@OP, your comment about Chessmaster being crashy caught my eye. That hasn't been my experience, so I guess I have to ask the obvious question - Did you apply the patches for Chessmaster? (Also just curious about which version of Chessmaster you had and what operating system did you use (and the OS you have now)? And do you still have your Chessmaster disks?)
By the way, there are lots of good suggestions so far in the thread. (Well, except for Chess Titans...sorry, Jion_Wansu 
)
My personal experience is Arena is terrible to use (ugly, clunky, doesn't do anything that other software doesn't do better). I would stay away from that.
Lucas Chess is great for analysis unless you want to step through the game with an engine kibitzing and try out variations and stuff. You can do it, but it's clunky. If you want to have an engine analyze your whole game and give you really great, easy to digest feedback, nothing is better than Lucas Chess for that.
For the other type of analysis I mentioned, Scid vs. PC is great.
Oh, and Lucas Chess is great for different levels of computer opponents, as well as having tons of really great training modes and tactics.
It's also very customizable, visually, and can look as nice or nicer than any other program as far as chess board graphics.
My personal experience is Arena is terrible to use (ugly, clunky, doesn't do anything that other software doesn't do better). I would stay away from that.
Lucas Chess is great for analysis unless you want to step through the game with an engine kibitzing and try out variations and stuff. You can do it, but it's clunky. If you want to have an engine analyze your whole game and give you really great, easy to digest feedback, nothing is better than Lucas Chess for that.
For the other type of analysis I mentioned, Scid vs. PC is great.
Oh, and Lucas Chess is great for different levels of computer opponents, as well as having tons of really great training modes and tactics.
It's also very customizable, visually, and can look as nice or nicer than any other program as far as chess board graphics.
That doesn't look like Arena 3.5...that looks like a really old version of Arena...
I dont like arena because its counter intuitive and not user friendly for me. Best chess program for me was chessmaster it had so many options and was so easy to use, I had chessmaster 7000 and 9000, if I still had it I would load the latest stockfish engine onto it.
I dont like arena because its counter intuitive and not user friendly for me. Best chess program for me was chessmaster it had so many options and was so easy to use, I had chessmaster 7000 and 9000, if I still had it I would load the latest stockfish engine onto it.
I did play it last night utilizing the reduce Elo feature of the engine but, either it is very strange how it reduces the Elo compared to humans, or I am a much worse player than I thought...
I did not post any images of arena.
I did not post any images of arena.
Did the images in post #26 appear by alternate means, or am I seeing things ?
Here are some screen shots of that post...
9 hours ago · Quote · #26
My personal experience is Arena is terrible to use (ugly, clunky, doesn't do anything that other software doesn't do better). I would stay away from that.
Lucas Chess is great for analysis unless you want to step through the game with an engine kibitzing and try out variations and stuff. You can do it, but it's clunky. If you want to have an engine analyze your whole game and give you really great, easy to digest feedback, nothing is better than Lucas Chess for that.
For the other type of analysis I mentioned, Scid vs. PC is great.
Oh, and Lucas Chess is great for different levels of computer opponents, as well as having tons of really great training modes and tactics.
It's also very customizable, visually, and can look as nice or nicer than any other program as far as chess board graphics.
Did the images in post #26 appear by alternate means, or am I seeing things ?
You're seeing images, but he didn't say they were images of Arena. Those are images of Lucas Chess.
Did the images in post #26 appear by alternate means, or am I seeing things ?
You're seeing images, but he didn't say they were images of Arena. Those are images of Lucas Chess.
He didn't specify what images he had displayed and I was unable to read anything on the headers of the pics to determine what I was looking at...
Did the images in post #26 appear by alternate means, or am I seeing things ?
You're seeing images, but he didn't say they were images of Arena. Those are images of Lucas Chess.
He didn't specify what images he had displayed and I was unable to read anything on the headers of the pics to determine what I was looking at...
That's fine but then if you didn't know what program they were from, why did you somewhat contradict him with your quote "Did the images in post #26 appear by alternate means, or am I seeing things?" after he stated they weren't from Arena?
Note that in the first image the name "Lucas Chess" is clearly visible in the upper left. Finally, one can also infer the images were from Lucas Chess, since he spoke so highly of it in his post.
(Note that you can right-click any image and select VIEW IMAGE for a larger view. At least with Firefox.)
Did the images in post #26 appear by alternate means, or am I seeing things ?
You're seeing images, but he didn't say they were images of Arena. Those are images of Lucas Chess.
He didn't specify what images he had displayed and I was unable to read anything on the headers of the pics to determine what I was looking at...
That's fine but then if you didn't know what program they were from, why did you somewhat contradict him with your quote "Did the images in post #26 appear by alternate means, or am I seeing things?" after he stated they weren't from Arena?
Note that in the first image the name "Lucas Chess" is clearly visible in the upper left. Finally, one can also infer the images were from Lucas Chess, since he spoke so highly of it in his post.
(Note that you can right-click any image and select VIEW IMAGE for a larger view. At least with Firefox.)
He duidn't state they were from any particular GUI, he simply stated somethings about a few different ones and showed some pics...
Sorry, Ed, the images looked so visually similar to Arena, I thought the pics were an older version...
...I had chessmaster 7000 and 9000, if I still had it I would load the latest stockfish engine onto it.
That wouldn't be so easy to do. Chessmaster is only designed to import Winboard engines. The only way to import a UCI engine like Stockfish would be to use a polyglot adapter between the GUI and engine. It can be done, but it's more work.
I remember DOS. I ran Chessmaster 2100 on my computer in those days. Strictly a playing program, as I recall. No database features. CM 3000 and Windows 3.1 was a revolution in chess software.
I still have the Chessmaster 9000 disk(s). It's been awhile, but I seem to remember it crashing and also needing the disk in my DVD all the time, or it would keep asking for it. Pain.
And I tried Fritz and didn't like it, couldn't even figure how to use it the way I wanted.
Look, a lot of this stuff is for the really serious players and like I said, I'm just a casual intermediate player with around a 1200 rating.
Well heck, if you're going down memory lane, take a look at Ed Schröder's oldies collection:
I still have the Chessmaster 9000 disk(s). It's been awhile, but I seem to remember it crashing and also needing the disk in my DVD all the time, or it would keep asking for it. Pain.
Because of the crashing, it sounds like maybe you never patched the program.
What Windows operating system are you running? I had some problems getting Chessmaster 9000 completely patched in Windows 7, but I did finally get it done. If you want to try installing and patching Chessmaster 9000, I could try to help you with that. I'd have to fill you in with all the details. Just let me know if you want to give it a try.
P.S. Unfortunately, the Chessmaster 9000 patches don't eliminate the need to have the CD in the drive. (You'd have to insert the CD in the drive every 14 days or 20th use, whichever comes first.) You can fix this problem, but you'd have to apply an unofficial 3rd party "No CD crack". I could give you the details.
(If you had Chessmaster 10th edition, the official patches would fix the "CD in the drive" problem, but not so for Chessmaster 9000.)
Try Chess Lv.100
I'd like to try this, but it only works in Windows 8.1?
Try Chess Lv.100
I'd like to try this, but it only works in Windows 8.1?
I've used it. It does not belong in this thread. The graphics are unattractive and it is relatively featureless. It offers a computer playing partner with multiple options and levels, but nothing special.
Lucas Chess. Coupled with Scid vs. PC, there is little reason to ever use anything else. Both free.
Lucas Chess is good, but it's crashy.