Grab it whilst it's free.
As Of March 1st, Stress Chess is changing to a one-off purchase model.
The goal with this is to cover adding some accessibility features. The cost will be as low as possible to manage the new features.
Anyone who has already played the game by the end of February will get to keep their copy as a thanks for playing it. So if you have any friends who haven't played it yet, now is the time to remind them.
If there are any concerns or queries, please let me know.
If you can get hold of an old Ubisoft game called Chessmaster. Version 11 was the last before they abandoned it. It includes phenomenal and entertaining tutorials including a brilliant series by Josh Waitzkin.
Thanks for the recommendation.
abandoned it
I see what you did there.
Found it at MyAbandonware.
https://www.myabandonware.com/game/chessmaster-grandmaster-e…
I love the comments on that site 🤣
"Just so you know every single thing I've seen on this website has comments about it giving them viruses"
"I came to thank you for the Trojan of the file, which obviously is not the game"
"What the hell can be 3.6 GB in a chess program?! XD "
compared to a structured learning program from chessfactor.com?
When did Chessfactor and more structured programs come into this discussion?
Chessmaster is an awesome program for a casual intermediate player, or a beginner. It's not going to replace every other training program out there. What the Chessmaster tutorials are likely to do is keep players engaged, interested and entertained while improving their chess, so they're less likely to drop it. If you're after hard work and improving at a competitive level having already tackled openings, tactics and strategy you might not learn as much. If you've read dozens of chess books, you might get nothing out of this. But that's not most people. Most people know how the pieces move and if you're lucky they may have some vague recollection of a handful of tactics they learnt once, long ago. For those people Chessmaster tutorials all the way.
@syousef: Chessfactor has been mentioned many times as I been wanting to look for a good tutorial to learn from… found on Reddit haha. I think I am also the far latter person. I know how pieces move and one handful few of strategies. I guess I am still a beginner. My relationship with chess is back and forth. Sometimes I enjoy it for some and sometimes I want to learn more tactics. I am guessing this playlist is from chessmaster 11?
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1TfIrAqsOzcNSHV00pmvNusN…
@RQNinja: I'm not going to watch it to verify but it does look like they're the tutorials. But in game they're interactive. You won't get nearly as much out of watching the videos. You'd need to set up each chess board and try following along, which would get exhausting when it waits for you to try a move. And you won't get the feedback you'd get in game.
There are also 2 other lecture series in the game but the Josh Waitzkin series is by far the entertaining and informative if you're at the level they target.
@syousef: Thanks for your awesome. Love this ozbargain expertise community. Are you still playing chess competitively?
@syousef: unfortunately the tutorials are not accessible on windows 10. but i do have a windows 7 machine. after tutorials, where do i put my learnings to practise? into chess.com?
@RQNinja: Just confirmed tutorials working on Windows 10. Both Chessmaster 10 and Chessmaster 11/Grandmaster work fine as I have both installed on my main machine. Make sure you have the latest patches installed and use DirectX not OpenGL.
Lichess has more free content and some great analysis features. Chess.com is more popular though. Then there's niche ones like Gameknot. Or you could find a local club. Or just play against Chessmaster personalities. Really up to you how much time and effort you want to put in and how seriously you want to take it. If you get serious you should know in advance that people generally don't get to the really advanced levels unless they start young and of course even then most don't get great. Personally I treat chess as a little bit of fun and mental excercise, but have no interest in serious study.
@syousef: "Make sure you have the latest patches installed and use DirectX not OpenGL."
Running on Windows 10 Pro and have 1.02 patch. I am still not able to navigate the menu. Where to untick or tick DirectX / OpenGL? I tried to force it through shortcut tab commands but still not working.
@RQNinja: Did you install DirectX 9 when prompted? Perhaps you have an unsupported graphics card? I've never had a problem with this.
@syousef: I have installed dx9 and it does support my gtx1080 card. Yeah so far I can't access the top menus and click the tutorials in the academy. oh well. may i have to run a win7 virtual machine.
Thanks OP!
Lichess.org is free and has lots of lessons and various apps including a web based GUI.
The analysis on Lichess is awesome too.
![[PC, Steam] Free - Stress Chess @ Steam](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/38/828838.jpg?h=f4122834)
I just learnt to play via Chess.com.
Highly recommended. Great tutorials.