Chessmaster
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| Genres | Chess |
|---|---|
| Developers |
Ubisoft Romania Zonic Limited (Mac OS X) |
| Publishers |
Ubisoft Feral Interactive (Mac OS X) |
| Platforms | MS Windows, MS-DOS, Game Boy, PlayStation Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2 |
| Original release | 1986–2007 |
Chessmaster is a chess-playing computer game series which is now owned and developed by Ubisoft. It is the best-selling chess franchise in history, with more than five million units sold as of 2002[update].
The Chessmaster chess engine is called The King, written by Johan de Koning of the Netherlands. It was introduced in Chessmaster 4000; earlier releases featured a chess engine written by David Kittinger.
According to the September 2009 Swedish Chess Computer Association (SSDF) rating list, Chessmaster 9000 has an estimated Elo rating of 2718 on an Athlon-1200 PC. If multiple versions of other engines are stripped out of their list, Chessmaster 9000 ranks 14th among all engines tested. As of May 2008[update], Chessmaster 9000 remains the most recent version rated by the SSDF.
The latest version, Chessmaster 11th Edition, was released in 2007, and has lagged behind more current chess engines. CCRL, places it 84th on its February 2017 list.
The King engine allows users to create new playing styles, also called "personalities", by manipulating several dozen different settings, such as King Safety, Pawn Weakness, Randomness, Mobility and others. Individual piece values can also be adjusted. Chessmaster 9000, for example, features over 150 different personalities ranging from International Grandmaster strength down to Stanley, a chimpanzee who, in most situations, plays completely random moves.
The personality feature has inspired many amateur computer chess enthusiasts to attempt to find more optimum personalities. In Chessmaster 10th Edition, the creation of new personalities has been made easier than before.
Chessmaster won the four-game match against Christiansen held in September 2002, by a score of 2½-1½. The Chessmaster program was operated by John Merlino, the Project Manager of Chessmaster at the time of the match. Four different personalities were used in the match, the first three of which were based on famous human Grandmasters: Alexander Alekhine, Bobby Fischer, and Mikhail Botvinnik. The final game of the match used the default "Chessmaster" personality. Christiansen won the first game, lost the second and third games, and the fourth game resulted in a draw.
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