High Hopes for Chessmaster 9000

I have high hopes for Chessmaster 9000, ordered a few days ago for a laughable $8 from Ebay. Somehow it doesn't seem right that a world-class chess program sells for so little. Nowadays, even computer programs running on desktop PC's are beating grandmasters. The day of the human is over, I'm afraid.

And good riddance. I hate to say it, because I like playing against friends in real life, but many of the chess players I've encountered online are poor sports. Maybe it is because they are anonymous. Part of it is because the game is so cutthroat. When humans compete, a sizable percentage do feel the temptation to turn nasty and take winning or losing personally.

I like to play Chess960, which I believe is the same as Fischer chess. Chess Cube does not permit players to specify their preference concerning Chess960, so many idiots novices join my Chess960 games unawares. They abort the game after staring at the Chess960 board for 1-2 minutes, making me wait on the "Duh...?" to be processed by their Celeron-powered, single-core, .1 ghz noggin. When they abort, the system does not penalize them and does not reward me, so it's all-lose for me, just a continual irritation. The ratio of abortions to playing games is an incredible 4:1.

When I first started playing chess online, I thought it would be neat to interact and chat with human players. The reality is that few people want to discuss chess, few even want to talk, and only a handful are even willing to say hello. Most players, if they do chat, talk about the few women they have identified online, because they are lonely, str8, and sexually frustrated. Chat is inane. Lowered expectations cannot even begin to describe the chat scene.

I'm looking forward to the arrival of Chessmaster 9000, so I can play old-school, on my computer, without an ill-mannered, impatient, unsociable, uninteresting and under-skilled human opponent. I've already downloaded the No-CD crack from that wonderful site, http://www.gamecopyworld.com. From what I've read, copy protection is the chief complaint against Chessmaster 9000. I'll be taking a long and much desired vacation from the online chess jungle. Enough with the mosquitoes, pythons and pygmies with the poisoned arrows, I say.

Computers are superb opponents. They don't abort games. If something comes up, and you have to leave, they are willing to wait and play later, or never, whichever you prefer. They don't change moods, whether they win or lose. And they permit a large variety of configurations. Chess960? No problem. They will play every time, without aborting the game. I'm looking forward to that special package in the mail. And I do plan to leave positive feedback for the ebay seller.

Update: After reading reviews of Chessmaster 9000, I discovered it does not support Chess960. Fritz 12 does, so I bought a copy of Fritz 12 from Amazon for $20. Fritz 12 also seems to be a much stronger chess engine. One reviewer stated that Chessmaster is for children, and Fritz is for adults.

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments