Author: Steve Maughan
Date: 01:21:56 11/25/00
CM 8000 is now available from Electronics Boutique in the UK. To test it out I thought I’d pit it against Gambit Tiger. It proved to be quite an interesting game. After the opening I thought Gambit Tiger was going to storm the king side and win quickly but ChessMaster found a resourceful sacrifice (16... Nxd4!) [d]1r2r1k1/ppp2ppp/2nq2n1/5Q2/3PB3/4PP2/P2B1P1P/R3K2R b KQ – From then on ChessMaster took the initiative and looked as if it would win. At one stage ChessMaster and Gambit Tiger thought black had a 3 to 4 pawn advantage, including two connected passed pawns. I played on and to my amazement Gambit Tiger clawed its way back. ChessMaster didn’t managed to get its rook begin its pawns and the game ended in a draw; although there were moments of excitement right up to the end. I have a suspicion that some work needs to be done on ChessMaster’s / The King’s endgame as Gambit Tiger seemed to be consistently out-searching it despite the slower hardware. Overall my first impressions of ChessMaster are positive. After the lacklustre upgrade of ChessMaster 7000 there is definitely something for the enthusiast in the latest package. The main highlights for me are Winboard support, Visual Thinking while in two player mode (at last!!) and of course the latest King engine. My wish list for ChessMaster 8000 patch 1 would be: 1) Ability to select engine in Visual Thinking. At the moment it is only the standard ChessMaster with, I assume, 1 Mb of hash. 2) Deciphering mate score in Visual Thinking i.e. +M5 or +#5 instead of +99.90. 3) Allowing the ChessMaster engine to be used in other application. I can’t see a downside for Mattel – they could even still check for CD. 4) Copy and Paste of EPD and PGN (as in Shredder) All in all definitely worth the 30 quid! [Event ""] [Site "Durham Riding"] [Date "11-25-2000"] [Round ""] [White "Gambit Tiger (24 Mb of Hash, 450 MHz P2)"] [Black "ChessMaster (16 Mb of Hash, 333 MHz K2)"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c4 Bg4 4. cxd5 Bxf3 5. gxf3 Qxd5 6. e3 e5 7. Nc3 Bb4 8. Bd2 Bxc3 9. bxc3 exd4 10. cxd4 Nge7 11. Be2 O-O 12. Qb1 Rab8 13. Qe4 Qd6 14. Bd3 Ng6 15. Qf5 Rfe8 16. Be4 Nxd4 17. exd4 Qxd4 18. Rb1 Re5 19. Be3 Qc3+ 20. Bd2 Qc4 21. Rc1 Qa4 22. Qg4 f5 23. Qh3 Rxe4+ 24. fxe4 Qxe4+ 25. Be3 Qxh1+ 26. Qf1 Qxf1+ 27. Kxf1 f4 28. Bxa7 Ra8 29. Bd4 Ra4 30. Rd1 Rxa2 31. Bc3 Rc2 32. Rd8+ Nf8 33. Bb4 c5 34. Bd2 f3 35. Ke1 Rb2 36. Kd1 Rb3 37. Rc8 b6 38. Kc2 Ra3 39. Rb8 Ra6 40. Rb7 Ne6 41. Kd3 g5 42. Ke4 h6 43. Kxf3 Kf8 44. Be3 Ke8 45. Ke4 Nd8 46. Rg7 Nf7 47. Rg6 Ra4+ 48. Kd5 Rb4 49. Re6+ Kd8 50. Rf6 Ke7 51. Re6+ Kd7 52. Rf6 Nd8 53. Rxh6 g4 54. Rh7+ Kc8 55. Rg7 Nb7 56. Rg8+ Kc7 57. Rg7+ Kb8 58. Rf7 Na5 59. Bf4+ Kc8 60. Be5 Nb3 61. Bc3 Ra4 62. Kc6 Kd8 63. Kxb6 Ke8 64. Rg7 Rc4 65. Be5 Re4 66. Bc3 Rf4 67. Kb5 Kf8 68. Rh7 Rxf2 69. Kc4 Nc1 70. Rh8+ Kf7 71. Rh7+ Kg6 72. Rg7+ Kh5 73. Rh7+ Kg5 74. Rg7+ Kf4 75. Rf7+ Ke3 76. Re7+ Kf3 77. Rf7+ Ke2 78. Rd7 Rf5 79. Re7+ Kf3 80. Be5 Rh5 81. Bg3 Ne2 82. Rf7+ Ke3 83. Bd6 Ke4 84. Rf8 Rh6 85. Re8+ Kf3 86. Kxc5 Rh5+ 87. Kc4 Rh6 88. Bb8 Ra6 89. Kd5 Ra5+ 90. Kd6 Nd4 91. Rg8 Rf5 92. Ba7 Nb5+ 93. Ke6 Rh5 94. Bb8 Nd4+ 95. Kf6 Rf5+ 96. Ke7 Rb5 97. Kd7 Rd5+ 1/2 - 1/2
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