Agree. I have chessmaster 10th edition and I think it is quite good.
Chessmaster or Fritz?
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I have fritz right now and also I use to play with chessmaster, It seem to be more stronger fritz than chessmaster, also fritz has more didactic functions.
I use to belive that ¨you get what you pay ¨, usualy.
I like Chessmaster better for sparring because it comes with a wide range of opponents of differing styles and strengths. Eg, aggressive opponents, defensive opponents, tactical opponents, strategic opponents, players who like to quickly simplify to an ending, players who favor bishops over knights, etc.
I use Rybka (a stronger engine) and sometimes Fritz for post-game analysis. Their extra strength helps them to excel in that role.
I don't have Fritz but i can tell tou that chessmaster realy helped me to improve my tactics
Thanks for the comments, i'm going for chessmaster.
Sep 29, 2007
0
#7
Chessmaster is a great for attracting new people to the game and is pretty stong as well. Where as Fritz is for the more serious player who probably plays regular over the board chess and needs a function for post game analysis. Chessmaster does this too, but you usually have to give it a set time to do it. But if i found two the same price and i had to choose one, then i would have to toss a coin. Heads or tails?
I have both programs. At my level of play, Chessmaster is far and away the better choice. Fritz is, IMHO, geared to (at least) the very serious club player with years under his/her belt. Moreover, with Fritz you'll probably have to buy Chessbase 9 as well to get the most out of it. With Chessmaster you get everything but the kitchen sink in one package.
Plus! Chessmaster's learning curve isn't nearly so steep as fritz. With Chessmaster, you can jump right in and play some games, then it will analyze & annotate them and explain it all to you in English audio. Fritz/Chessbase uses some sort of archane symbology "+/- this or that percentage= something or other CAP" I also think that Chessmaster handicaps itself better than Fritz... but that's a matter of personal judgement.
So, the long and the short of it is, as a beginner to intermediate player, I'd choose Chessbase. Beyond that, I'd pony up a few hundred bucks and get Fritz/Chessbase (and devote the time necessary to understand its esoteric analysis output.) Then again... I might just save myself a few bucks and go the Rybka/Chess Assistant route.
hooperxxx wrote:
Fritz/Chessbase uses some sort of archane symbology "+/- this or that
At some point in everyone's chess career +/- looks archane, but you get used to it soon enough. The good news is the same symbols are used fairly consistently across most chess books and software--it's not particular to Chessbase.
+/- means "White has an advantage"
-/+ means "Black has an advantage"
= means "White and Black are equal"
Why not just say Black has an advantage? The same reason you write Qh5+ instead of "I move the Queen to the h5 square and it's check." It takes less space and it's faster for players to read once they get used to it.
I actually highly recommend Chessbase or SCID (a free database) if you want to store your chess games and peruse master games of the past. 
likesforests wrote:
At some point in everyone's chess career +/- looks archane, but you get used to it soon enough. The good news is the same symbols are used fairly consistently across most chess books and software--it's not particular to Chessbase.
+/- means "White has an advantage"
-/+ means "Black has an advantage"
= means "White and Black are equal"
Why not just say Black has an advantage? The same reason you write Qh5+ instead of "I move the Queen to the h5 square and it's check." It takes less space and it's faster for players to read once they get used to it.
That was my point, for a serious chess player with considerable experience under his/her belt, Fritz/Chessbase or Rybka/Chess Assistant is the obvious choice. However, for the beginner, 4. Bc4 %.04= -0.15 CAP Nd5 N ? is likely to lead to head-scratching.
hooperxxx wrote:
However, for the beginner, 4. Bc4 %.04= -0.15 CAP Nd5 N ? is likely to lead to head-scratching.
Absolutely. By the way, Chessbase displays evaluations like "+/- (0.88) 1.Ke1 Be5 2.Kf2". What program generates what you wrote, and what's it mean?
I think chessmaster is a great choice.
I've have both programs. For club level players, Chessmaster would probably be the best choice, due to the instructional content that Fritz is lacking. To get the same effect from Fritz, I would actually suggest additional software in the form of the Fritz & Chesster learning programs. So Chessmaster is your mainstream, userfriendly interface, and is a great all around learning tool. Fritz is more of the chess junky, analyze your games with a fine tooth comb type experience. The analysis functions are what really set Fritz apart from Chessmaster. As far as playing goes, Chessmaster does have a better 'human' feel on handicap levels. In my opinion, play against the engines at top level doesn't really play a factor for deciding, because I'm not talented enough to tell if the whooping I took was worse between the two. I mean, can anyone at amatuer level really make an arguement of whether the program running at 2350 taught them more than the shelacking from the 2380 rated other program? You can save yourself the headache of the whole thing anyways and be a true chess dork like me!! Go pick up a cheap back copy of Chessmaster on ebay and you'll have plenty of money left over to get fritz ; )
likesforests wrote: hooperxxx wrote:
However, for the beginner, 4. Bc4 %.04= -0.15 CAP Nd5 N ? is likely to lead to head-scratching.
Absolutely. By the way, Chessbase displays evaluations like "+/- (0.88) 1.Ke1 Be5 2.Kf2". What program generates what you wrote, and what's it mean?
Chessbase 9
I haven't a clue what this means. Again, that is my point. (FYI: the only pdf. manual that came with my DVD is in German)
Chessbase 10 would say something like, "Uh oh, Bc4 walks into (for instance) a forced mate. Much better would be..."
Interesting! Here's what I usually see in Chessbase. I've never run across those cryptic CAP notations, but it is a huge program. And yes, Chessmaster's explanations are definitely more human-readable for a beginner.
Game Window:
Engine Analysis
Chessbase Analysis
Is that text from a cold pgn, or was this an annotated file that was downloaded? It looks like a player did the text for that one. Computer text annotation usually tends to be vague due to the language construction limitations of todays computers. They usually give pat answers when the variations are conclusive, such as a mate in 5 would get a commentary like...'There is no saving White." A useful tool is the variation window. If you pay attention to what moves pop up frequently in the analysis, you can learn strong moves or manuevers by questioning why the computer likes those moves. One of my favorite things to do is to have fritz show me why my move doesn't work. If you want good advanced lessons, look for annotated pgn files, or the fritz trainer discs.
"Is that text from a cold pgn, or was this an annotated file that was downloaded? ... Computer text annotation usually tends to be ..."
To clarify, Chessbase doesn't do auto-annotation. When you post-analyze you games, you write your own annotations based on your thoughts after the game, engine analysis, and similar positions reached by other players. 60,000 of its 3,500,000 games are pre-annotated by top players... the above was an example.
likesforests wrote:
To clarify, Chessbase doesn't do auto-annotation...
...Excepting such nonsense as "Ke5-e6 doesn't get the bull off the ice," whatever that means.
Edit: I suppose that it is Fritz doing the actual analysis and one-liners.
My rating on here is around 1550. My basic technique however is generally to wait for my opponent to make a mistake and then capitalise on it, so I thought a good way to improve would be to purchase an opponent who makes no mistakes, or at least can be set to only make very subtle ones.
Chessmaster and Fritz seem to be the most popular choices, with chessmaster being half the price. Does anyone own one or both (or perhaps a completely different one) that they would recommend for someone just leaving the beginner phase?