What kind of bugs are you noticing? I haven't really noticed any.
Patches for bugs in Chessmaster XI
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Most, if not all, of them are not very serious, but they are occasionally just bad enough to put a damper on my playing experience a little bit. Just off the top of my head, some of them are:
1) If I pause the game while my opponent is thinking, then when I resume, my opponent's time will occasionally have lapsed by many hours, giving me an unearned victory even in a rated game. For example, when my opponent has 40 minutes left in a 60-minute game, and I pause while it's thinking, if I resume the game only 20 minutes later, its clock will suddenly say "-18:54:02," and I win.
2) In the Game Summary window that appears after each game, the "best move" and "worst move" are sometimes wrong. Sometimes it will say, "Worst move: 12. Qg4," but my opponent played 12. Qg4, while I played 12. ... Rb8.
Also, last week, I played a game and adjourned it after 24 moves. When I resumed the next day and lost, Game Summary reported my worst move as "9. Nd5." However, while I did indeed play 9. Nd5, it couldn't possibly have been my worst move. I eventually realized that my worst move was actually 33. Kg7, i.e., 9 moves from when the game resumed that day. The program knew that my 9th move of the day was my worst move, but it looked at move 9 of the whole game and reported the wrong move.
3) When analyzing a game, Chessmaster will give corrective analysis on moves it disagrees with. It will say things like, "Better is Rxe5, leading to..." etc. Well, the problem here is, every once in a while, the last move in Chessmaster's "corrected" line is a blunder. In one game several months ago, I watched Chessmaster illustrate its corrected line, and when it reached the end, I stared at the resultant position and realized that it allowed a mate in 1!
4) When Game Summary lists the new ratings after a rated game, it regularly makes calculatory errors. For example, if I'm rated 1511 and I win a game, then it might say, "Your new overall rating increased by 14 points and is now 1536. Your new Standard rating increased by 25 points and is now 1536." As you can see, one of those is correct, but not both! 
Happily, all of these bugs (except for #4) occur quite seldom. They are not a big deal for the most part, so I don't mean to nitpick anything. Overall, my experience with Chessmaster XI has been very positive. I just wish that some patches would come along to fix these things, making the program even better than it already is.
I'll have to keep an eye out for these issues. I'm not always sold on the analysis, either.
One thing that bugs me is that if you play an equal or lower-rated computer personality, it reduces your rating even if you win. I understand that you wouldn't gain anything by playing an equal or lower-rated player, but it shouldn't penalize you for winning against them. Perhaps a 0 increase by winning should be the result. Even here on chess.com your score doesn't go down if you win against a lower-rated player.
but anyone i still like chessmaster, i hope they will make a new edition...
N2UHC wrote:
One thing that bugs me is that if you play an equal or lower-rated computer personality, it reduces your rating even if you win. ... Even here on chess.com your score doesn't go down if you win against a lower-rated player.
Wow, that's really weird. I haven't encountered that problem. If I play an equal or lower-rated player, I still gain some points. However, if I play against someone much lower than I am, then I would lose points for winning. But I have still been gaining points for beating players about 100 points below my rating.
well why would you want to beat someone many points lower, i also havent encountered that problem with computer weaker so i can beath him easy but still reasonable.. i didnt lose points... maybe the developers have hidden an inside joke to punish you for being cheap... that would be great and we should praise ubisoft developers for that
I think it makes sense that I lose points for defeating a player rated 400+ points below my rating. It's CM's way of saying that I had no business playing that personality anyway... kind of like PUMAPRIDE said.
I just checked the projected rating adjustment for playing against a much lower-rated opponent. It reported that I would gain +0 points for defeating players rated 1000 points below me. I think it does this once a person has played a sufficient number of rated games.
Well, it's been a little while since I've played it, but I'm pretty sure you lose points unless you play a higher-rated player. I'll have to check it out again to see for sure. And I'll have to check out any updates for it.
I noticed a few glitches and bugs too...
In some sets (probably the animated 3D sets), I move a piece and it is on the wrong square. There is a circle on the square where I moved to, but the piece itself is on the wrong square. It goes on the right square when I click on the square, and then I can move it. This is most common with rooks.
And as posted above, when I set up a position with black to move, it turns out to be white to move.
Another thing in the set up position is when the blunder alert comes up. When I make a move and Chessmaster thinks it is a mistake, it will have a blunder alert pop up (only if you have blunder alert on, which you could turn off). Sometimes at the end it says "... Unfortunately, you have no better move." I don't see the point in having the blunder alert when there is no better move.
well it makes you look back and see what you did wrong before
There are also glitches in the minigames. I don't play those often, but when I do, I usually find bugs.
pompom wrote:
I noticed a few glitches and bugs too...
In some sets (probably the animated 3D sets), I move a piece and it is on the wrong square. There is a circle on the square where I moved to, but the piece itself is on the wrong square. It goes on the right square when I click on the square, and then I can move it. This is most common with rooks.
And as posted above, when I set up a position with black to move, it turns out to be white to move.
Another thing in the set up position is when the blunder alert comes up. When I make a move and Chessmaster thinks it is a mistake, it will have a blunder alert pop up (only if you have blunder alert on, which you could turn off). Sometimes at the end it says "... Unfortunately, you have no better move." I don't see the point in having the blunder alert when there is no better move.
I've never encountered the problem with pieces appearing on incorrect squares. I've also not been unable to set up a position with Black to move. As for Blunder Alert giving false alarms, that's really weird! I've never noticed that because I always play with Blunder Alert off. You're right, though, there is no point in alerting when there is no better move!
A lot of people are mentioning bugs that I have never come across, so I'm wondering if I might have inadvertently misled people. Are Chessmaster XI and Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition one and the same, or are they different versions? I was assuming that CM XI and CM: GM Edition are the same, but if they are not, then maybe some of these bugs are in one game but not the other.
They're the same, aren't they?
And as for pieces appearing on incorrect squares, I think this only applies with the animated 3-D sets. I've tested the "rubber" set but not the others. Sometimes the "rubber" set is a square off, especially with rooks. Sometimes there would even be two pieces on the same square.
The blunder alert giving false alarms is pretty weird. Sometimes it would give an alert when I played a good move (by that I mean like the fastest way to force mate) and sometimes it would give alerts when it is the only legal move.
well but how many bugs it has, chessmaster is still the most fun chess game to play, even with bugs is crazy awesome in my opinion
whirlwind2011 wrote:
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2) In the Game Summary window that appears after each game, the "best move" and "worst move" are sometimes wrong. Sometimes it will say, "Worst move: 12. Qg4," but my opponent played 12. Qg4, while I played 12. ... Rb8.
This isn't a bug. It work's sort of like 'the player of the match' in some teamsports such as hockey. The best move can be from either player.
Also, last week, I played a game and adjourned it after 24 moves. When I resumed the next day and lost, Game Summary reported my worst move as "9. Nd5." However, while I did indeed play 9. Nd5, it couldn't possibly have been my worst move. I eventually realized that my worst move was actually 33. Kg7, i.e., 9 moves from when the game resumed that day. The program knew that my 9th move of the day was my worst move, but it looked at move 9 of the whole game and reported the wrong move.
This is probably due to your computer's cache memory emptying while booting it. Maybe you could try manually saving the game.
3) When analyzing a game, Chessmaster will give corrective analysis on moves it disagrees with. It will say things like, "Better is Rxe5, leading to..." etc. Well, the problem here is, every once in a while, the last move in Chessmaster's "corrected" line is a blunder. In one game several months ago, I watched Chessmaster illustrate its corrected line, and when it reached the end, I stared at the resultant position and realized that it allowed a mate in 1!
This sometimes happens with computers and the probable cause is that the mate in one was over the horizon. The computer calculates, say nine moves ahead, but on move ten comes the stump. It fails to assess the position correctly. Had it been playing this would've not occurred since after move 1, it count's other nine moves or ply ahead, and so on. Alas in assessing the game post mortem it stops after calculating as far as it is defined to.
Anyhow. If you do find a patch. Send me a link, as I have the game as well and manage to play it a couple of times a year for the fun of it.
@bjazz: Very interesting, thank you for that! You raise a good point about #2; it might not be a bug after all. I had assumed that it always evaluated my playing only. As for the second part of #2, that is a good explanation as well, but I still think CM shouldn't miss the number of moves transpired in the current game.
I had figured that the engine's horizon was interfering with its calculation, but that doesn't make the scenario any less odd!
Thanks very much for your enlightening contributions!
@pompom: Yes, I believe they are the same. Blunder Alert can be freaky sometimes. And seeing two pieces on the same square could be trippy. "My Knishop on c4 captures your Queen on f2! Hah!" "What? There's no such piece as a Knishop! What is that about?" "Yes, there is! See? The computer says so!"
the worst bug with chessmaster 11 is then you have dual screen like me and move some of the windows onto the other screen they are stuck and you have to reset the windows in order to do something with them again.
but I would buy chessmaster 12 without blinking with my eyes.
but I would like to have dual screen support.
I think more and more have more than one monitor.
General trouble-shooting tips with random program glitches include rebooting the program itself and if that doesn't help reboot your PC. Next you could try re-installing the program itself which may improve its performance. If you're using a Windows OS reinstalling Windows annually usually improves overall PC performance sometimes greatly if you've never done so previously.
You could also start monitoring your CPU and RAM usage to see if they affect the way ChessMaster (or any other program) performs.
I like to hone my chess skills using Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition, as many others here do too, I'm sure. I am highly satisfied with the quality of its playing ability, its interface, etc. However, I have noticed several bugs in various facets of the program. I check the Ubisoft website every so often for any patches, but I repeatedly find none. Does anyone else have any information on the availability of patches? Maybe I'm just not looking in the correct places on their site.