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Subject: Re: Just picked up Chessmaster 8000

Author: John Merlino

Date: 10:31:05 03/30/01

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On March 30, 2001 at 12:28:50, KarinsDad wrote:

>Hi all.
>
>Been gone a long time (busy on way too many other things to really devote time
>to computer chess; haven't worked on my program since October).
>
>However, I'm back a little bit now.
>
>I just picked up CM 8000 and had a few general questions:
>
>What are some of the better ways to study with it?
>
>Are there any gotchas with the program?
>
>I haven't even had much time to open up the manual (although I did manage to
>draw my first game the other night against an opponent rated a hundred points or
>so above my rating).
>
>KarinsDad :)

First of all, get the patch. It's VITAL! You can get it by going to
www.chessmaster.com and clicking on the "Downloads" button.

Secondly, take a look at the FAQ, which you can view by going to
www.chessmaster.com and clicking on the "Frequently Asked Questions" link.

Thirdly, if you intend to practice certain openings, I strongly suggest
downloading the new set of Opening Books, each of which is dedicated to a
particular opening. These are also found on the "Downloads" page, under "New
Chessmaster Opening Books".

For studying, most people use the Thinking Lines window (possibly combined with
the Visual Thinking window). The patch allows you to set the hash table size for
the mentor engine to any number of MB of memory, so, if you're going to be doing
mostly analysis, I would use a value of 32MB (unless your machine has a LOT of
memory and you're going to be doing overnight analysis, then go as high as your
machine can handle).

If you're ONLY interested in analysis, make sure that you have your players set
to Human vs. Human, because if any of your players are computer personalities,
then you will have multiple engines running concurrently, meaning the CPU time
for the mentor engine will be compromised. Also, make sure to set the time
control to Infinite, so you don't have to worry about any annoying messages
about running out of time.

The thing that most people forget, however, is that you can copy any game from
any room INTO the Game Room and analyze it there. This is useful for analyzing
any of the Classic Games (from the Library) or any game from the Database room.

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask them either here
or by private e-mail.

jm



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