Chessmaster

Chessmaster is a series of chess-playing computer games. It is made by Ubisoft. It is the best-selling chess franchise in history, with more than five million games sold as of 2002.[2] The first version of the game, Chessmaster 2000, was released in 1986. This first version and the next one, Chessmaster 2100, were produced by the now-defunct Software Toolworks company.

Chessmaster
GenresChess
DevelopersUbisoft Bucharest
Zonic Limited (Mac OS X)
PublishersUbisoft
Feral Interactive (Mac OS X)[1]
PlatformsMS Windows, MS-DOS, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, PlayStation, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2
Original release1986–2007

The Chessmaster chess engine is called "The King". It is written by Johan de Koning from the Netherlands. It was introduced in Chessmaster 4000. Earlier releases had a chess engine written by David Kittinger. One version of the game, Chessmaster 9000, defeated Larry Christiansen, a well-known American chess grandmaster and former multiple U.S. champion.[3]

Timeline

  • 1986-88: The Chessmaster series started with Chessmaster 2000 by The Software Toolworks. It was published for Amiga, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Macintosh and DOS on a 3.5 disk in February 1988.
  • 1988: Chessmaster 2100 was published for the Apple IIGS.
  • 1989: Chessmaster 2100 was published for DOS.
  • 1990: The Chessmaster was published for the NES.
  • 1991: The Chessmaster was published for the SNES.
  • 1991: Chessmaster 3000 was published for DOS, Windows 3.x.
  • 1993: Chessmaster 4000 Turbo was published for Windows 3.x.
  • 1995: Chessmaster 4000 was published for Windows 95.
  • 1995: Chessmaster 3D for PlayStation had the Chessmaster 4000 engine.[4]
  • 1996: Chessmaster 5000 was published for Windows 95.
  • 1997: Chessmaster 5500 was published for Windows 95.
  • 1998: Chessmaster 6000 was published for Windows 95 and Windows 98.
  • 1999: Chessmaster 7000 was published for Windows 98 and Chessmaster II was published for PlayStation.[5]
  • 2000: Chessmaster 8000 was published for Windows 98.
  • 2002: Chessmaster 9000 was published for Windows 98/ME/XP
  • 2004: Chessmaster 10th Edition was published for Windows XP.
  • 2007: The current version, Chessmaster XI, was released for PC (titled Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition) and Nintendo DS (titled Chessmaster: The Art of Learning) on 30 October.

Chessmaster Media

References

  1. "Pawn, anyone? | Feral News".
  2. Chessmaster 9000 Review
  3. "Chessmaster 9000 Defeats Reigning US Chess Champion Larry Christiansen; Chessmaster Wins Four Game Match 2.5 to 1.5 Via Live Internet Broadcast on ChessClub.com". Business Wire. 1 October 2002. Archived from the original on 15 July 2012. https://archive.today/20120715094921/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2002_Oct_1/ai_92289535/. Retrieved 2 July 2013. 
  4. "Chessmaster 3d Review". Archived from the original on 2010-11-05. Retrieved 2013-07-02.
  5. Chessmaster II at GameFAQs. Accessed March 24, 2013.

Other websites