Author: John Merlino
Date: 19:33:37 05/07/02
Well, it's about that time. Chessmaster 9000 has gone into Beta, so I get to tell you all what's new (or improved or modified) for this version. WARNING! Any or all of this may change as the program goes through testing! So don't complain if this list turns out to be not 100% accurate! New Features for Chessmaster 9000 (in no particular order): Boards and Pieces -- True 3D Boards and Pieces. Currently there are twenty-eight boards and thirty-four piece sets to mix and match and view from any size and angle (over 950 combinations of boards and pieces!). Some of the piece sets are "flat", making them useful for users who prefer 2D boards. Also includes 8 "presets" which users can set to any board orientation and recall via a single keystroke. Requires DirectX 8.1 or higher. Online Play -- Chessmaster Live restored on Ubi Soft servers. One big community for all Chessmaster owners to play against each other and chat. Persistent data keeps all users' records on file at all times. Requires internet connection. Chess Engine -- Updated version of The King chess engine -- Endgame Database Support (de Koning format). Program ships with all 3-man and 4-man, plus a few of the more important 5-man sets. Also includes utility to create the complete set of files. Game Play -- QuickStart! game feature makes starting a new game against a random opponent (within a strength range that you can select) just one mouse click away -- Sudden Death time control modifier -- Most recent move can now be designated either by highlighting the from/to squares or by an arrow between the two squares Learning Tools -- Blunder Alert, notifying users instantly when they make a "blunder" (a move which shows a loss of more than a pawn, although this minimum value can be changed by the user from between 0.5 to 3.0 pawns) -- Two new exercise types: Memorize the Position, Follow the Game (each with three skill levels) -- Two new (Beginner) drill types: Mate with One Pawn (e.g. Keep the Opposition), Mate with Two Pawns -- All exercises now report "You have a Mate in N" to help users gauge their progress (or lack thereof) towards exercise completion (thanks to the EGTB support) Personalities -- Ability to edit the biography and playing style descriptions of user-created personalities -- Users can now define ratings for user-created personalities -- Style settings for personalities are now "mirrored", meaning that there is now MY King Safety and OPPONENT'S King Safety, MY Pawn Weakness and OPPONENT'S Pawn Weakness, etc. Five more personality settings to play with! -- Increased Selective Search maximum to 16 Mentor Engine -- Mentor engine activity status messages -- Mentor engine settings dialog (Hash Table size and Blunder Alert threshhold) -- UNDOCUMENTED AND UNSUPPORTED! -- INI file setting to allow the user to change the mentor personality Content -- Josh Waitzkin's "Psychology of Competition" Audio Course. Over five hours of audio in 19 games. -- Endgame Quiz from GM Larry Evans -- Standard updates to Database and Classic Games -- Eight new GM personalities (Chigorin, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Leko, Najdorf, Paulsen, Tartakower and Zukertort -- NOTE: This list is DEFINITELY not final and some of these may not appear in the final version) Opening Books -- Improved Opening Book format, allowing for an "unlimited" number of moves in a book (basically, 32-bit indices are now used instead of 16-bit indices) -- Updated Chessmaster and GM personality opening books Tournament Room -- Random and/or hidden opponents for Tournaments and Rated Games -- Increased number of players that can be in Tournaments. Round Robin Tournaments now support up to 32 players, and Swiss Tournaments now support up to 128 players. -- Tournament Crosstables for both Round Robin and Swiss tournaments -- Copy Tournament Results, Summaries and Crosstables to Clipboard -- Thinking Lines window available in Tournament Room (only if the current game is comp vs. comp -- otherwise this window will be blank) User Data -- Users can now define their initial ratings PGN/FEN Support -- Copy and Paste PGN/FEN Support Windows -- New "Mentor Lines" window that shows either the N best moves overall or the single best move over time (i.e. the way CM8000 displayed its output in the Thinking Lines window). This window is available in the Game Room and also in the Library (for quick analysis of Classic Games or opening book lines) -- Side-to-move indicator in Visual Thinking window -- Visual Thinking window now flips when main board is flipped -- One keystroke combination will now toggle the visibility of all child windows Game Analysis -- Time and Depth for each move of Game Analysis indicated in "Analysis" tab of Annotation window Tutorials -- Replay button added to Tutorial window Miscellaneous -- Compatible with Windows XP/ME/98 -- The CD is no longer ALWAYS required. The old "CD Refresh" code (from CM7000) has been put back, allowing users approximately two weeks or two dozen sessions between asking them for the CD on startup. (WARNING! That's the way the code is now, but the powers-that-be may make us change it! Don't say you haven't been warned!) At this time, Chessmaster 9000 is due to be released in around the end of August. At some point in the near future, the Chessmaster website is going to have a CM9000 preview page, which will also include some screenshots. Enjoy! jm
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