Hey guys, I've only been playing chess seriously for like 8-9 months. My rating differs according to yahoo and chessmaster 10000. On chessmaster's rating exam I scored on average of about 1375. I was just wondering if playing computers is bad for your game or helpful? Im currently a college student so I don't have to much time to play many people with the exception of maybe twice a month downtown at the mall. So I mostly play chessmaster or fritz. But how strong does Chessmaster play? I have Chessmaster 10000 and didn't think of this until I decided to play a 1900+ player and almost won, and drew the game. Shouldn't have chessmaster won with my rating?that I've beaten fritz about twice. Oh let me remind you that when I took the rating exam I didn't spend a lot of time choosing the moves that I was quizzed on. So I guess, I'm wondering how good am I? am I better than what I think. Is playing chess computers not as good as playing people? and If I succeed against these programs, why is it I have a harder time playing people? psychological problems I believe. Some people down there aren't too good and I know Im better, but when I get on the board myself it's like Im blind and don't see the common threats I normally do when am at home.

It's not just a question of strength, but also style. Even against other human players, I encounter that. You get used to countering certain types of moves by certain players, so you're good against them, but then other players might give you problems.

For instance, there's one guy I play regularly at a local club who I always beat, even though his rating is slightly higher than mine. When we both play against other opponents, he's often surprised that I lose against an opponent that he wins against, because he thinks I'm better than he is. It's just that he can't handle my style of play (or I can handle his easily?), but his style of play might be better suited to playing against the guy whose style is tougher for me.

With computer opponents, this is often even more pronounced. They tend to be very strong tactically, but weaker in just about every other area, especially endgames. If you're good at endgames, and you avoid open, tactical games, then you're likely to do better against them than if you go into wild tactical positions, regardless of overall strength. That probably doesn't apply to the strongest settings of these programs, where you'd have to be a master (at least) to beat them, but I know in the older versions of ChessMaster that I've played, it definitely applied to the lower rated computer personalities.

I do think you should practice more against humans than computers. If you don't have time to go to the local club, at least play online against humans at FICS (freechess.org) or something. That will give you more realistic games for preparing to play against people than just practicing against computers.

--Fromper

There are times CM10 personalities play in a very human fashion. Or even more human