Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: NT/Win2k program that calculates ratings? Good beginner play?

Author: John Merlino

Date: 08:46:33 11/02/01

Go up one level in this thread


On November 02, 2001 at 09:45:44, Elizabeth Schwartz wrote:

>I used to play Chessmaster and really enjoyed the feature that calculated your
>estimated rating. I know it's not comparable to a real-world rating, but as a
>beginner (not yet in four digits) I found it a good indicator of progress. And,
>I really liked that the opponents in Chessmaster played like real beginner
>opponents, not liked dumbed-down computer opponents (meaning, they hatched wild
>plots, hung pieces, and did other beginning-human stuff, as opposed to playing a
>passive 1-move lookahead game)
>
>But, I can't use Chessmaster any more because it's hitting a bug on my new Win2k
>machine.
>
>So, is there anything else like this out there? USCF chess refused to even
>install on Win2k.
>
>I know that playing humans is the best option, and I have online accounts, but
>as a working mom I can't always commit to an uninterrupted game. And, it can be
>hard to find good beginners online.

Two comments:

1) The next version of Chessmaster will support Windows XP, so if you are
planning to upgrade, you'll have a version of Chessmaster that will work on your
machine in about seven months (according to the current schedule).

2) There are ALSO the kinds of opponents that you mention, with pretty much the
same settings as the Chessmaster, but with a very limited search depth. So, it
is also very useful to play against these kinds of opponents as well. Lacey is
the weakest of all of those, but she can be a real psychological terror. You can
learn a lot about yourself playing against her! I believe somebody posted here
that he rarely beat her, even though his rating was 400+ points more than hers!

jm



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.