.

It is kind of like when they put a new marshmellow in Lucky charms.  It dosen't add any value, but marketing makes you want it because it is new.   mmmmmm Lucky Charms.

I wasn't going to mention this but, Josh actually lost his shirt to me in a game of chess, lol

Red 

 

Oh snap!  That is awesome.  You beat Josh & combined chess with gambeling.  Why didn't I think of that?

i'm new to chess... i've known the moves since i was a kid, but just got into it for real in the last couple of months. bought Chessmaster Art of Learning and am very happy with it.  the tutorials by josh (you must be willing to look past the chess brat cockyness  haha... i have to say that he's earned the right or i will get flamed by other players on this site) are great and are worth spending the money just for that.  josh will verbally annotate some classic chess games and give his opinions on how things are working. i have a couple of books, but it's a real pain in the but to set up the board and read at the same time.  the tutorial is like reading a good chess book without all the mess..  if the only difference between release 10 and this one is josh's part, still worth it.  there are also kid tutorials for the pure basic basics.  my son is 2 months old and i plan on keeping this program until he's old enough to want to learn (to beat me, haha).

i also like how it trains openings... where you can practice openings or it will give you opening variations to use during a game (in training mode).  again,  i'm too lazy to learn openings with an opening book... which would probably be the same price as chessmaster.

on the other side...

there are some bugs in the tutorials.  sometimes josh will be talking about moves and the computer shows different moves. and sometimes... in order to proceed in the tutorial, you are required to make the correct move and the computer won't let you.  it baffles me that these people can program one of the world's greatest chess engines, and their QA testing misses what should be easy to fix bugs.  it's not like the computer was thinking to make these moves... its a historic game.  Just listen to Josh and program it in dummy. 

Troubleshooting advice:

Not a problem as much as an annoyance.. if it freezes by a glitch in a tutorial and it won't let you hit "next" there is a GO____ prompt in the top left corner where you can enter the next page number.  (i.e. you get stuck on page 5 of 72 in a tutorial and would like to see pages 6-72 of the tutorial.... enter "6" next to "Go" and press "Go".

Still an absolutely great buy. maybe it's just as good as its competition that people write about (Fritz??), i don't know and i'm not going to find out either.  A player of my caliber should not be able to find errors in the program... so ..... Shame on you Ubisoft.

Good review Hondoham.

If you don't have CM10 either one is going to be a great tool.  The only value added to CM GM edition is the art of learning.  CM10 is half the price at best buy.  The art of learning probably (?) worth $20 USD, but it seemes (for me) too redundant to have both programs.  There still are glitches as you pointed out.  Also the system requirements are greater on GM edition, so if your computer is aging, CM10 is surely the way to go.  CM10 has all the rest of the tutorials like Josh's endgame course...  The biggest problem is that josh still has not put on his shirt!  Seriously though, CM 10 is such a great program it would be hard to improve upon.  I have still have a hard time paying double for one new thing.

ahh,....  i was not aware that it was only the "Art of Learning" tutorial of the many josh tutorials is the only new thing.  are the tutorials verbal in CM10?  that's the big seller for me.

i'll peek at it again.. with this in perspective.  i personally would be happy with the program as is without that one course.  not that i would be thinking about the $20, i just would probably not actively pursue buying it if i had CM10.  regardless of which, i give my thanks to you, the chess public, for buying all the prior inferior versions so i can get this superior program...  i'll probably wait until CM15 to look at the market. (i say that now)