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- Chessmaster 3000 - A Review
- by Thom Vaught (Chess Beginner/Novice)
-
- As I mentioned above, I am not a chess expert. I've never played in a
- tournament. I also have never played a rated player. Therefore, I will
- not be evaluating the challenge of the game. Someone else with more
- experience will perhaps do that. I will review the game based on its
- functionality (what it does), usability (how easy it is to accomplish
- things), and utility (its usefulness).
-
- Functionality:
-
- Chessmaster 3000 (CM3k) has the functionality that most
- Beginners-Intermediates would expect. However it adds some new twists.
- The review of functionality is divided into sections corresponding to the
- menu options available.
-
- Game:
-
- The game menu is standard fare for a mainstream chess program. Options
- include loading/saving games and beginning new games. However there are
- improvements. The Import and Export functions are nice additions. With
- the import and export functions one can read/write ASCII move list files
- in five different notations (Algebraic (Nc3), Coordinate (e2-e4),
- Descriptive (RxB, QQ3), Long Algebraic (Nb1-c3), and Correspondence (5254
- same as e2-e4)). According to the documentation, some chess databases will
- apparently export ASCII move lists in a form which CM3k recognizes.
- Annotation may also be added to the move list. The board position file is
- simply an ASCII board which shows the position of each piece on the board.
- Below is an example:
-
- BR -- BB BQ BK BB BN BR
- BP BP BP BP -- BP BP BP
- -- -- BN -- -- -- -- --
- -- -- -- -- BP -- -- --
- -- -- -- -- WP -- -- --
- -- -- -- -- -- WN -- --
- WP WP WP WP -- WP WP WP
- WR WN WB WQ WK WB -- WR
-
- A Forsythe board position file may also be used. Below is an example of
- the position above:
-
- r1bqknbr/pppp1ppp/2n5/4p3/4P3/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKB1R
-
- There are also 150 classic games with annotation. These classic games may
- be loaded for playing studying.
-
- Play:
-
- The play menu contains options which affect the way the computer plays and
- the way a person interacts with the program. The player styles option,
- which controls the computer player, is very innovative. It allows a great
- degree of control over the computer player. One can control how the
- computer values each type of piece on the board, excluding the king. The
- tendency to attack or defend can be adjusted. Also, whether the computer
- goes for a material or positional advantage may be controlled. The
- computer's vision, the percentage of moves which it sees, can also be
- opponents which can challenge in aspects of the game at which one may not
- be adept. For example, if one generally plays persons who are good at
- defense, then a computer opponent may be created whose goal is to
- repeatedly attack at every occasion. There are several preprogrammed
- opponents which are very entertaining (Kamikaze, Defender, Chessmaster,
- Nimzovich, Capablanca, Newcomer, Novice, Tarrasch). Changing player style
- parameters seems to have a great affect on the computer player. There are
- also may ways to modify response controls (time, search depth, etc.).
- Ground rules for touching pieces and announcing check/openings are also
- provided. Blindfold chess may be played where either the white, black, or
- both pieces are hidden from view. CM3k has options for handling
- tournaments. A tournament may be created and matches played. Once the
- tournament is complete, the results may be printed.
-
- Actions:
-
- The action menu options has nothing new. Actions include: switching sides,
- forcing moves, taking back moves, replaying moves, resigning, offering
- draw, adjournment, and pause.
-
- Mentor:
-
- Teaching is another area in which CM3k shines. The mentor menu contains a
- wealth of learning options. Advice can be gotten from CM3k about which
- move would be best in the current position. Either quick and detailed
- advice may be gotten. The quick advice just gives the move CM3k thinks is
- best given the current position. The detailed advice gives a series of
- moves along with a natural language description of the why the series is
- considered to be good. For example gaining a material, positional
- advantage, or simply to getting the queen out of take. Some of the advice
- is kind of vague, but it is generally pretty good. A chess tutor is
- provided. It is like an interactive chess book which covers everything
- from how to move the pieces through combinations and general strategy.
- There is a chess rater, with three quizzes which may be taken. For each
- quiz, a series of 10 chess problems are presented in each. Depending on
- how many questions are answered correctly, and how many guesses it took,
- CM3k assigns a rating based on the United States Chess Federation's
- standards. One has the option of practicing openings. This is a very good
- way to memorize opening lines. It can be configured to announce each move
- before it is made, or it will just watch the moves and indicate when a move
- deviates from the selected opening. There seems to be many openings to
- choose from. There is also the standard board setup option in order to set
- up specific positions.
-
- Look & Feel:
-
- The look and feel menu addresses the user configurable interface options.
- First there is the board display. The design of the board can be changed
- which can be to 2d, 3d, or war room. The war room design is a very nice
- setup. It has the board, clocks move list, capture list, annotation
- window, and thinking windows all on the same screen. The 2d board is also
- functional. There are options for rotating the board and showing
- coordinates. A variety of chess sets are available to choose from, but the
- Staunton is probably best. CM3k can be installed for 256-color low
- resolution MCGA (320x200) or 16-color high resolution VGA (640x480). The
- 16-color is recommended. The extra colors aren't worth the loss in
- resolution. Move list branching is provided. It will save all move
- branches which are followed. That is to say, if branching is enabled and
- moves are taken back, each line taken may be returned to at any time. This
- would be great for doing in-depth analysis of a particular game. There are
- sound options, don't bother.
-
- Windows:
-
- The windows menu controls which windows are visible at a given time. Most
- are pretty standard (clocks, thinking, move list, captured pieces, best
- variation, legal moves, annotation). There is the interesting VCR Controls
- menu option which is used to view the game in progress. It appears awkward
- at first, but works quite well.
-
- Usability:
-
- It has an excellent mouse interface. Most menu items have hot-keys, such
- as Alt-T to take moves back. That one becomes second nature. The hot-keys
- are also listed on the menus so one doesn't have to look for the manual.
- Here it must be noted that a mouse is the preferred means of input. Some
- of the less common functions are nearly impossible to use with the
- keyboard. Once again, the higher resolution mode is recommended. It is
- neat to look at the different chessboards and chess pieces in 256 colors,
- but it is not very functional. Another warning, don't turn on the sound
- on. Of issue to some may be the memory requirements for CM3k. It is a
- real memory hog and needs about 590k free in order to run. There is no
- copy protection to be found (usually it isn't too hard to find the copy
- protection). It is nice to have a program from people who appear to trust
- their users. Thanks go out to Software Toolworks.
-
- There are two books which make up the documentation for CM3k. The User's
- Guide contains instructions about how to use the game. It is functional,
- but completely lacking in any useful description of the keyboard interface.
- If one doesn't have a mouse, it will very difficult to use many parts of
- this game. The Owner's Manual contains instructions on how to play chess,
- a brief history of chess, a lineage of chess masters, a list of the classic
- games, a set of brain teasers, a history of the program, a discussion of
- algebraic notation, and a brief bibliography.
-
-
- Utility:
-
- CM3k is the most useful and complete mainstream chess program to date. It
- should be noted that this reviewer has not used Zarkov or M-Chess which are
- supposed to be very challenging. GNU chess is challenging enough for most
- beginners, but it is not a very good learning tool. In CM3k you will find
- a very challenging chess program (for beginners-novices at least), a very
- friendly interface (for mouse users), and an excellent chess instructor
- (mentor). This program is highly recommend for any budding Chess
- enthusiasts.
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