Customer Reviews

Kasparov Chessmate (Mac)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the better chess programs available for the Mac. The game play is quite intuitive, and the graphics are excellent. The playing strength is quite varied and offers a challenge to beginners and intermediates as well as masters. The historical games and built-in tutorial are superb. I highly recommend the game for those who want to have fun while significantly improving their skill.

This is an EXCELLENT, straightforward chess engine with a simple GUI and no frills. It is particularly well-suited for beginners and intermediate players. The problem with some of the new chess engines is it's very difficult to get the engine to play at your level in a human or semi-human fashion. Deep Fritz, Hiarcs and the others at the top of the pack are great products, just not suitable for most beginners for fun purposes. Other than this chess engine, I also like Chessmaster 10th Edition JC It's good, cheap, has a nice GUI and shares a lot of the merits of the product I'm reviewing. I don't know if the link I posted is the newest version, so check, but don't be discourage by low reviews from excellent players whose needs are different. Also, if you are a beginner, do yourself a favor and consider purchasing How to Reassess Your Chess: The Complete Chess-Mastery Course(Exp. 3rd Edition), Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master and How to be a Winner at Chess. There are several editions of the latter book available used at an affordable price, personally I like these better than the newer edition. I hope my feedback helps you with some informed choices, I've tried many chess engines and play semi-regularly now and played a lot when I was younger. I also own many chess books... truth be told... MOST of which I read and studied. Please check my listmania lists for other helpful titles.

A fun game for beginners and intermediates but you have to work to the Silver and Gold rounds in the championship to encounter an opponent with much resistance. The biggest shortcoming is the app was compiled as PowerPC only, so it won't run on OS X 10.7 Lion ( which specifically excludes PowerPC apps from running ). Works fine under Rosetta emulation on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. This is NOT tool for professional chess players and doesn't have the database searches and so forth that those players would want.

I was looking for a chess game for the MAC, and bought this. It's a redo of an older version so don't look for any cutting edge AI or grfx here, but all in all it performs well and can be very challenging.

From novice (where I started) to expert levels - and everything in between. Great chess program by one of the world's greatest chess players. Much easier than studying chess theory books and you will notice your improvement.

Rudimentary in design (this IS older software), any chess player can still profit from whatever Kasparav has to display or explain.