''Chessmaster 9000'' is a 2002 chess video game developed and published by

Ubi Soft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Anno (video game series), Anno'', ' ...

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. The game was announced on July 12, 2002. Grandmaster

Larry Christiansen Larry Mark Christiansen (born June 27, 1956) is an American chess player of Danish ancestry. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1977. Christiansen was the U.S. champion in 1980, 1983, and 2002. He competed in the FIDE World Champ ...

played four matches against the game in September 2002. He won the first match, lost the next two, and match four was a draw.

Gameplay

The game comes with a downloadable endgame database generator that uses a proprietary database format, called FEG (Final Endgame Generator). The series on the PC features for the first time true 3D boards that can be rotated and zoomed in and out. Over 60 chess sets and boards have been added to the game.

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 with a new eight-part course, "The Psychology of Competition". There's several new tutorials: "follow the game", "memorize the position", a "blunder alert" feature, and an endgame quiz authored by Grandmaster Larry Evans. It consists of 50 endgame positions where the player is asked to provide the next best move for a given side by a multiple-choice question. Other new features added are

blindfold chess Blindfold chess, also known as ''sans voir'', is a form of chess play wherein the players do not see the positions of the pieces and do not touch them. This forces players to maintain a mental model of the positions of the pieces. Moves are commun ...

, hidden opponents and random opponent. Network multiplayer is either through the internet or

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 * ...

. The internet play, ''Chessmaster Live'', is using ubi.com instead of

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 ...

Reception

''Chessmaster 9000'' received generally positive reviews from critics. ''

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 that "no other product delivers the ease of use and instructional value of Chessmaster 9000." ''

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 ...

'' concluded: "In short, if you've got

8000 8000 may refer to: In general * 8000 (number) * A.D. 8000, a year in the 8th millennium CE * 8000 BCE, a year in the 8th millennium BC * A.D. 8000s, a decade, century, millennium of the 9th millennium CE * 8000s BCE, a decade, century, millennium o ...

and can do without the in-game multiplayer modes, then you can just as easily do without 9000. If you don't own 8000 and have a love for chess, there's no reason not to own the latest version of the greatest series." ''

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1999 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for Quake, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

'' said that " ..Chessmaster 9000 is the perfect product for new players and veterans alike." ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'' called the game " powerful learning tool for sure, but the AI's lack of subtlety is geared more toward the already-accomplished player." ''

Macworld ''Macworld'' is a digital magazine and website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG. History ''Macworld'' was founded by David Bunnell and Cheryl Woodard (publishers) and Andrew Fl ...

'' called it "the best chess game you can buy for the Mac".

References

External links

Official website
(archived) * {{Chessmaster 2002 video games Chess software Chessmaster Feral Interactive games MacOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer online games Ubisoft games Video game sequels Windows games