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I am familiar with chess but I am a novice as far as playing goes. I haven't had a chance to really get into the features that are available but I can tell that it will really increase my ability to play well.Thanks Jeff
Play with 15 or 20 minutes per side and the computer moves at a reaonable pace.We think this game is fantastic. I don't recommend playing with infinite time.
I knew the program itself would be solid, but due to other reviews I was concerned it would not run on my XP machine. The CD's loaded flawlessly and the game started right up.
We got this game over the weekend and my 10 year old son and I have not stopped playing it. The tutorials are excellent, and there are a ton of Grandmaster games and famous games from history that are broken down and commented on.My only negative comment is a minor one.
The second concern was that I would need to fumble for the cd every time I wanted to play since the game in it's current format requires this. Ubisoft must have listened to somebody because I downloaded the latest patch (v1.03) and now I don't need the CD to start or run the game.Here is the link: http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/Info.aspx.pId=1103&tab=download&dcId=63The game has a tremendous amount of features.
It seems to take the computer infinite time to move. It runs perfectly, the lessons are outstanding, and the content value for the money is off the charts.
Not as good as earlier versions of same game. Computer takes way too long to move unless you hit "force move" all the time. Not recommended.
Chessmaster 10 Jewel Case (CM10 JC) is a great program at an amazingly low price. I really recommend CM10 JC for all the reasons above. I have Win XP SP3 myself, and the installation and running of the game were both flawless. Its full playing strength is of course well beyond the ability of 98% of chess players, but the game also matches you with AI opponents at your level (Elo rating) and selects your AI opponents over time to match you as your ratings (from the games) goes slowly up - hopefully - or down. The latest patch from UbiSoft fixed this, and I never have to insert the game CD any more. I have enjoyed this program. It features good tutorials for chess beginners as well as exercises for club-level players. I do note that some here have had bad experiences with running CM10 JC on Win XP.
I have also in the past bought and used Fritz, Hiarcs, Rebel and ChessPartner, and they are all excellent as well. However, they are more expensive than CM10 JC, and so the latter makes pc chess more acccessible to many people, including youth. Someone else complained that one has to have the CD (yes, this is not a DVD program) in the CD-ROM drive when running the game. So at least on the basis of my personal experience, I can wholeheartedly recommend this chess software on the basis of both fun and of Win XP compatibility.
Whenever I attempt to use the product it always requests me to load the install CD -- this apparently is a copyright protection mechanism that is described in the user manual. I have nothing against people protecting their product but the CD protection on this product made it virtually unusable for me. I installed it on a laptop that does not have a perminant CD drive, the laptop is small and good for use when travelling. There are claims in the documentation that it is possible to get it to only ask once every so many attempts to play but for me it always asked even if I did a "full" install of all components. Its probably a nice product if you can use it but it didn't work t all for me.
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