''Chessmaster 8000'' is a 2000 chess video game developed and published by

Mattel Interactive Mattel Interactive (Known as Mattel Media until 1999) was a video game publisher and software distributor. History Mattel originally founded the company as Mattel Media in February 1996, as an aim to expand into the multimedia unit by producing ...

for the

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. It is part of the ''

Chessmaster ''Chessmaster'' (originally ''The Chessmaster'') is a chess video game series, currently owned and developed by Ubisoft. It is the best-selling chess video game series, with more than five million units sold . The same cover art image featuring ...

'' series.

Gameplay

''Chessmaster 8000'' runs on a new

chess engine In computer chess, a chess engine is a computer program that analyzes chess or List of chess variants, chess variant positions, and generates a move or list of moves that it regards as strongest. A chess software engine, engine is usually a Front ...

. It is compatible with any publicly available

XBoard XBoard is a graphical user interface chessboard for chess engines under the X Window System. It is developed and maintained as free software by the GNU project. WinBoard is a port of XBoard to run natively on Microsoft Windows. Overview Original ...

engine which can be imported to the game to customize the engine. A new interface change is the addition of Natural Language. It gives verbal cues and text instructions when for example making an illegal move.

Josh Waitzkin Joshua Waitzkin (born December 4, 1976) is an American former chess player, martial arts world champion, and author. As a child, he was recognized as a prodigy, and won the U.S. Junior Chess championship in 1993 and 1994. The film ''Searching ...

returns to the game and narrates a new endgame course. Bruce Pandolfini designed a new feature for the game called Match the Masters where the game asks a multiple choice question to predict a move in a historic Grandmaster game. The graphics have been upgraded to 16-bit color. The game's tutorials and database have been updated and expanded, and new personalities added to the game. Network multiplayer options are

LAN Lan or LAN may refer to: Science and technology * Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics * Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in space * ...

, modem, and

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...

. Internet play, ''Chessmaster Live'', is through

MPlayer.com Mplayer, referred to as Mplayer.com by 1998, was a free online computer games, PC gaming service and community that operated from late 1996 until early 2001. The service at its peak was host to a community of more than 20 million visitors each m ...

service.

Matchmaking Matchmaking is the process of pairing two or more people together, usually for the purpose of marriage, in which case the intermediary or matchmaker is also known as a marriage broker. Matchmaking may be done as a profession for a fee or it may ...

was removed from internet play.

Reception

''Chessmaster 8000'' received an aggregated score of 80 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' said the internet play is worse than in previous installments. They concluded that " you're looking to improve your chess game, Chessmaster 8000 is hands-down the best choice out there. But once you sharpen your skills, you'll probably wind up turning to some other outlet for competing with human players." ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' said: "I loved the last game and I love this one. But if you've already got the last game, the few additions you get in 8000 might not be worth it." ''

Computer Games Magazine ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...

'' summarized: " ..overall you get the feeling that the game was rushed to market. It's still the best mass market chess game you can buy at your local software shop, but with a few bugs squashed and the fuller featured online features of last years' version revived, it could be a much better program." ''

AllGame RhythmOne , a subsidiary of Nexxen, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went public on the Alternative Investment Market, ...

'' concluded: "Due to its incredible content and easy interface, the game is one of the best of its kind on the market for both casual and professional players." ''

Gry-Online ''Gry-Online'' is a group of Polish websites devoted to computer games and electronic entertainment. Founded by Mariusz Klamra, Wojciech Antonowicz and Rafał Swaczyna, the group has grown to include GRYOnline.pl, TVGry.pl, Gameplay.pl, and Game ...

'' gave a positive review but recommended to those with a limited budget the free ''

Crafty Crafty is a chess program written by UAB professor Robert Hyatt, with development and assistance from Michael Byrne, Tracy Riegle, and Peter Skinner. It is derived from Cray Blitz, winner of the 1983 and 1986 World Computer Chess Championshi ...

'', or to those who are more serious '' Fritz 6'' supplemented with ChessBase 8.0.

References

External links

* (archived) * {{Chessmaster 2000 video games Chess software Chessmaster Mattel Interactive games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer online games Video game sequels Video games developed in the United States Windows games Windows-only games