Best Chess Software?

CM 3000 is great, but even better is Chess Master Learning Edition, has great videos by IM Josh Waitzkin as well as other great teaching tools.

I had almost every version of Chessmaster starting with 2100. Later editions have instructive videos, but you can find better on YouTube and this site. Everything I wrote in this thread about the limitations of CM 3000 applies to all later versions. The last two were completely redesigned by gamers who have no knowledge about the nature of chess training. Mobility between different features of the software was destroyed. IIRC CM 9000 (it might have been 8000) was the last version before this destructive redesign.

Despite finding the software cumbersome, I used it extensively to play online and against Vlad, perhaps the most interesting of the weakened bots. That was 20 years ago. Eventually, the online option went away with no real loss to the chess world.

Been using ChessBase 15 for 4-5 years. Thinking about upgrading to CB 17.
Anyone familiar with the differences care to weigh in? I understand they've made some changes to the file structure.

Battle Chess.
It's not great but i love the death animations haha

Upgraded to 17 two days ago. Some things are better. It is certainly faster. But, I miss the endgames key.

Try Chessflare.com for create repertoire and visualize it on node tree

The endgames research option is terrific! I use it with more effectiveness than the old endgames key. Took some use to understand that ChessBase did, in fact, improve their software.

Don’t know about CB 18 and always avoid a new version for a year because they tend to be buggy. Same with new OS from Microsoft. Will need to accept Windows 11 soon.