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[JonP01]

Hi all,

I have just acquired a Chessmaster Diamond and although I know most of the operational basics of the machine, I still have some specific questions related to usage. The problem is that the user manual for this machine only appeared in German. I did create an English user guide some years ago to assist English users with the basics of the machine, but there are perhaps some more esoteric things buried in the German manual that could use some clarification for the benefit of English only speakers.

I was hoping that perhaps we may have some native German speakers on these forums who are expert in the operation of this machine and / or have access to the original German manual.

Anyway...my first question relates to setting the "strategy" of the machine as it effects the modules (i.e P10 opening and P11 endgame). From what I can gather the machine will only function optimally with the P11 endgame module if the strategy is set from the default of "0" to "1". I did try a test game with the endgame module and strategy set to "0" and it played absolutely horribly. It did seem to play normally when set to "1" though. So is this assumption correct?

The second question relates to the correct time to change modules from P10 to P11. I think I read in the German manual that it could be changed to P11 as soon as the machine gets out it's openings book. So would that mean once out of book, I put the P11 module in and make sure strategy is set to "1"? Also, just on this point of getting to the end of the book, is there any way to know the machine is about to get out of book before it makes it's first move thinking for itself? The reason I ask is that so far the only process I seem to be able to follow is to wait till the machine starts thinking for itself. Then I interrupt the thinking to make it move, take back the move, change the module and then let it start thinking again. I was wondering if there is a better way?

And still on the subject of module swapping It seems that when a "match" level is selected, it is no longer possible to change modules, since the function to do that is disabled when a match level is selected. This seems quite silly, so I am wondering if there is a way to do it? At the moment, I am getting around this by starting the game on, for example, level 8, then when the machine gets out of opening book, I swap the modules and then set a match level. Again this seems an ackward way around things, but perhaps it is the only solution?

Anyway, these are all the questions at the moment. I will probably have more when I wake up in the morning semi-refreshed.

Bamboozled Regards

Jonathan