Alternatives to Chessmaster

I use chessmaster 6000 and I have been happy with it. I use it to play
the computer and to follow book games so that I can replay moves
etc.
As I am now using W2000 and possibly XP soon then CM is no use
What alternatives are there?
I have of course heard of Fritz but I don't know what it actually
provides. I don't want to pay a fortune chess is a hobby for me not a
source of income (lol)

Thanks


John

Fritz 7 is the ticket..........not only will it kill you, but it will show you
what you have done wrong and explain all the moves too! That's just
a small portion of what it does!

where do you get it? is it pricey? I love the idea of it telling me why it's
sllaughtering me.

fritz 7 is kind of pricey (I think); Mostly I've seen it for about 50
dollars (USA).
Several engines under Winboard -such as "Crafty" will provide game
analysis. They are free. Granted, with Fritz you get a machine rated at
something like 2600 or better, and with Crafty, you "only" get a
program rated at 2200-2400 or there abouts (or so they say). But
given crafty can kick me around just as effectively as Fritz...

mwmiller (sp?) has made a few posts as to where to find Winboard -
and that has links to crafty and other engines.

Actually, I'd love to hear from some of the highly rated players here
about the claimed ratings of the programs. Is Fritz really capable of
playing at 2600 or better? Does Crafty really play at 2400, or is it
actually lower? There are a number of free programs with ratings
above 2000, and I'm wondering if those are "real" ratings - ie how
they perform against people, or just how they perform against other
programs.

Fritz is definetly running in that category...as for the others I think
they could be a little inflated.

Dave

And winboard really is freeware. I contacted the author and verified
that with him.

regards, Marc

I would like to get the engine but I hate the way winboard looks.

Dave

You can change the colors of the biard easily enough
Beyond that...