Some Chessmaster:GM Edition Info

[JVMerlino]

Greetings,

I had a brief chat with one of the Marketing people at Ubi Soft on the next version of CM. He said that the game will be coming out on October 16th.

Here's the new blurb from Ubi on it:
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Learn from champion Josh Waitzkin: Using the principles outlined in his book The Art of Learning, Josh puts players in his shoes during some of the most riveting moments of his career. He then walks players through the classics, introducing beginners to the fundamentals of the game and providing revealing commentary about the road to mastery. A variety of exciting multiplayer games are available, including: Dark Chess, in which the opponent's pieces are invisible; Extinction Chess, where the winner is the first player to capture all of the opponent's pieces; and Losing Chess, a game that rewards the first player to lose all of his/her pieces! Six original mini-games: Each mini-game is packed with its own music, sound effects, a high-score record and 20 levels of gameplay. Players can look forward to: Minefield, in which chess pieces are used to locate mines hidden in the board; Breaking the Lines, where the knight is moved to capture all of the pawns; and Fork My Fruit, a game that uses chess pieces to fork fruit of the same kind, among others. Players have access to 900 of the most important chess games, which are analyzed to provide key tactics.
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Of course, the most important info he wasn't sure on -- whether there's a new engine or not. So I have sent an e-mail to Johan (who I haven't spoken with in quite a long time) and we'll see if he gets back to me.

jm

[nczempin]

and Fork My Fruit, a game that uses chess pieces to
jm

Sounds like Toga etc. to me.

[Nid Hogge]

Chessmaster 11 Forum???

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums?a=corfrm&cf=4221052685

[fern]

Mmmm. Doesn't bring a pencil sharpener?

What a joke regards, John
Fernando

[Werner]

Hi John,
thanks for the infos.
Do you have any news from Johan?

[Wardy]

You guys might want to have a look at this old thread on the Hiarcs forum

http://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=85

There will be a new version of the King engine which is MP and will either be the version used at Leiden or very closely related to it at the heart of CM 11

Considering how close we are to the actual launch it's bit sad there is no official news breaking from the ubi site - at least I couldn't find it!

Regards

Paul

[Kirk]

Just saw it on prerelease on Amazon UK for October 19th.

[David Dahlem]

It seems the version name is Chessmaster XI. Here's more details (nothing about the engine) from http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/Info.aspx?pId=5893

LEARN CHESS
- Extensive course on the basics of chess taught by International Chess Master Josh Waitzkin.
- Tutorials from Josh Waitzkin’s groundbreaking book The Art of Learning.
- Attacking Chess course commentary by Grandmaster Larry Christiansen.
- Famous Games: 900 of chess’s most important games presented and analyzed.
- 600,000+ game database.
- Coverage of all classic and modern opening variations.

SINGLE-PLAYER
- Training mode: Play one of many predefined opponents and analyze your game.
- Ranked Play: Test your skills against a variety of opponents and establish your rating.
- Play one of 50 predefined tournaments or create your own.
- Set up a position to solve chess problems or reproduce famous positions.

MULTIPLAYER
- Play with a friend via Internet or LAN connection.
- Play rated and unrated games, tournaments, ladders, simultaneous exhibitions, watch other matches, set up/take chess lessons via LAN or Internet.
- Play one of 12 new chess variants including Limited Shuffle, Shuffle, Giveaway, Marseilles, Progressive, and Pocket Knight.

- Play correspondence chess.

Regards
Dave

[Kirk]

Any word on engine yet?