Chesmaster 9000 tutorials

I've dusted off my old copy of chessmaster 9000 in order to play a G30 tournament against the personalities, and I've come across the "classroom" element of the programme. I ignored this bit when I first had the game out around a decade ago, I'm working through the basic tuition, pins, skewers and the like at the moment. The stuff is really good, and the presentation, with chessmaster making the moves against you is great. I'm already finding it more complete and enjoyable than chessimo. There appears to be some really good endgame stuff coming up in the intermediate section, and the Josh section seems to have some informative annotated games. All in all, a bargain. Hours and hours of instruction for less than a tenner!

I'll come back and give a better review once I get into the meatier stuff later on. As it is, I'm trying to work through the material in order.

Has anybody else found the programme useful as an instructional aid?

Originally posted by Dewi Jones
I've dusted off my old copy of chessmaster 9000 in order to play a G30 tournament against the personalities, and I've come across the "classroom" element of the programme. I ignored this bit when I first had the game out around a decade ago, I'm working through the basic tuition, pins, skewers and the like at the moment. The stuff is really good, and the ...[text shortened]... terial in order.

Has anybody else found the programme useful as an instructional aid?

chessmaster 10 tutorials were awesome.

Ditto for me. I've always thought that Chessmaster was very underrated as a chess program, and it's nice to see a positive thread about it.

I think it was victimized for being ahead of its time, in that the media elements were hard to appreciate because at the time many people did not have computers advanced enough to play them smoothly.

I have wondered if the new "Chess King" software that the USCF sells is related to it.

Agreed, I have CMX and like it a lot. The 'personalities' around the 1600-1800 level are fun to play against. They play deliberately badly at first, often dropping minor piece for a pawn. Against a human at this point I'd think I'd won, and coast the rest of the game. However, CM suddenly steps up a gear, and plays super-sharp. (By my standards, anyway). So you are a piece up, and so should win - but any tactical slip and it tears you apart.

It's good practice - but very very annoying when you make a mistake.

fritz has just 2 playing styles - wipe me off the board and i didn't see your dumb mistake 'friend' mode - both get tiresome quite quick...

No fritz also has rated game mode which allows you to set an estimated elo for your opponent. I find that quite good, I'm beating it at 1450 at the moment (3.5-1.5 in my 6 game "match"😉, which I should do as I'm rated 1500 OTB. I'm going to set it to 1600 once I've finished the 6 game match, as that is the level I need to be performing at this season for my grade to increase further.

Originally posted by Dewi Jones
No fritz also has rated game mode which allows you to set an estimated elo for your opponent. I find that quite good, I'm beating it at 1450 at the moment (3.5-1.5 in my 6 game "match"😉, which I should do as I'm rated 1500 OTB. I'm going to set it to 1600 once I've finished the 6 game match, as that is the level I need to be performing at this season for my grade to increase further.

Dewi i have never played an OTB chess game, what advice do you have. My biggest fear is blitzin the game, it feels crazy to spend more than two minutes on a move.

You won't Blitz it mate, I used to think the 75 minutes we have for 36 moves in our local league was a ridiculously long amount of time, now I find the two hours for 40 that are more common in the congresses I play a much more enjoyable time control. Even that is only three minutes a move. As I play Kings Indian a lot, i tend to rattle through the openings 6 or 7 moves. But when you think you need to consider what your opponents move has changed, any new threats or weaknesses he's created, you need to consider whether you have a plan to exploit or defend those changes, decide what 2 or 3 responses are reasonable, then think what your opponents response would be to each one, consider the 2 or 3 resulting positions, and decide which one you prefer. And you need to make a final blunder check before making the move. I don't do all these things every move, but it is something I need to do if I'm to get better. Other things I do when i notice I have a fair bit of time on my clock or when I don't know what to do next is look at every possible capture of mine or my opponents, queen and piece saccs etc, and see what the response would be. I also look at pawn pushes and the possible responses, forks and of course, check all checks. I really do need to put in place a proper thought process, but I suspect I'm too lazy.

My OTB play is much better than my play here, I do tend to play RHP like Blitz chess, look at the position and move, unless I have someone who's moving quickly, in which case I'll set it up on a board and play like a proper OTB game.

If you do find yourself blitzing, just try and keep your time at a similar level to your opponent to start with, even if it means staring at the position stupidly for a fair old time.

Originally posted by Dewi Jones
If you do find yourself blitzing, just try and keep your time at a similar level to your opponent to start with, even if it means staring at the position stupidly for a fair old time.

its wonderfully practical, thanks Dewi

got a copy of grandmaster edition if u want

yes please.

Originally posted by Dewi Jones
I've dusted off my old copy of chessmaster 9000 in order to play a G30 tournament against the personalities, and I've come across the "classroom" element of the programme. I ignored this bit when I first had the game out around a decade ago, I'm working through the basic tuition, pins, skewers and the like at the moment. The stuff is really good, and the ...[text shortened]... terial in order.

Has anybody else found the programme useful as an instructional aid?

I'm not sure which version i had but i did the same thing about 8 or 9 years ago. I have to agree, they are really good! I also found playing against the various characters to be very useful as well. I really like the way they've set the engine up to play in different styles. At the time i was probably a 1500ish player and winning a game against one of the 1900 characters was a real thrill. It's amazing how useful 'going back to basics' can be. 😉

WiichessVids on Youtube has posted a bunch of videos of the ChessMaster tutorials. As I've got a Mac, I don't really have access to the software, but the videos seem fine. I'm trying to figure out if there is a sequence to them. Is there a sequence to the lessons in the software? Are there exercises that follow logically on the lessons in the software?

Abstemiously yours,
byedidia

Yes, the material is split into Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and "Josh". The beginners stuff starts with the moves and rules, moves swiftly through pins and forks (and by doing it i've noticed how difficult i find it to spot moves that fork a piece and a square as opposed to two pieces or a piece and the king, so even in the basic stuff I've learnt something) There are drills for each level too, I've almost worked through the basic, and as a treat, despite my hangover I'm going to take Bruce Pandolfini's rating exam today. That's in the intermediate section. Then I'm going to go back and finish the beginners section completely and work through things in order, I'll take the rating exam again in the future and hopefully show an improvement greater than the improvement that I could just put down to memory.

My over the board rating has just edged into the 1500's with six more games until my the July grading list comes out, my aim was to hit 1520 this season, so hopefully, on course 🙂.