Customer Reviews
Errors even a 1300 can see 
2008-06-26
Our "instructor" Josh Waitzkin shows us the following position in his "Chess Mastery" Quiz:
8/8/8/7k/R7/8/2K5/1R6 w - -
The text reads: Here white has a mate in four. What's the first move?
The problem is... this is a mate in two! Silly IM. I even saw this and I suck at chess.
1. Rg1 Kh6 (forced)
2. Rh4#
I believe he's trying to make this a problem geared for someone who's never mated with two rooks, but the problems should still be accurate. All he had to do was put the white king on c1. This would interfere with the rook's access to g1. That would be a real mate in four problem.
The VERY NEXT program gives this position:
K7/8/1R6/6k1/8/8/8/5R2 b - -
Waitkin calls it a "mate in five". It's a mate in four.
There's a few different ways to mate in four from this position. Here's one:
1. Rf1 Kg4
2. Rg6+ Kh5
3. Rg8 Kh4
4. Rh1#
Finally, on his second "monster knight" skill building exercise (page 38 of 82) he gives this position:
3K4/bq6/2r5/kb1p4/1p1n3n/2p1pn2/p3p1p1/6N1 w - -
The only difference is I put a White King on d8 so it would load into normal chess programs. I saw the sequence: e2, c3, a2, b4, d5, e3, g2, h4, f3, d4, b5, a7, c6, d8, b7, a5, which picks up all the dark pieces. After playing c3, Josh says "No, that's not quite it.". Sorry Josh, it is. Strike three.
It's kind of hard to rely on anything this guy says after such elementary errors. I do remember some of the other Waitzkin lessons being decent tho, but I'm really not in a good position to judge them, except for the obvious errors outlined above.
Personally I MUCH prefer "Deep Shredder" http://www.shredderchess.com/ (I have Version 10, but Version 11 is available now). The nice thing about this program is that you can turn down its ELO rating and it plays pretty much like a person would at that rating. You can do this with Chessmaster 10th also, I just like the game you get with Shredder better.
Finally, if I hear "Don't move until you see it" just one more time....
Great program w/ small annoyances 
2008-04-07
This is a great program on so many levels. It's a very strong chess-playing engine (w/ many interesting personalities), plus some terrific analysis that you can do. Altho' I don't play too often against the program itself, I LOVE the analysis feature for games I have played over the board. It recommends stronger moves I cd've played and suggests the next 7 strongest moves in the continuation. There are also some excellent tutorials included by top-notch chess players and targeted to diff. levels of players, so they don't all go over the head of a beginning player. (Occasionally there are errors in these, but rarely.)
It's annoying that you can't play w/o having the CD-ROM in the disk drive and I could do w/o all the weird board and piece combos. Also counterintuitive is adding a new player (e.g., the name of a friend whom you just played w/). It's MUCH harder than in CM9, for some reason.
I love watching two diff. personalities play games against each other and then replaying them later w/ diff. variations. Like what wd a Ruy Lopez game between 2 excellent players look like? Ok, now what wd happen if Black had chosen Nc3 on move 5? Comparing these games is instructive. It's an amazing chess learning tool at a great price.
chess buyer 2008-02-11
easy, smart, good to use from me up to my brothers. It is cheap too. Something bad: Always one CD needed to run.
Computers have a new way of explaining things. 2008-01-05
Fast. True. But I once memorized a whole game. 41 moves. Anyone have a comment about that. Either way Black or White. My move the same King right pawn two out!
CM10 is a fairly good program with flaws (does run on Vista) 2007-12-05
This is a pretty good chess program for beginners & intermediate players, has a lot that helps you learn, including of course not-too-bad player simulation. It's not perfect, but I would recommend it if you're looking for something for anyone who wants to learn or get better.
There is a long list under "how this program could have been better". See some of the other reviews, but my top 3 gripes are: (1) dumb programming that chews up the CPU even when the program is supposed to be idle; (2) bugs, especially a "hang" problem on single-cpu/single-core machines, where the game program just gets stuck somewhere (looks like a race condition; solution is to temporarily lower the priority of the TheKing processes by using TaskManager); (3) explanations of bad moves, or recommendations of good moves, provide detail but not the big picture.
Finally, it does appear to run fine in Vista: I installed it normally and have been playing it without problems. (I haven't seen the hang problem, but since I have a dual-core machine now I don't expect the race condition to occur.)
Is a better game now from patches 2007-11-08
ChessMaster 10th Edition is designed to improve your game, regardless of your level of experience. All-new feature upgrades and updated graphics make this a must-have for those who'd like to learn or master chess.
Chessmaster 10th Edition a HIT 
2007-10-31
I bought this software and Fritz 9 in the same order. I figured I would probably prefer the Fritz 9. After downloading some patches I changed my mind.
Upon installation Chessmaster asked me if I had an official rating. I plugged it in and Chessmaster used that as my rating from my first "ranked" game. It went on the regular formula rather than the provisional formula from there. I find this very useful as I have not played in a tournament for over 4 years and with this tool I can find out where my game is before I become active again.
In the "training" mode, after each game an evaluation window pops up with a summary of how you did. It gives you the worse move you made in the game. This has aided me in spotting my weaknesses. The evaluation window also suggests an opponent for you to play next. Fritz has a mode called the friend mode that I always liked because it adjusts itself to my level of play. But I feel this feature of chessmaster is even better. It seems to be more accurate and quicker reacting than the self adjusting mode of Fritz.
I am not one for a lot of fancy graphics as far as chess sets. Ordinarilly I consider them a waste of hard drive space and memory. But I must admit I have had fun with the animated boards on chessmaster. I do realize they are a novelty that will wear off quickly with me but they were fun none the less.
These are the only features I have explored or probably ever will explore but they all made my purchase well worth while.
Stick with Chessmaster 9000 2007-10-02
I upgraded from Chessmaster 9000 to Chessmaster 10 expecting better graphic and tutorials, although they tried unfortunately neither is realized.
The 3D Graphics in Chessmaster 10 are fuzzy and not even close to the sharpness of Chessmaster 9000. It is very annoying to look at the 3D set on a PC with a good graphics card and see red outlines and fuzzy graphics. This alone is enough of a reason to buy the less expensive and very functional Chessmaster 9000. The graphics upgrade was definitely a failure.
The new tutorials are wordy and possibly interesting to people who want to hear Josh Waitzkin of "Looking for Bobby Fisher" fame babble on about how great he is. I prefer the Chessmaster 9000 version.
I haven't tried it but the word seems to be that most folks can't get Online Play to work in Chessmaster 10.
The Chessmaster Series is an excellent tool for most of us, players rated under 2200, and highly recommended. But I'd recommend Chessmaster 9000 or 7000. These versions work just fine with the patches and are less expensive.
Great game, but has bugs. 2007-09-17
The best thing about his game is the chess academy. It has English audio, which you won't get if you just download this game from some torrent site. Just buy it, it's only $20. Josh Waitzkin's teachings and commentary is excellent. His academy alone is enough to buy the game.
The bad and disappointingly things about this game are the bugs, many of them. The "play online" feature doesn't work; it returns error 50, great, nice error message, as if I'm supposed to know what do now. The software also aborts when you're playing a chess game and your switch boards, so avoid doing that. The 2D board selection is poor. Chessmaster 9000 had a much better selection of 2D boards.
Great teacher and great fun 2007-09-06
As a long time chess player I am always looking to improve my game. I bought this expecting nice simple teaching software instead i got much more. This has puzzles, three types of academies, more AI Players with distinct really styles. It seams in most chess games that you can memorize plays and defeat them regardless of skill. This game is different and so adaptive.
