Chessmaster 9000 gameplay hints
Stuck on Chessmaster 9000? Need advice on tactics? Wondering how to pull off something tricky? You might just find your answer here.
Links to gameplay help for Chessmaster 9000
Here are some useful chess strategy resources if you're new to the game:
Chess strategy at Wikipedia.com
Introduction to Chess at TheChessWebsite.com
Basic Chess strategy at ChessCentral.com
If I offer a draw to an opponent, I can still carry on playing after they accept the draw. Why?
Accepting a game as a draw updates both you and your opponent's rankings accordingly. You may then choose to carry on playing without resetting the board, however the result of the game will not affect your ranking, as the game will have already been officially marked as a draw.
How can I find out more information on the history of Chess?
Select the About Chessmaster 9000 option found in the Chessmaster 9000 menu. Click the History button and you will be presented with a scrolling timeline, chronicling the history of Chess.
How do I save Opening Comments and Variations in Opening Books?
Although some of the built-in Opening Books have Opening Comments and Variations, you cannot change the information in these text fields when editing Opening Books. You can only edit the ECO, Moves and Weight fields.
Some of the questions on Forks in the Classroom appear to have incorrect answers, are they?
There are two types of fork in Chess, one type involves attacking two pieces simultaneously (as explained on page 1 of the Forks tutorial), the other is where a fork is used to both attack a piece and gain a winning position (as explained on page 5 of the Forks tutorial). In questions where the piece moved does not attack two opponent pieces at the same time, then the move belongs to the second and more complex type of fork. Below are the page numbers and explanations for the moves that at first appear to be incorrect definitions of a fork.
Classroom -> Beginning -> Basic Chess Concepts -> Forks
Page 90
The fork by the Queen is between the Rook at b2 and the empty square on g7. It is a fork because black can only protect one of those two squares. Since moving the white Queen to g7 is checkmate, black must lose a Rook.
Page 118
Queen to h2. This move attacks the Rook on g1 and the square h8 which is checkmate.
Page 142-143
Bishop to d1 attacks Rook at a5 and square c3 which is checkmate. This one is slightly weaker as the black Rook can be moved to a3 to make the checkmate attempt in to a piece swap.
Page 147-148
Rook to d4 attacks the knight on d6 and the square d1 which is checkmate.
Page 149-150
Pawn to c7 attacks knight on b8 and square c8 which promotes to a queen to give checkmate.
Page 165-166
Rook to e3 attacks bishop at b3 and square a3 which is checkmate. Note that in this example they play out the other side of the fork where white loses the bishop rather than the game.
Page 167-168
Hmm - This move looks like a pawn sacrifice rather than a fork. The fork would be between the knight on g8 and the square h8 but the latter would not be checkmate. A good position for White as they will gain a piece but it is debatable to call it a fork. However, this is the same behaviour as the original PC version.
