I have Chessmaster 10th edition on XP and I must say it is fantastic. It is stronger on the hardest difficulty setting than I think I will ever be and has hundreds of personalities at various levels of chess ability, a good personal training system and an extensive opening and game library. There is a limited demo available which might be good to test against Vista.
http://www.download.com/Chessmaster-10th-Edition-demo/3000-7562_4-10297913.html
I thoroughly recommend it.
I just bought the PSP version of Chessbase, since I can't get anyone at work to play me any more. One thing I noticed, is that they describe the type of playing style each character uses. I played "Jade", and she will willingly do a queen swap early in the game. What I found out, is that she was willing enough to do a queen trade that it allowed me to gain a free rook in the trade. This was a 1275 rating character. I don't think many 1275s would do that, so I think maybe their personalities are more of exploits. You don't know how to exploit this "Marius", the way he attacks or defends. I likewise played another 1200 and it says he neglects the middle of the board in favor of getting position elsewhere. He completely destroyed me the first couple of games, until I figured out his system. The thing is, these things may be pointless, because your human opponent isn't going to say "I'm a knight master", thus clueing you in to taking his knights out immediately. There's no doubt that it will help you recognize certain situations more quickly (as chess *is* a game of patterns more than anything else.)
I got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love it I love it I love it I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YAY!!!
-^.^-
Chessmaster I think it is the best "all in one" solution but not necessarily the best in other aspects of chess study. I have CM11. The best as far as the strongest engine is Rybka 3. It is even stronger if you use the Rybka 3 opening book by Noomen. There are many free engines and free interfaces as well so if you wanted to go the route of least expense you could do just fine. I also have Fritz 11 and I use the Deep Rybka 3 engine with the Fritz interface. This is very near and similar if not exactly the same as the Rybka 3 Chessbase version. The Chessbase Rybka 3 version is a great tool for analysis. I think it's the best for analysis. It is very powerful for digging in deep so to speak. If I were going to recommend any 2 chess programs I would recommend ChessMaster 10 or 11 and then I'd recommend Rybka 3 with the Chessbase interface. Rybka has its own new interface called Aquarium which I have no experience with so I can't opine about that one.
Chessbase 10 is a database that is an excellent tool for study and reference but I don't think it is the best for pure analysis like Rybka3. The Chessbase 10 does come with a database of >3.5 million games and it does have an earlier version of the Fritz engine as well as Crafty. It is relatively pricey compared to CM and Rybka 3 but there is a TON of information in there. If I were to add a 3rd purchase to my chess studies it would be Chessbase 10. It really depends on how much $$ you want to invest and how deep you want to go in your pursuit of chess knowledge and study.
Thanks. This is exactly what I was looking for.
well with a computer it always plays good moves the rating just determines the random mistakes they make or moves they miss to equalize to their rating in my opinion.you just have to learn to spot the mistakes they make.