Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition
by Ubisoft
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Video Game Reviews of Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition
Customer Review: Terrible bugs
Summary: 1 Stars
The software is so unstable and slow that it's a joke. I'm running a 2007 laptop with 2 gigs, so there's no excuse. The computer takes so long to play a move that I might as well take a nap between moves. The ubisoft website is useless for tech support. I saw the negative reviews and bought it anyway. My mistake. There doesn't seem to be a credible competing program, which is why I bought it. But this junk is an example of what happens when there is no competition: people are forced to buy the only game in town. Too bad.Customer Review: the program learned to cheat!
Summary: 3 Stars
There are a lot of great things about the software, discussed in other reviews. My main problem with it is that the program cheats! In rated games, especially when it is behind, it fails to start the timer while it seeks its next move. This has been reported on the ubi forum for individual "personalities" but I have witnessed many times against different "players". The odd thing is, if I didn't know better, I would say that it has learned to do this over time. Also, the personalities are internally inconsistent. One day Miranda never makes a mistake, the next day she is throwing away pieces. Customer Review: Great Learning Software
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an amazing learning software. I recommend getting Fritz 10 or 11 and this product. Customer Review: Chessmaster: The Art of Learning
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a really GREAT game!! It teaches as well as allowing you to play against your own skill level. I would highly recommend it to anyone. It will make you a better player.Customer Review: I love it.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a 57 year old who learned the rules of chess as a child, but who never played a serious game of chess until a few months ago. I own Fritz 10 software as well as Chessmaster for the Nintendo DS Lite, and I own a few Fritz Trainer DVDs.
I love the Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition for the PC (which is the only version of Chessmaster for the PC I have ever owned and used, so I cannot compare it to previous versions). I had no problem at all installing it on my Sony Vaio laptop (model VGN-395E in case anyone wants to look up the specs here on Amazon or elsewhere on the web), and I have had no problem playing it without the DVD in the player once it was fully installed.
Chessmaster for the DS Lite does not compare to Chessmaster XI (Grandmaster Edition) for the PC, but it's good enough for a portable chess playing program. (I also have Chessmaster for Game Boy Color, which is okay but is really too small for my aging eyes.) Compared to Fritz, Chessmaster XI is slow, i.e., opponents take much longer to make moves, but I find this to be both a plus and a minus such that they balance each other out. With Fritz I feel rushed by the fact that the opponent plays so fast, and although I sometimes feel impatient waiting for Chessmaster AI opponents to move (though I've not encountered any waiting I'd characterize as extremely long), I appreciate that I don't feel rushed and have more time to think about my forthcoming moves.
I prefer the graphics of Chessmaster to the graphics of Fritz; graphically, and overall, I find Chessmaster far more user-friendly.
The lessons and tutorials by Josh Waitzkin and Larry Christiansen are quite good for someone at my level (which according to Chessmaster is around 1000, though I'm inclined to mistrust Elo ratings that have not been established via over-the-board games with human opponents), and I agree with those reviewers, such as D. Lester, who say that Chessmaster's lessons and tutorials alone are worth the price (or twice the price) of the software. (I just ordered 2 Fritz Trainer DVDs - Attacking Chess Volumes 1 & 2 by Jacob Aagaard - which combined cost pennies under $40 and have a little over 6 hours of instruction, and that is a low price for Fritz Trainer DVDs, most of which retail for around $30 each.)
Chessmaster is obviously not right for all chess players, but it is just right for me given where I'm at with chess at the moment, and I doubt I'll outgrow it anytime soon, if ever.
I think reviewer D. Lester says it well when at the end of his (I'm guessing that D. Lester is a he, my apologies if I guessed wrong) review he writes: "if you are interested in improving your chess skills this is a package that you cannot go wrong purchasing. If you are a chess professional with a desire to deeply evaluate scores of variations within a game to search for subtle nuances, then you already know this product isn't the right one for you..."
And I thank those reviewers, such as Lester and Prometheus, whose thoughtful reviews of this product helped me decide to buy it (despite some discouraging reviews). I am very glad I did.
Update 2/20/10: This edition of Chessmaster works perfectly for me on a desktop running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.