The great chess tutorial and tournament software (Chessmaster 10th Edition (PC))

Member Name: illogicology

Product:	Chessmaster 10th Edition (PC)
Date:	20/01/09 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great learning methods, excellent archive of extras

Disadvantages: Very probably impossible to beat "Chessmaster" the last opponent

I often wonder how Chess games sell so well. It seems to me that the Chessmaster series only has too target buyers; those who play chess extremely well and those who wish to play chess extremely well. No doubt, there are a lot of people who don't fit into those categories and probably wouldn't buy Chessmaster and yet it has sold well enough to make it to the 10th iteration. Frankly, regardless of the size of the consumerbase, Chessmaster deserves it.

The basic premise of Chessmaster is this: Provide the buyer with a series of Chess tutorials beginning with the basics and incrementally increasing until the player can then play against opponents. Then incrementally increases the difficulty of the opponents until, upon completion, the player is one of the most advanced chess players in the world. I imagine very few have ever reached this goal but that is simply because computers are notoriously hard to beat at chess.

It's a good system. Chessmaster is a well configured educational course on top of being a great chess game and those that put the time in can learn every facet of the game. For a price usually sub £20 that's not a bad deal. The game pushes you to improve while providing you with amazing extras such as virtual versions of famous chess players to challenge, facts about the game, histories of tournaments, vast archives of chess related knowledge and a ranking system to track your progress.

Chessmaster is the ultimate product for people, regardless of skill, who want to play chess and want to play it well.

Summary: A real must for anyone looking to learn or improve in chess.