Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition is the best chess program you will get on the market. It has the most unique features that make it the best.
It has a collection of "players" or the playing styles arranged in order of their rating. All the Grandmasters like Vishwanathan Anand, Alekhine, Kramnik, etc are in the list.
Also, we find more players suited for studying chess against different players/style of playing. If we win a game, our rating increases and vice versa.
Chessmaster has a tutorial section where we can learn chess. The most important feature is the chess tutorial by "Grandmaster Josh Waitzkin". We learn chess from its basics to the attacking styles and advanced tactics. "Larry Christiansen's Attacking Chess" tutorial section teaches the attacking style of chess through various games.
It also features a chess competition between the "Chessmaster" game and Christiansen himself. It really shows us what this program is capable of.
Many beginners of chess are interested towards "openings". Chess openings like the "Sicilian Defence", "Gambits", etc may seem to provide a psychological advantage towards the opponent who is unaware of it. But studying various opening moves is not really good. This program has the biggest collection of various opening styles along with audio descriptions of their merits and demerits. It helps a chess player to learn any kind of opening. But a basic idea of opening is only necessary. You improve by practise playing chess, not remembering thousands of openings.
Also, there is a database of about 78 l chess games dating back to centuries.
You get all the famous chess games played up to 2007.
There is a collection of chess sets including many 3D chess sets. It also has 4 animated 3D chess sets, just like the "Wizard Chess" on Harry Potter. It is really cool.
It also feature a chess tutor mode of play, where we can evaluate ourselves by using timers and other tools which analyze our style of play, etc.
And at last, you get the usual extra stuffs, the timer, chess notations (in all kinds you can imagine), lan & internet play, voice help, and some fun stuff like chess puzzles, mini games (non standard games using chess pieces).
All of these make up Chessmaster Grandmaster, a professional chess teaching software/game.
I really like it.
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