Chessmaster biggest load of crap ever

Seriously, I have a rating of 1300 here on the site, I win some and I lose some... I can't even beat chessmaster ~800 apponent, the game plays stupid as hell and then just as I'm about to win, it turns into Kasparov, wtf is up with that? It's like a freaking grandmaster at avoiding checks, it positions it's peices PERFECTLY, there literally isn't a single weak square anywhere. Soon as I make a blunder, BAM it's in there gobbling up all my peices. Chess against a computer is absolutely ridiculous, I advise everyone, NEVER to buy chess software, it will cheat you.

*knock*knock*knock*

Matt!

*knock*knock*knock*

Matt!

*knock*knock*knock*

Matt!

Try a different personality. There's often quite a difference between them. (BTW, which one did you use?)

Matt thats the points with computer, they don't get panicked when they blunder. thing is you too should not get carried away and keep concentrating. 

Can you post the game here when next time you play that personality? 

Keep few things in mind when playing against computers:

1. best way to play an engine is to play closed game with center locked. It will definitely help you develop your positional game.

2. Against lower rated persnalities( under1800) keep calm, maintain patience and wait for them to commit a mistake, they will sure commit one. Then learn how to maintain ur advantage. 

Which version do you have? I have the Grandmaster Edition and don't have any problem with the rated play against various personalities. It often leaves bishops en prise and occasionally even queens, allows me to sometimes pick up a piece expecting an exchange but it doesn't retake and makes a weird move with no real purpose instead. This is around the 900-1100 level.

I prefer Shredder though, it makes fewer massive blunders at the lower levels than Chessmaster does. I doubt a 900 player playing seriously would overlook that the queen move they just made allowed it to be captured en prise.

As a beginner player though, I do like how it presents the analysis of past games in an easy to follow way. Will no doubt move on to using other analysis tools when I have progressed a lot more though. I've heard that Chessmaster lags behind most engines for analysis of high level games, but it should do nicely from beginner to intermediate I imagine.

As EscherehcsE suggested, try changing the personality to play against.

I find that computers are really good at defense, if you are more skilled than their initial show of ability and you find yourself in that position, I recommend playing materialistically until it has no where to run or hide. Honestly, I am surprised you are a 1300 here if you struggle to beat the 800 chessmaster characters. I start having trouble when they are around 1500.

Can you maybe name some of these artificial personalities? (I don't own Chessmaster, that's why ...)

If I remember correctly, in the older versions you could be playing against one of the beginner personalities (onE of those that left pieces unprotected), but then if you make mistakes, they announce you a "Mate in 23".

Sure, a beginner could do that.

Maybe that is fixed now, I have the CM Grandmaster Edition, but I haven´t played that much.

I have the chessmaster edition and I didn't take note of the personality of the computer apponent. Also it makes some retarded openings that throws me off my game, I know about 3 or 4 decent openings but they don't work when the computers makes stupid retard openings.

My advice to you as a player, is play that 800 rated personality with black and white until it can't beat you. You will find you are a much improved player. Your tacticall skills, general knowledge of openings and strategic assessments, to generate a winning attack against a king on the run are sound for that rating level.

I used to have trouble with the version I have when I first started playing alot, with a Josh Waitzkin at 8 years old personality. He played poor openings, but his tactical skills were out of this world for a 1300-1400 player.

That's what 800s do...They play retarded openings.

And this is exactly why relative beginners are not advised to spend much time on openings except for the general opening principles.  Essentially you have to "earn" the right to play decent openings by showing that you know how to punish an opponent who doesn't play "correctly".  It's the same with the computer.  Yes it can be a little frustrating when the computer plays so badly that it takes you out of your normal game, but that means that you need to work on positional evaluation and how to take advantage of material advantage.  If you're really honest with yourself, isn't the real reason you're mad at the computer the fact that it's showing you that you're not as good as you thought you were?

Ixnay on the etard-ray, please ;)...

You can't remember which personality you played against? You're really not making this easy...

Chessmaster personalities of the same approximate rating can actually be hundreds of rating points apart...Which is why I suggested you try another one. Also, if you feel like it, you can actually look at the characteristics of a personality and even change the settings more to your liking. There are things you can do to make Chessmaster play better. But if all you wanted to do is cry and vent, then there's not much we can do for you.

Hey Matt, there is a personality on Chessmaster 10th addition called Max. He has the craziest openings I have ever seen but the play is fun and he moves quickly. Max has a 1588 rating and like you mentioned the personalities like Max transform into Gary Kasparov or Magnus Carlson in the middle game. Try Max . You might like his play.

Computers usually have a flaw or a few flaws in their game when it comes to the personalities. You have to compensate for that by making your strengths become greater than their's, or by making your weaknesses lessor than their's.

What is your tactics trainer rating ? I have a feeling that it plays bad openings and you barely get the better of it in the middle game and early end game. While you are soley looking for simple checkmates that not even you can screw up, so has the program. It is looking for a draw and trying to make it as hard as possible. You aren't looking for blunders, how it can draw, or how it has to be played for a less obvious checkmate.

If you get better at tactics and punishing it in the openings for it's bad play, you'll be able to beat it handly before you know it.

Thanks for the tips, I have fritz 13 also, I've been trying to practice some of the popular openings against the computer but because of it's eratic opening peices, I can't actually try out openings. So I just end up playing a random game, which isn't so bad but I really dislike the way it suddenly starts to play better when it's losing...

I have a tip for you for the chessmaster. You can use the set up position feature. Once you establish an opening line that you want to play, you can also choose the personality and game type/length etc, that you want. While this is an effective tool, it won't really help repair the other weaknesses. I recommend that you do some of both. The version I have, has an interactive chess school built it. If yours has one, I recommend that you go through it. It will easily give you a few hundred rating points worth of ability if you absorb and apply it all.

Like I said before, try another personality...They're all different.

Also, on the openings, you can create your own custom opening book in Chessmaster, and you can create as few or as many lines as you want, to whatever depth you want. After creating this custom book, you can have the personalities play from that book.

So it's all within your power, if you really want to be proactive about it.

While you are offering a good suggestion for his immediate self esteem, simply playing a personality that doesn't have his number, isn't going to help him learn about and overcome his deficiencies...