I have Chessmaster 10th edition, and it is pretty strong, mine goes up to 2924 rating. It's good for beginner/intermediate range and has a wide away of personality from a double digits all the way up to Super GMs. The Academy by IM Josh Waitzkin is pretty good, teaching you all about tactics and basics of chess, pins, forks, skewers, etc. I have been an advocate of CM on this site since I joined but I have recently moved to Fritz 12 because that is more of serious program than CM. You can find CM for about 10-15 bucks depending on where you look.
Chess master
Sort:
Chessmaster 10th edition is quite strong, though someone weak like me managed four draws against it. Fritz is much stronger I think (I tried it once though I don't remember what edition it was). And yes, the Academy in Chessmaster 10th edition is a good way to learn about general tactics and strategy, space advantage, king security...
Ok thanks I think I'll try fritz 12 and chess master
Sep 2, 2010
0
#5
ChessMarkstheSpot wrote:
I have Chessmaster 10th edition, and it is pretty strong, mine goes up to 2924 rating.
chessmaster 11 goes up to 2995. Chessmaster 11 has a new toturial section with Josh called the art of learning.
Sep 2, 2010
0
#6
my g/f's version of 11 goes up to less than mine, 2874 I think, but she's running it on Vista while my CM 10 is on XP. It all has to do with the CPU and type of system you're on.
Sep 2, 2010
0
#7
ChessMarkstheSpot wrote:
my g/f's version of 11 goes up to less than mine, 2874 I think, but she's running it on Vista while my CM 10 is on XP. It all has to do with the CPU and type of system you're on.
maybe you are right I am on an Intel Core I5 cpu with 8 gb ram and windows 7 64bit
Sep 2, 2010
0
#8
Unless anyone on this thread is a top 100 player commenting icognito, the difference in rating between Fritz/Rybka/Chessmaster etc (regardless of the hardware on which you run them), is not likely to be an issue!
Ive never played the chessMaster prog, but DeepFritz is a good program, ive had it an the database is great... but my question is , how do you get it to a setting where its not to strong and your learning?
Sep 2, 2010
0
#10
Prakchess wrote:
Ive never played the chessMaster prog, but DeepFritz is a good program, ive had it an the database is great... but my question is , how do you get it to a setting where its not to strong and your learning?
I'm not sure about earlier versions but in Fritz12 look on the "Training" tab. There is a handicap setting there. If you select "Rated Game" from that tab you will have a chance to set Fritz's rating (down to around 1,000). For "Friend Mode" you can set its handicap in terms of pawn points (e.g. +200 means it's giving you the equivalent of 2 pawns handicap)
Sep 2, 2010
0
#11
Nick, that is where I am now. Last week I was at the high 300s, like 380, now, in less than a full week, down to 226. I should be less than 200 by the weekend if I keep playing like I have been. Fritz really is a great program
just out of curiosity, which version of Fritz are you guys using.
bosox1275 wrote:
itas not accurate at ALL.my rating got to 3000+ its lame-0
On chessmaster you mean? Ubisoft will admit that its rating system is innacurate because it is based on computer vs. computer data. The King engine is designed to act more human so that humans can learn to take advantage of human flaws, computers do not always do this. So CM personality ratings can be a bit high. (I tried to find a link pointing to where I read this but cannot find it).
ColdCoffee wrote:
bosox1275 wrote:
itas not accurate at ALL.my rating got to 3000+ its lame-0
On chessmaster you mean? Ubisoft will admit that its rating system is innacurate because it is based on computer vs. computer data. The King engine is designed to act more human so that humans can learn to take advantage of human flaws, computers do not always do this. So CM personality ratings can be a bit high. (I tried to find a link pointing to where I read this but cannot find it).
Try browsing through the forums discussions for ChessMaster XI or ChessMaster 10 on the game publisher's official website. That was where I read something like that years ago. 
Sep 3, 2010
0
#16
ChessMarkstheSpot wrote:
ColdCoffee - Fritz 12
Ditto. I think it can be bought for download now from Chessbase (you used to have to order the CD)
Sep 3, 2010
0
#17
Yeah I got the CD and it is THE best purchase I've ever made, well, my g/f bought it for me. Honestly, I want to put it in a bank vault that's how precious that CD is to me LOL
Sep 3, 2010
0
#18
ChessMarkstheSpot wrote:
Yeah I got the CD and it is THE best purchase I've ever made, well, my g/f bought it for me. Honestly, I want to put it in a bank vault that's how precious that CD is to me LOL
Just make sure you don't forget about the g/f now :-)
Sep 3, 2010
0
#19
Yeah right, with all the time I spend on Fritz. Nah that won't happen, she's pretty supportive of it all so that is a good thing.
For the money, Chessmaster X is a pretty awesome program. There's Waitzkin's Attacking Chess course, a course by Larry Christiansen I believe, and then an Art of Learning course. There are also a bunch of famous annotated games, and Waitzkin has a lot of his own audio-annotated games.
I don't enjoy playing chess with computers, so I don't play ChessMaster, but I am still completely satisified with it.
I was playing chessmaster the other day and it seems pretty strong, I was wondering if its worth my time in buying it? Also, does anybody know if any book stores sell chess programs? I really don't want to buy one online or download it from the computer seeing as it never works. Thanks in advance
Timeless