The New Chessmaster

[utzinger]

Hi Ted,

What are the GUI improvements in Chessmaster over version 10? From
what I have read it seems the only benefit of 11 is getting the engine. I
have been hesitant to upgrade.

thanks in advance,

Kirk

I have been a fan of Chessmaster for many years. But this time I am not
going to upgrade. From what I have heard and read there is no real GUI
improvement and what is of much more interest: the latest engine seems
to be a very small improvement with respect to playing strength.
Kurt

[AdminX]

You need Polyglot adapter para to use UCI engines in Chessmaster GUI.
I may send you Fruit adapted if you desire it.

P.D. Wb2Uci is an adapter to use Winboard engines in Fritz GUI.

In Chessmaster 11, Polyglot does not work on all systems. It only works on a few. Wb2UCI on the other hand does work on all systems. This may even be another CM11 bug, as Polyglot works without issue on CM10. Please see the following 2 page thread for more info:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/ ... 9341087706

[AdminX]

You need Polyglot adapter para to use UCI engines in Chessmaster GUI.
I may send you Fruit adapted if you desire it.

P.D. Wb2Uci is an adapter to use Winboard engines in Fritz GUI.

In Chessmaster 11, Polyglot does not work on all systems. It only works on a few. Wb2UCI on the other hand does work on all systems. This may even be another CM11 bug, as Polyglot works without issue on CM10. Please see the following 2 page thread for more info:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/ ... 9341087706

Sorry! I stand corrected, I meant UCI2WB adapter.

[Chris Tatham]

I have been a fan of Chessmaster for many years. But this time I am not
going to upgrade. From what I have heard and read there is no real GUI
improvement and what is of much more interest: the latest engine seems
to be a very small improvement with respect to playing strength.
Kurt

Hi Kurt

I'm a long term CM fan also and have bought the latest version. I'm afraid you are probably right

There are some positives - for example, some nice boards which look great as Ted pointed out in an earlier thread, and I must admit I like the mini-game 'Fork my Fruit' but to be honest the bugs are beginning to get me down....

I've lost all confidence in the AI opponents, - yes they have played erratically in earlier CM versions, but when Cassie (rated a lowly 23 ) is able to demonstrate an unnaturally good grasp of the Nimzo Indian Leningrad variation (with apparantly no book knowledge ) and worse still beat me, I begin to despair! (I'm not a good player, but *I am* better than 23!)

My own (weak) winboard engine has an integrated book but always seems to play the same unrecognisable opening in the CM interface and also can't seem to win against anything (Cassie or otherwise) - in CM10th it can beat opponents up to around 1000 at blitz.

Also, and I don't know if this applies to other winboard engines, but the game freezes when it promote a pawn - this also applies in CM10th but this doesn't happen for my engine in winboard or arena.

Other than that everything is fine! - There, I feel better now

Best wishes


Chris

[ozziejoe]

I agree the opponents are a little eratic and don't play much like humans. A few of them play like a moron and then suddenly play strongly. Still, I am new to chessmaster, and i have to say it is absolutely the best for someone who wants to actually play chess against a program.....

I just wish people would spend some time creating a program that really does play a bit like a human (certain errors are far more common in humans than in dummy-downed engines)


best
J

[Ovyron]

I just wish people would spend some time creating a program that really does play a bit like a human (certain errors are far more common in humans than in dummy-downed engines)

You may want to try the weakest engines, they have a constant strength so it's expected that they avoid this "Now super strong, now super weak" behavior (And thus, play more human like.)

[ozziejoe]

Thanks Ulysses. That is a good point.


Now that I am playing the personalities a bit more, i see that the chessmaster programers have been better at the ai thing that i expected. For example, blunders seem to increase under time pressure.

The one key difference between the cm personalities and humans is that the cm personalities never seem to lose on time. I have learned that i have to have about 30% more time than CM going into the end of the time period, because the cm personality will be able to move rapidly in a minute or two, much faster than me.



I suspect the personalities get weeker with longer time controls.

another thing. Even if the cm opponent does not have sufficient material to mate, if you run out of time, it declares the cm opponent the winner. What is the official rule on this? Both chessbase server and ICC give a draw if you run out of time and your opponent could not possibly mate you

best
J

[Vempele]

another thing. Even if the cm opponent does not have sufficient material to mate, if you run out of time, it declares the cm opponent the winner. What is the official rule on this? Both chessbase server and ICC give a draw if you run out of time and your opponent could not possibly mate you

best
J

The rule you describe is the official one. I think ICC and Playchess use 'sufficient material to mate a lone king', though.