How to play against computer in Chessmaster?

I just got a copy of Chessmaster Grandmaster edition (very hard to come by) to try to progress against some of the tougher (for me anyways) computer personalities. For me, that would mean the 1200-1400 elo range.

This is where the computer stops blundering pieces and doing unfavorable exchanges. Additionally, it forces me to stop playing "hope chess"- I can't put my faith on tactics because the computer has already accounted for them in its defense.

How can I practice to improve against the computer in this case? Any ideas?

"Hope chess" is the reverse of "faith in tactics".

If you see a possible capture or tactic and don't bother to figure out your opponent's possible responses, that is "hope chess."

If you figure out all the possible responses and counters and your move still looks good, then you can play the move,  having faith in the tactics.

If you can swing the price, Chess King 21 is probably the best standalone Chess playing programing for learning. It's geared for learning, so it doesn't have a lot of functionality as Fritz, but it takes the best parts of ChessMaster geared toward learning, and does a much better job.

For just learning to play better chess, it's like Chessmaster's training stuff on steroids.

Sadly, the price has gone up a lot in the 5 years since I bought my copy. I think I paid less than $30 for it, back in 2015. I'm sure in 5 years, a lot has been added to the program.

Just google Chess King Training.

I'm actually surprised anybody can get ChessMaster Grandmaster to run on a Windows 7,8, or 10 computer.

My biggest objection to your suggestion is that the learning modules are a time-based subscription model. It's good for the software company, because it tends to give them a continuing revenue stream - but it's a bad deal for the buyer. It seems the entire software industry is trying to foist the subscription model on us. <sigh>

The OP didn't say which version of Windows he's running. My personal experience with Chessmaster on Windows was that CM 9000 was a bear to get running on Windows 7. (Probably impossible on Windows 10, but that's just a guess.) Chessmaster 10 and 11 installed just fine on Windows 7. I haven't tried installing CM on Windows 10, because I've just about abandoned Windows 10 for Linux. However, I've heard that people have had varying degrees of success installing CM 10 or 11 on Windows 10. Some get it installed, and some don't.

I've concluded that, after putting a few games into Stockfish, that Chessmaster isn't worth my time at my current level. It's absolutely impossible to make tactical gains mid-game, and improving in the game requires improvement in positional play, which is something I shouldn't super-highly prioritize if I wish to improve my chess.com elo.

Tbf, the copy I found was online, and it required two 1 GB file downloads. My only problem with it was an administrator issue, so I quickly fixed that by switching accounts.

Yeah, I always thought that the tutorials were the best part of Chessmaster. While the personalities could be fun, I don't think it's very useful for improving your game. You're probably better off practicing tactics, reading books, learning from stronger players, etc.

When I bought it a few years ago, you could buy it without the added module subscription. The company went to the subscription based model after I purchased Chess King.

That being said,  you would still own Chess King 21 after the 3 month subscription ran out, and it should still have plenty of chess exercises in the program itself. The modules subscription is completely separate from the Chess King 21 program. I think a regular subscription us $10/month, so your getting 3 months for $15 if you price Chess King 21 at $30/one time payment. (for a grand total of $45.)

A lot of the exercises in the modules must be similar to stuff on Chess.com, so I just usually recommend the Chess King playing program itself as a replacement for Chess Master. Then just don't get a subscription after the 3 months run out.

I look at it this way: for a "C" class player or lower, it's far more useful than Fritz for impoving chess, and even at $45, it's still cheaper than Fritz.

And I'm only recommending it as a modern replacement for Chessmaster, which Chess.com can't quite emulate, but chess.com still can't be beat in term of sheer volume of training material, plus Chess.com has videos.

When I decided to start playing chess, I immediately remembered the Chessmaster software. Started looking for something similar, and the best I could come up with was the play Magnus app for mobile. It's nowhere near as good. You have two different apps: one for playing against the AI at various ages and strengths (similar to Josh Waitzkin in the chessmaster software) and another app for lessons. You have to subscribe to both, and there's not even a fraction of the content that's in chessmaster.

Chessmaster still has a useful place and is still a worthwhile purchase imo. I got it for something like £3 or £4. I actually bought chessmaster 9000 (simply because I remembered it) and chessmaster 10th edition, but I haven't bothered at all with the 9000 version. I didn't get the grandmaster edition despite it being the later release, because it seemed quite different to the other ones if I remember right.

My Chessmaster experiences were with Windows 7 Pro. I used CM 9000, CM 10th Ed, and (for a short testing period) a bootleg copy of Grandmaster Edition (CM 11). Each version had its advantages and disadvantages. Of course, the newest versions were a little stronger and had slightly more personalities. Also, CM 11 had Waitzkin's "The Art of Learning".

CM 9000 had the best manual; The CM 10th manual was shorter, and the CM 11 manual was shorter, still. As I ran many engine-engine tournaments, CM 9000 was great because you could start a tournament and just let it run to completion. Inexplicably, in CM 10th and 11, you had to manually start EACH GAME in a tournament.

CM 9000 was easy for me to install in Windows 7, *if* I didn't mind having to put the CD into the drive every time I started the program. Getting a CM 9000 install that bypassed that requirement took some effort.

Also, if you bought the actual CM 11 disks, @baddogno claims that CM 11 had some kind of evil copy-protection scheme that would only allow two installations from the disks before it turned into a worthless coffee-cup coaster. I never had the chance to independently verify his claim, but that's what he believes.

If your wanting to run engine-to-engine matches, you can use Fritz, and probable there are free chess interfaces on the internet that can do that.

I know from experience with ChessMaster Grandmaster that it's very difficult to add engines to the program. (Unlike earlier versions of ChessMaster, which was very easy to add other engines.)

I can't remember if I ever did manage to get another chess engine to run in ChessMaster Grandmaster.

I'm not sure if you can change the engines or have engine-to-engine matches in Chess King 21.

I have an older version, and the engine was hard wired into the program. But since they no longer advertise versions with different engines, you might be able to change engines in the Chess King 21 program.

Nowadays, for engine-engine tournaments, I just use Arena. Yesterday, I installed a relatively new free GUI called BanksiaGUI that looks promising for engine-engine tournaments. I'm not sure it's quite ready for prime time yet, though. The one-man developer is frantically adding new features and fixing bugs, but he hasn't yet had a chance to create any documentation.

I long ago stopped giving money to Chessbase. I just got tired of their focus on constantly putting out new versions at the expense of fixing bugs in existing versions. And, I didn't like their proprietary engine format for their Fritz engine.

Engine-wise, the biggest problem with the Chessmaster series is that it was only designed to work with Winboard engines. You could shoehorn in UCI engines if you knew how to use a polyglot adapter.

I downloaded Stockfish for Chess King 21. The Elo seems very inflated because I'm easily destroying the computer at 1300 difficulty even though my rapid is considerably lower than that.

I'm not sure I understand. You bought Chess King 21, then installed a normal version of Stockfish in the GUI? Or does the GUI come with a customized version of Stockfish?

It gave me the option of downloading Stockfish after installing the program.

Hmm, it sounds like the GUI might be further weakening the engine somehow. Actually, I wouldn't worry too much about that, unless the GUI is making the engine play in a way that you don't like. Elo estimates for engines are notoriously inaccurate anyway. You could just try bumping up the strength of the engine a little until it's a more even match.

Yeah lol. I'm just playing by 100 point increments.