Customer Reviews

Chessmaster 7000

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this game for my dad a week back. I myself loved it a lot. I have seen the earlier versions of chessmaster also. The interface has been highly improved to make it all the more easy and friendly. I found that I can learn a lot from the way the chessmaster plays. U can make the system play like Anand, Kasparov, Spassky or whomever U want. I found the tutorials very interesting and the puzzle of the day is also a nice idea. Bottomline - a product worth buying for all those chess-fanatics out there.

Without having a lot of experience with either 'real life' chess or chess programs,I still can say that this is a great choice for anyone interested in getting started and learning the game - even if you've never played chess in your life.

The beginner tutorials walk you through everything you need to know about the basics, and it's worth noting that they have a very good kid's program as part of the package.

Especially helpful is the ability to choose what kind of 'personality' you are playing against. This lets you build up your skills and confidence without getting crushed by a grandmaster every time - the first personality I played against was a beginner too. But it's a good program for the seasoned player as well: my dad, a real pro, was well challenged by the high-rated personalities.

The only drawback are some of the other features like the library, as it's hard to figure out how to view classic games. But for basic learning this program is a winner.

I am somewhat of a chess nut and I have owned the most recent version of Chessmaster since its inception. Chessmaster 7000 is an excellent chess partner/teacher for players of any level. It is versatile and can provide opponents that will challenge but not overwhelm players at skill levels from beginner to master.

The tutorials for beginners and children are particularly good. There are a number of exercises for intermediate players, but the real value is Chessmaster's ability to analyze games and recommend moves. The opening book database is vast and the database of games of Grand Masters is very useful, especially for intermediate and advanced players who want to improve their games.

Chessmaster 7000 is not the strongest chess program available, but it will beat 99.9% of players and it cannot be matched for versatility and teaching.

If you are not an international grand master and you are looking for a good chess partner or teacher, you can't go wrong with Chessmaster.

All levels of chess players can find something to appreciate about this program. It has a very user-friendly menu system and interface, customizable layouts and boards, tutorials by Josh Waitzkin (in which he analyzes some of his games) and Bruce Pandolfini (more of the lesson type, e.g. rook and pawn endgames, etc.), a special kids section (new to 7000), an increased number of personalities to play against (including many grandmaster personalities), a very large database of games, solve for mate puzzles, a large opening book (including a "practice openings" feature) and a rating system (not USCF). I use this program frequently, and it offers new challenges as I improve. I hesitate to give this program a perfect review, however, because, as stated by a previous reviewer, the annotation is weak, and for all intents and purposes, the difference between this version and the previous one is minimal (an increased number of games in the database, the kids section, more fictional personalities to play against, and the Pandolfini section are the major improvements). So if you already have the 5500 version or higher, you won't gain much by upgrading, unless you like a snappier layout, or you are an omnivorous studier of games. However, if you do not have a chess program yet, buying this one is highly recommended.

This is by far the best Chessmaster program (by sheer ability if not design). Be advised that the product update from Mindscape is bugged and I've had to reinstall the program WITHOUT the update because when the update was installed it constantly crashed. Either way, if you need a good chess partner that flexible and can even teach you a few things, you can't go wrong with this program.

If you are a keen Chess player who wants a program that is highly interesting to play and study with - BUY THIS PRODUCT. The strength of the engine is absolutely superb. With a sacrificial, attacking style, it will play probably at 2500 level on a fast Pentium or Athlon - probably marginally behind the very strongest engines available. At blitz chess it plays at Grandmaster level. The graphics are superb and the range of features is excellent. In particular, the "Natural Language Advice" feature is unique and one of the best instruction facilities I have seen in chess software. Here, however, is my proviso. If you already have Chessmaster 6000, it is not worth upgrading as the engine is the same. Also, I still find it annoying that it cannot analyse a game Chessbase style. Let's hope this is in 8000!

I've owned and used all the Chessmaster programs beginning with Chessmaster 2100 including Chessmaster 3000 for the Mac. The program has gradually become stronger and stronger, from perhaps something like a clueless class D player to something like a grandmaster. The engine in this program on today's fast machines can play five-minute chess as well as all but the top grandmasters, and at whatever time limit as well as an international master. However the ratings given for the various personalities need to be taken with a grain of salt and some understanding. I'll get to that in a bit.

First there are still in the program some annoying bugs and some plainly bad programming practices. Most annoying to me is the fact that the games are not automatically saved; worse yet, you are not even asked if you want to save the current game. This is contrary to standard practice in virtually all applications that I am familiar with, and I wish that Chessmaster would do something about it. Next, when you do save a game under a name you choose, should you need to save it again after some further moves, you are given as the default not the name you chose and are using, but the regular CM default (players and date). If you play two games on the same date with the same players and same colors, CM will suggest the name of the first game when you try to save the second game. If you don't intervene, you will overwrite the first game. Not good!

The database is not as well constructed as it might be. You can only view the games directly in the database mode from the White side on a small board. Also there is a bug that sometimes skips a move when you hit the "forward a move" button. Nonetheless, a database of almost half a million games (with some repetitions) is an invaluable resource. By the way, I have played over many of the games and so far have found only a couple of obvious errors. There are others I'm missing of course. Some of the Fischer games that were adjourned I noticed are scored as not completed when in fact one of the players (usually not Fischer!) resigned without resuming play.

The rated games format allows one to adjourn a game and then later delete that game and thereby "cheat." If you are clearly lost in a rated game, you can adjourn it and then never call the game up again and avoid the rating point loss. You can even delete the file. (Just a tip to those who like to cheat at solitaire, and a warning to take anyone's rating against Chessmaster with a grain of salt.) The rated game feature might be better if no adjourned games were allowed, or if allowed, require that they be finished by some date (as in the old real world of chess) or rated as lost.

A nice improvement from earlier editions is that the Think Lines window shows the moves in figurine notation and they are numbered so it is much easier to read them. A further readability improvement would be to put commas in the number of positions that Chessmaster has considered.

The personalities (one of CM7000's best features) are still a work in progress. The ratings are derived from play against the machine and not against human players, which is why they are a little weird. Still, just because the personality makes weak moves on occasion, moves so bad logically and positionally that even a "C" player would never make them, doesn't mean that the personality isn't stronger than a "C" player or even an "A" player. This is because even though it makes silly moves it more than compensates by seldom making any tactically blunders. In fact, the "strangeness" of the personalities stems from the fact that CM has not really worked out how to weaken the personalities in a humanoid way. Most human players tend to overlook a two-move tactical point from time to time. (Less than expert players probably do it on average at least once a game.) And few human players below the master level go through a game without making a tactical error somewhere along the way that loses at least the equivalent of a pawn. What the CM program needs to do is program their personalities to make human-like tactical errors and fewer positional monstrosities.

I also think that CM ought to allow a personality or even itself to resign when it is clearly beaten. Chess programs typically do not resign, of course, no matter how bleak the outlook. Why? I'm not sure, but I think one reason is that it's impossible for the program to know when the situation really is hopeless. Since humans are always prone to error (even grandmasters have allowed mates in winning positions) and since the program never gets tired, why resign? But "resigns" is a gentlemanly way to end a game. Note that in games against grandmasters, the programmers resign for the program when it is hopeless.

One way to incorporate "resigns" into the CM's vocabulary would be to allow the user to set a criterium of futility, say two and a half pawns. (Complexity of position could also be considered.) Or CM could take into account the rating or previous play of the player and make an assessment.

Despite these suggestions for improvement, the bottom line as far as I am concerned is that CM7000 is a great application, a source of entertainment, competition and instruction that chess players just a few years ago could only dream about.

Continuing from the wonderful Chessmaster 6000, this version has some good new features. There's a couple more voice-annotated games from IM Josh Waitzkin, and there's a much better variety of computer personalities on offer.

The teaching facilities have been vastly expanded, with speed drills, puzzles, and extra coaching from Bruce Pandolfini. Children will also have much more fun than with 6000, because of the new "Kids Room" and the colourful layouts.

My only problem with this software is cosmetic...I liked the black background of 6000, but I couldn't see a way to get that back. But I still think it's a worthy successor to 6000.

It seems kind of dumb to review this program, now that CM 8000 is out. But here goes:

This is a great program. I have spent many hours with this puppy. I am a USCF Master, and I have beaten this program (on its top level) only a handful of times. Of course the strength of the program will be based on the speed of your computer's processor chip. I.e., the faster the processor, the stronger the program.

Some of the features I liked: A library of around 300,000 games!! A multiple personality, programmable playing engine. (There is almost an infinite variety of playing strengths here.) Josh Waitzkin's voice as he goes over some of his best games! (He explains the variations in great detail.) Josh will become your personal chess coach. You will definitely learn from watching his games and analysis.{See his victory over my friend, Moshe Khatena from a tournament in Bermuda.} I could go on and on. But by now, you should get the general idea.

I can heartily recommend CM 7000 to ANYONE. If you don't like it, I will buy it back from you. [I won't promise to pay full retail, however. ;) ]

I'm not sure how this compares to other computer chess programs, but it sure beats my old electronic board. I could spend forever in the Game Room playing various openings and using the analysis function.

A few quibbles: it crashed on me a few times (download the patch!); some of the lessons include too many steps, and you can't save in the middle; the 3-D boards are impractical and wear out their welcome fast.