Author: Mike S.
Date: 18:36:49 03/29/01
Hi, at first I want to say that I've had several Chessmaster versions, which I most often liked in general. But there is a CM-specific curiosity, which I dislike, and I assume many users will be of the same opinion. Only people which have never seen another chess program than CM, may not be aware of that: Did you ever wonder, why other chess programs neither have, nor seem to need at all, a "Wake up" function? Because they work like this (which is standard btw. since the days of the first chess computers): 1. In a given position, i.e. if it was loaded from a file or whatever, "Computer move" (or what it's called, doesn't matter) STARTS the calculation for the side, which has the move. In other words: The programs SWITCH to the side which has the move automatically. Most do not differentiate between human-comp and comp-human. The human will automatically play for the other color, if comp-human is the current mode. 2. "Force move" STOPS a calculation (earlier, if desired). 3. After a position has been set up, or loaded, they do NEVER start to calculate immediatly, but can ALWAYS be started as described above in (1), no matter which side has the move. 4. After the engine has started to think, the CLOCK of the side who has the move starts too. 5. At the start of a normal game, colors are assigned simply by either (a) the human makes the white move, or (b) the human uses "computer move" to start the program. 6. They never fall asleep (and if they do, it's a bug). I think it would really be a big improvement, and appreciated by the computer chess fans, when the next Chessmaster 9000 could do that the same way like most of the other chess programs do. It's really the much easier handling. Maybe this is one of the last steps needed, towards perfection :o) Thanks, M.Scheidl
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