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Subject: More fun with Beginner Software and Win2k: Chess Advantage II

Author: Elizabeth Schwartz

Date: 21:15:51 11/15/01


If I'm the only person here interested in beginner software, stop me. (maybe it
would be interesting to have a separate beginner forum here?)

Anyway, Chess Advantage II has five programs:
Chessmaster 6000
Milton Bradley Chess
Dr Shiller's Chess
Championship Chess
Extreme Chess

As expected, the first two didn't run under WIndows 2000. The other three did.

Of the three Extreme Chess was probably the most interesting, except that it can
only be "dumbed down" to a 1400 estimated rating. At that strength, it wiped me
across the table. I am looking forward to trying it again when I get better!
This game is based on some version of the Fritz engine.  Dr Shiller's Chess had
a nice simple interface and four opponents. It has a view window where it
evaluates the position and kibitzes a little. This was somewhat valuable for me,
just to see what move made it jump from "neutral position" to "computer has
clear advantage". Unfortunately, I never got more than four moves into a game
that way! Championship chess had a nice set of controls for opponents, and I
would probably use it the most, EXCEPT that the interface is unbelievably ugly
and hard to look at! It had only one "2D" board, and that board was very hard on
the eyes. It might be something to use in conjunction with Winboard.

At any rate, it's an interesting set of games to play with. Sometime in the next
few days I will see if CM 6000 works under VMware. I don't have any hopes at all
for Milton Bradley chess as a game.



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