Re: Advice request--classic games

On 13 Sep 2006 08:04:28 -0700, Patrick wrote:

I've had several versions of Chessmaster, but only my last one (5500)
offered much in the way of mentored play.

The latest one, Chessmaster 10th Edition, comes with a very complete
"academy". It features hours and hours of interactive lessons, both for
adults and kids (different ones), tutorials for beginner and advanced play,
and mentored games with actually useful explanations. In regard to chess,
it's your best bet. There's also Majesty Chess, a mix of a RPG and chess,
where you learn chess by doing quests. It's a really cute program and uses
the (strong) Kings engine.

Go is trickier. I think I have (purchased) copies of all commercial Go
playing programs (available in the West), and none of them really has any
sort of meaningful "mentored play". There is a Windows version of MFoG,
too. My advice here would be to fall back on a book. Janice Kim's "Learn to
play Go" series is excellent and gentle. Paired with the "Graded Go
Problems for Beginners" books, you'd have enough material for quite some
time. Go is best learned by playing against people who are a few stones
stronger than you, though.

M.
.