Chess enigines do not explain the "why" behind each move, so just playing an engine without an understanding of the moves inst going to help much.
Your best bet is to stick with books, and a real board, and pieces. Play in OTB events against REAL people. Analyze your games.
Opening Principles:
1. Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5
2. Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key
3. Castle
4. Connect your rooks
Tactics...tactics...tactics...
Pre Move Checklist:
1. Make sure all your pieces are safe.
2. Look for forcing move: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) this will force you look at, and see the entire board.
3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.
4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece.
5. After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"
Middlegame Planning:
1. Expand your position:
a. Gain more space.
b. Improve the position of your pieces.
2. Decide on what side of the board to play.
a. Queenside: a-c files.
b. Center: d-e files.
c. Kingside: f-h files.
Compare, space, material, and weakness(es)
Play where you have the advantage.
3. DO NOT HURRY. Regroup your pieces, and be patient.
I am a causal player. I don't know how to express my skill level, but in Chessmaster X, I almost always beat Lucy, but the players higher than Lucy almost always beat me.
Will getting a different program help me learn better? Chessmaster X's game analysis is not very helpful because it seems to look at only material exchanges. There is nothing about the time, space, and pawn structure as I learned in Seirawan's Play Winning Chess book.
Speaking of that, a while back, I found a steal on his entire Winning Chess series.
With all of that in mind, is there anything in the $50-$75 range? Or am I better off studying the books and sticking with Chessmaster X?