Chessmaster 11 - first thoughts...

[Steve Maughan]

I've always bought the latest version of the CM series - mainly for The King engine. But I've always found that the GUI was somewhat "kludgey" and the 3D graphics unusable. I expected CM11 to be no different but my first impressions are that this is by far and away the best CM version yet - and possibly one that I'll actually use to play against. I've recently upgraded to a quad core PC with a 27" display. With this set-up the graphics look amazing. The 3D bound is certainly playable and the GUI seems to be responsive. The one "must" add feature is UCI support. I guess it's only hard core CC geeks that read this board that'll request such a feature but it's a must IMO.

So it's a big thumbs up for first impressions!!

Steve

[AdminX]

Hi Steve,

Overall I agree with you about the product. I still wish it were better in other areas however. Better Online Features/ Support, and support for UCI engines to name a few. I do think it has the best 3D display that I have seen in any GUI. However my favorite board/ set comes not from Chessmaster, but from Skess who has a webpage of Chess Sets & Skins that work in Chessmaster 10th and Grandmaster Editions. Below is a image of my favorite chess set in Chessmaster.



or click link for full screen of same image

http://www.64thsquare.com/CM11b.jpg

Here is the URL for the Skess Website:

http://cmx.team.pr.it/

[Wardy]

Hi Ted,

I'm still waiting for my copy to make it through the post

Does CM11 support the DGT board natively?

Best regards

Paul

[AdminX]

Hi Ted,

I'm still waiting for my copy to make it through the post

Does CM11 support the DGT board natively?

Best regards

Paul

Hi Paul,

The answer to your question is no. It still needs to use "GameKeeper" which can be found at the link below:

http://www.dgtprojects.com/downloads.htm

PS: It's the little stuff like this that kills me about UbiSoft's support for this product, but it's still not a bad piece of software for the price.

[Wardy]

Thanks for the reply Ted.
It's a real shame that it's not supported directly. You're right in that if only they took on board some of the feedback from users such as DGT, UCI, Proper TB support etc etc they would have a real winner.

Thanks

Paul

[Robert Pope]

Chessmaster 10 added copy protection where it would not even install if you had virtual CD drive software on your computer, like daemon tools. Do you know if this is still the case? I'd love to upgrade from version 9, but not if it cripples other things.

[AdminX]

Chessmaster 10 added copy protection where it would not even install if you had virtual CD drive software on your computer, like daemon tools. Do you know if this is still the case? I'd love to upgrade from version 9, but not if it cripples other things.

Hi Robert,

As far as I can tell the answer is no. No cd/dvd checks. It will check your license key when going online however. I use daemon tools to check my iso file before burning disc and I did not have any issues installing from the Chessmaster DVD.

[AdminX]

Hey,

I just discovered that online keys from Chessmaster 10th Edition work also in Chessmaster GM Edition. That saves me from having to buy and extra copy of Chessmaster GM Edition for my son. My one copy of Chessmaster GM Edition can now cover my household since I still have my old Chessmaster 10 keys.

PS: Of course you only need the keys if playing online.

[mclane]

today my version of CM11 came via snail-mail.

I first tried with the GUI that came with the product.
but the GUI is IMO not useful.

You cannot watch the engines play a tournament.
you cannot see the thinking-line window. only the clocks.
and the move list and the board.
whats the sense of this ?

in training-mode you can set up ONE game.
so you have to start each game manually.

so this made all no fun.

instead i installed theking3.50 in arena. this worked for the 32 and for the 64 bit version on the 64 Bit system.

since we do not know so far how to switch ON the MP mode of the engine,
we can only test 1 core per engine.

in arena i use a book from arena.
werner said the book the king uses in CM-GUI is "broken", it uses passive moves too that should normally not beeing played.
by using the book from arena this "bug" is not important anymore.

here a nice game with PB-ON against chesstiger.
the moves with HIGH numbers such as Nf6 {+0.01/249 13}
could be PB hits, maybe someone finds out what 249 means exactly.

the king runs as winboard engine in arena.


[Event "Intel6300, pb.ON"]
[Site "SCW"]
[Date "2007.11.06"]
[Round "1"]
[White "ChessTiger2007.1 UCI"]
[Black "TheKing350_64"]
[Result "0-1"]
[BlackElo "2200"]
[Time "20:12:33"]
[WhiteElo "2200"]
[TimeControl "40/600:40/600:40/600"]
[Termination "normal"]
[PlyCount "97"]
[WhiteType "program"]
[BlackType "program"]
1. d4 {0.00/1 0} Nf6 2. Bg5 {0.00/1 0} d6 3. Bxf6 {0.00/1 0} exf6 4. e3
{0.00/1 0} f5 5. g3 {0.00/1 0} g6 6. Bg2 {0.00/1 0} Bg7 7. h4 {-0.10/17 50}
c5 {-0.15/249 50} 8. c3 {+0.50/16 19} O-O {-0.21/17 22} 9. h5 {+0.50/16 22}
Qb6 {-0.15/17 25} 10. Nd2 {+0.42/16 35} cxd4 {-0.19/249 2} 11. cxd4
{+0.58/16 13} Be6 {-0.13/17 8} 12. Ne2 {+0.84/17 19} Na6 {-0.08/17 2} 13.
Nf4 {+0.82/16 14} Rac8 {-0.04/17 7} 14. hxg6 {+0.70/16 20} hxg6 {-0.10/17
14} 15. a3 {+1.34/18 29} Rfe8 {-0.06/17 6} 16. Nxe6 {+1.20/17 22} fxe6
{+0.02/249 31} 17. g4 {+0.92/17 31} Nb8 {+0.01/17 2} 18. b3 {+1.62/16 29}
Nd7 {-0.14/17 21} 19. Nc4 {+1.84/16 15} Qa6 {-0.35/249 43} 20. gxf5
{+1.98/17 27} gxf5 {-0.27/17 0} 21. Qh5 {+2.08/17 16} d5 {-0.29/17 22} 22.
Nd2 {+1.88/18 20} Nf6 {+0.01/249 13} 23. Qg6 {+1.32/20 39} Qa5 {-0.01/249
8} 24. Bf3 {+0.94/17 45} Re7 {-0.02/17 23} 25. b4 {+1.24/17 33} Qc7
{-0.07/17 29} 26. Ke2 {+2.00/13 7} Qc2 {-0.26/41 22} 27. Rag1 {+1.56/14 6}
Kf8 {-0.45/41 9} 28. Ke1 {+0.18/16 27} Qa4 {-1.14/249 19} 29. Bd1 {-0.01/17
0} Rc1 {-1.33/226 21} 30. Ke2 {-0.03/17 0} Qa6 {-1.33/17 12} 31. Kf3
{+0.98/16 6} Qxa3 {-1.77/17 17} 32. Nb3 {+1.44/17 7} Rxd1 {-1.45/249 17}
33. Rxd1 {+0.29/18 0} Qxb3 {-1.51/250 8} 34. Rc1 {+0.36/17 0} Qa4 {-1.60/17
14} 35. Rc8 {+1.64/15 10} Ne8 {-1.60/41 0} 36. Kg2 {+1.14/13 10} Qxb4
{-2.41/17 31} 37. Rh7 {+1.34/12 3} Qb5 {-2.69/17 26} 38. Kg1 {+0.21/15 0}
Qd7 {-3.13/17 14} 39. Rb8 {+0.36/15 4} e5 {-3.08/41 6} 40. Rh5 {-0.11/13 3}
Rf7 {-3.04/17 12} 41. Rh7 {-0.13/15 0} exd4 {-3.93/17 21} 42. Qh5 {-0.76/16
46} Kg8 {-4.50/17 15} 43. Qg6 {-2.67/15 22} dxe3 {-4.91/17 25} 44. Kh1
{-3.34/18 57} Kf8 {-5.27/250 23} 45. Qh5 {-5.56/16 116} Re7 {-6.38/18 30}
46. fxe3 {-5.97/16 56} d4 {-7.41/18 0} 47. Rh8 {-6.37/13 8} Bxh8 {-5.97/209
0} 48. Qxh8 {-6.40/13 9} Kf7 {-6.12/209 0} 49. Qh7 {-10.00/12 7 Weiss gibt
auf} 0-1

[George Tsavdaris]

I've always bought the latest version of the CM series - mainly for The King engine. But I've always found that the GUI was somewhat "kludgey" and the 3D graphics unusable. I expected CM11 to be no different but my first impressions are that this is by far and away the best CM version yet - and possibly one that I'll actually use to play against. I've recently upgraded to a quad core PC with a 27" display. With this set-up the graphics look amazing. The 3D bound is certainly playable and the GUI seems to be responsive.

So it's a big thumbs up for first impressions!!

Good news! From where did you buy the product? Was it available as a download or do you have to wait for shipping with mail?

Also what is the price for the monster you have there? I'm speaking about the 27" monitor.....

The one "must" add feature is UCI support. I guess it's only hard core CC geeks that read this board that'll request such a feature but it's a must IMO.

Since Chessmaster sells the most copies worldwide, if you ask the common user of it if he needs UCI support he will respond: "UC whaaaaaat?"

Also what Thorsten said about not being able to see eng-eng matches is rather a serious flaw....

But i'm mostly interested about strength. Can it use multiple CPU's? Is it stronger from its predecessor?