The interface is generally user-friendly. Waitzkin's voice-annotated games in particular are an original and useful feature (the pieces move about the board while Waitzkin explains the ideas) that can help even strong players to improve their chess. This program has most of the features that a modern chess program should have: one of the strongest chessplaying engines available, customizable computer opponents, a 300,000 game expandable database with multiple search criteria, over 2000 named opening variations, one of the best chess tutorial series by chess coach and author Bruce Pandolfini, voice-annotated games by Josh Waitzkin (subject of the Searching for Bobby Fischer movie) and the ability to play chess on the Internet. Maybe you want to play against different styles or against different strengths, maybe you want to study openings, maybe you want to evaluate your playing strength, maybe you want to have chess lessons, maybe you want to analyze games Chessmaster can do all that and more. And this is where Chessmaster 6000 shines. If all you are going to do is play chess, why buy a program when plenty of free chessplaying games much stronger than you are available? The answer is 'for the bells and whistles'. But just a minute, if you are rated at say, 1800 (which puts you much above the average level), what difference does it make if you play against a program rated 2400 or one rated 2500? In both cases, you are going to have your head handed to you on a platter.

There is an ongoing endless debate about which chess program is the strongest, and Chessmaster 6000 is up there among the contenders of Grandmaster strength, so if you buy this program, you can rest assured that if some of the other contenders (Fritz, Junior, Hiarcs and so on) are stronger, they are not much stronger. If all you want from a chess program is an engine that can beat the stuffings out of you, you should know that unless you are a Master, there are a number of free programs that can beat 99.9% of chess players ok, but maybe you absolutely need to have the strongest chess program. But don't let that deter you - this may be the chess program for you, especially if you are on a tight budget. Chessmaster is no different in this respect: although it is certainly of the best chess programs that you can buy, Chessmaster 6000 has a number of bugs, and some poor features. Although the previous Chessmaster programs were good, each of the Chessmaster series had some features that did not work properly and a number of bugs. The Chessmaster series is one of the oldest chessplaying programs around, and by far the best-selling chess program the latest incarnation is Chessmaster 6000, which adds a number of enhancements to the previous one ( Chessmaster 5500).

Read Full Review Chessmaster's latest incarnation

Chessmaster 9000 on windows 10