Chessmaster Upgrades

Chessmaster 8000 Version 1.0.4 Upgrade  1.2MB - For owners of the Chessmaster 8000 v1.0.0, v1.0.1, v1.0.2 and v1.0.3. Read the Chessmaster 8000 Faq's.

Chessmaster 7000 Version 1.0.6  Upgrade  476k -US & European Versions Read the Chessmaster 7000 Faq's.

Chessmaster 6000 Version 1.0.3  Upgrade  998k -Please note this upgrade is for the (US) PC version of Chessmaster 6000 only. You can tell if you have the UK version if you have no MPlayer multiplayer support and no Internet offer from AT&T.

Chessmaster 5500 Version 1.1.0  Upgrade  750k -For Chessmaster 5500 owners of version 1.0.0. Read the Chessmaster 5500 Faq's.

Chessmaster 5000 Version 1.1.2  Upgrade  2.2MB -For Chessmaster 5000 owners of version 1.0.0. and 1.0.1. Read the Chessmaster 5000 Faq's.

The patch for Chessmaster 5000 only supports Windows 95. Users who have Windows 98 cannot upgrade Chessmaster 5000.

Chessmaster Theme Kit For Windows

The Official Chessmaster Theme is here! It includes Chessmaster wallpaper, sounds, startup/shutdown screens and more! If you have the Microsoft ™Plus! Pack you will get a few extras (animated cursors and new icons). All of this is done through a user-friendly installation. This is the perfect companion for every Chess enthusiast! (1.4mb)

New Chessmaster Opening Books

The Chessmaster development team has created several dozen new opening books that are each dedicated to a specific opening. Have you ever wanted to force Chessmaster to play the Sicilian Dragon or the Nimzo-Indian? Now you can! Just download these official Chessmaster Opening Books  (3.2 MB) and follow these directions.

After downloading this file, you will need to open it with WinZip (or any program that can read files in the WinZip format). You can then "extract" all of the opening books to the "Opening Books" subfolder of your Chessmaster folder. Example:

If you installed Chessmaster 8000 to "C:\Program Files\Chessmaster 8000" then you should extract these files into "C:\Program Files\Chessmaster 8000\Opening Books"

These books will not work unless they have been extracted into an "Opening Books" subfolder.

These books cannot be used in any version of Chessmaster before Chessmaster 5000.

To use these books, simply create a personality that uses one of them. You can also just modify one of the current personalities, such as the Chessmaster personality. Example:

In Chessmaster 8000, you want to create a version of the Chessmaster personality that only plays the Sicilian Defense opening. Start Chessmaster 8000 and go to the Game Room. Select "Game -> Set Up Personality". As a default, the Chessmaster personality is currently loaded. Press the "Select" button that is next to the name of the Opening Book file that this personality uses (which should be called "CM8000"). This brings up a dialog that allows you to select a different opening book. Select "Sicilian Defense.OBK", and press "OK". Since you cannot modify a personality that comes with Chessmaster, you will have to create a new personality. This personality will have all of the same settings as the original personality, with the exception of the newly selected opening book. Change the name of the personality to something appropriate, like "CM Sicilian", and press "Save". You will now be able to use this personality just like any other personality in the game.

Remember, in the "Select Personality" dialog, all "Custom" and "XBoard" personalities are at the bottom of the list. You can use the filters on the right side of the dialog to add/remove certain kinds of personalities, to make it easier to find the personalities that you have created.

Experiencing ODBC Problems

Early versions of Chessmaster use Microsoft's MDAC 1.0 (Micosoft Data Access Components) for installing ODBC drivers. After Chessmaster shipped, a bug was reported with MDAC 1.0, it does not do version checking before installing ODBC drivers. A new version of MDAC released by Microsoft fixes this problem. For Win98 users, click here to go to Microsoft's support website. Download and run the file MDAC 2.1.2.4202.3. Be sure to select the appropriate version of MDAC; if you computer uses an Intel processor select MDAC for x86 otherwise select MDAC for Alpha processors.

For Win 95 users, before running MDAC (above) you must download and run DCOM95 for Windows 95. Click here to go to Microsoft's support website for DCOM95.

Please Note:

Due to changes of ownership, the offer of a "Free Chess Set" present in Chessmaster 6000 or a "Free Tutorial & New Chess Set" present in Chessmaster 5500 can no longer be honored. We apologize for the confusion and inconvenience.