Preface
Before I get down to details, I'd like to digress a little. I receive quite a bit of mail from parents that are looking for a decent program for their children. What I recommend for them is usually based on the age of the child, and his/her seriousness about the game. However, until this latest release of Chessmaster, I had not believed that there was one program that would be a good match for most kids. But I think that this one is. It's got some simple tutorials, which are reasonably well organized and easy to access, along with some computer opponents that play truly bad chess (i.e. miss mate in one, hang pieces right and left, etc.). This is important, because a lot of the other software out there is geared more for the serious player. And your child may end up demoralized after a short session with one of the heavy-duty programs.
Introduction
This latest Chessmaster represents a slight departure in philosophy from previous versions. There have been efforts made to address both the concerns of the hardcore chess software enthusiast, and the mass market. In general, I think that the majority of people will be pleased with this program. However, there are still a number of rough edges and problems that I will discuss later in the review.
I think also that Chessmaster deserves a lot of credit for finally taking an interest in users' complaints and desires. They have even gone so far as to appoint a sort of liaison to the computer chess community. And I think there are already some positive results from this. For instance, a number of pre-existing problems have been fixed, and there are a large number of improvements to the program. I have also not seen the usual huge volume of complaints on USENET. Complaints posted on the Computer Chess Club bulletin board are usually addressed promptly.
The first thing you'll notice is that Chessmaster now has a menu front-end of sorts. Normally, I'm not a big fan of this approach, since it tends to get in the way after you've used the program for a while. But, in this instance, I think the approach works, and it will probably be of benefit to children and first time users. Using the front end, you can decide whether you want to play or study a game, run a tutorial, or play over the internet. It's all very straightforward.
People that use large fonts on their computer (and I am one) will notice some problems displaying some dialog boxes. For instance, the display of the internet play dialog box was corrupted on my PC (whether this was a video driver or font problem, I have no idea). In any case, this is something to watch for.
Now I'll talk a bit about game play, the database, and tutorial modules.
Game Play/Chess Engine
Previous owners of Chessmaster know that the program comes with a number of handicap personalities that allow you to play a weakened computer opponent. In this latest version, there are more of them, and their ratings have been recalibrated. There are also more low-rated players too. With this large variety of handicap opponents, I am tempted to say that this is the best program to play against. But I think that there is really no equivalent in Chessmaster to the sparring settings of Fritz, and the Rebel club player setting. So Chessmaster really cannot claim the top spot in this department.
Furthermore, there are still a few bugs with the personalities. Some of them will simply stop moving during a game. A few of you may remember that this same thing used to occur in Chessmaster 4000 as well. Chessmaster tech support has acknowledged this problem and will include a fix in an upcoming patch.
There is also a new version of the Chessmaster engine. My subjective opinion is that there is not a huge difference between the playing style of the old and new versions. It's also impossible for me to say if the new version is any stronger than the old one (which was stronger than most human players). And I really don't think that people should be too concerned about this. I think the new engine was included mostly in response to those that wanted a little more for their money when they upgrade.
The opening book editor has improved to the point where it is now usable. You get a tree view of the book in addition to being able to make moves on the board, and have them automatically added. You can also import PGN games to make your own opening books (which I've talked about before). Having this feature makes it easier to practice openings with the program (and to create your own personalities). The previous version of the opening book editor was almost totally unusable. So this editor is a big improvement.
You can also use winboard engines within the program, which is quite a big deal for computer chess enthusiasts. Because Chessmaster has so many handicap opponents, I'm not sure that the casual user will feel the need to make use of this feature, but it is nice to know that it's there nevertheless.
One more new feature is the ability to modify hash table settings for any Chess engine that you use. By adjusting hash table settings, you can control the playing strength of the program.
There is now an infinite analysis feature, although to get to it, you need to enable the "thinking lines" window, and then click on Chessmaster. Essentially, this gives you the ability to run the Chessmaster engine in the background, while the current game is being reviewed or played. It seems like this feature was added as an afterthought, since it's not intuitively obvious to access. There are also additional check boxes for white and black on this window, and it's not explained what these boxes do.
People that like to use the seconds per move and moves per minute time controls should note that there are some bugs in this feature in CM8000/ The end result is that the computer will move instantly, instead of taking it's allotted time. These bugs have been acknowledged by tech support, and should be fixed in an upcoming patch.
One more negative - I noticed that it's not possible to copy the board position to the clipboard as an EPD string. This is something that many other leading program support (Chessbase, Chess Assistant, Fritz, Chess Tiger). You can however, copy the PGN score of the current game to the clipboard. Pasting positions and games is another matter. As long as you are in the Chessmaster environment, pasting data works fine. However, you cannot import PGN or EPD positions in via the windows clipboard from another application.
As I mentioned in the introduction, you also have the ability to play a game over the internet, with other Chessmaster users. However, users of CMLive! on Mplayer should note that this feature has gone away; IMHO, this is no great loss. It would be nice to see some sort of ICS interface, which is the de facto standard now, but many people will be happy with the ability to connect up to other users on the internet (and via direct modem connection too).
The Database
The database is largely unchanged from Chessmaster 6000, which used a windows version of Tascbase (although a very limited one). While not feature packed, the database module does support things like searches on position. Of course, a header search facility is also present as well. I would recommend that you look at my review of Chessmaster 6000 if you want a little more information.
Furthermore, like Chessmaster 6000, you can store your games in a Chessmaster database, but don't expect the variations to be stored also. This is a major failing, since most people that analyze their own games will want this feature. So while there are some decent database facilities, most people will want to use some other software for game storage and analysis.
The Tutorials
The tutorial section provides a number of instructional positions and games for the user to study and test him/her self with. The material is organized by playing level, and it's pretty easy to access the material you're looking for.
A very small random sample of the tutorials would seem to indicate a number of omissions. For instance, I decided to look at one of the "rate my play" games. The following position appeared on the screen (question 33, Kramnik vs Karpov, 1999 Frankfurt Rapid):
r1b2k1r/4qppp/4p3/p2n4/B1n5/5N2/PB3PPP/R2QR1K1 w - - 0 1
In this position, I wanted to play Qxd5. Chessmaster 8000 flagged this as a mistake, and told me Bxg7 was the correct move. There was no explanation of why Qxd5 was considered to be incorrect, and there should have been (in fact, I think both moves are good). All told, I spent perhaps 45 minutes going through the questions in this particular tutorial, and I found this example after looking at the position for less than a minute. So a reasonable inference to draw here is that I would find other examples if I looked a bit longer.
What was even more bizarre was that someone seemed to do a half way decent job of commenting on the opening phase of the game. So I can only guess that there were multiple people responsible for this section of the tutorials.
Now conversely, the Josh tutorials seem to be pretty good, and the material on basic tactics and endgames is also ok. In fact, it's probably well suited to kids, with very nice spoken audio in conjunction with the text explanations. There is also a collection of problems from John Nunn that seem decent (that is, if you are into composed positions). However, overall, the tutorial material is of somewhat uneven quality.
Conclusion
This latest release of Chessmaster corrects a number of shortcomings contained in previous versions, like the opening book editor, and the somewhat strange menu structure. It also has a new chess playing engine, which should make some people very happy. There are numerous bugs, and I think the program development may have been rushed a bit. However, I think that most of the problems will get fixed in an upcoming patch.
This is a decent program for kids. It's easy to navigate, and has a lot of shiny chrome to capture young minds. There are some opponents that play truly bad chess, and I think anyone that knows the rules of the game should be able to beat them. For those that are stronger, there are also plenty of merciless opponents to play against. The tutorial section of the program is a mixed bag. Beginners will probably think some of the material is ok, but everyone should probably stay away from the "rate my play" games.
If you are a club player, the program is probably worth getting for the wide selection of handicap opponents, especially if you can get it for little money. But for game analysis, you are better off with Fritz, or a database program like ChessBase, ChessAssistant or ChessAcademy.
Make sure you don't stop reading the review here. It turns out that there will be two forms of copy protection for Chessmaster, so read the next section.
Copy Protection
They say you need the CD in the drive at all times to ensure proper operation. If true, this would be a truly horrible form of copy protection. But, I have not yet come across a situation that did require the CD (I chose the full install). So I think Chessmaster is to be commended for not carrying through on their threat.
Additionally, I was never prompted for the second CD, like I was in Chessmaster 6000. So the copy protection has definitely improved in this version.
NEWSFLASH - I mentioned a patch earlier in this review. It now looks like this patch will require that you have the CD in the drive when you start the program L. This is very unfortunate. So those of you that bought the initial buggy version of Chessmaster will not have to deal with the CD issue. Those that get the updated version (with most bugs fixed) will have to deal with this hassle. Why on earth am I making a fuss about this? Well, if you are like me, I have a mess of programs that use data off a CD. Sometimes I even run them concurrently. Well, with Chessmaster, it now looks like this is going to be a major hassle. And it's not like you can go and copy this CD easily - it's got special anti-copying features.
P.S. Please don't send me e-mail and ask me which version you are getting, I really have no way of knowing.
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