Seeking a suitable chess software

Hi Abdul,

My opinion is that if you are 1800-2000 ELO, then you are too strong to be using any of the Chessmaster series.  That program/software caters to players who are generally a lot weaker than you are.

You need a program that can handle large databases (millions of games), that can load any of the dozens of strong chess engines that are available (Houdini, Stockfish, Critter, Komodo, Rybka, etc.) that you can use to analyze your games, analyze positions you come across, etc.  (Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Chessmaster can't load UCI engines.)

A couple of my friends, who basically know nothing more than the moves, who wouldn't ever think of entering a chess tournament, like Chessmaster.  And yet all of my chess-playing tournament buddies all think Chessmaster is for the kiddies.

If the latest version of Chessmaster can handle opening a 5 million game database, and search for and then list all games where White castled kingside and Black castled queenside, for example, then obviously the software has improved since I've used it last.  (A couple of years ago.)

With all of the different chess servers out there, (which I'm not allowed to name, as I understand) if you want to play a personality that is "not mechanical" than play another human that is at or near your playing strength... that's about as "non mechanical" as you can get.

And so no, I can't answer your question... I don't know of a good program that is similar to Chessmaster with different "personalities."  I mainly use my chess GUIs for study and analysis and sparring... I don't play games against them.  :(