Hello forum I'm EternallyIgnorant. I chose the name to remind myself that no matter how much a person knows they can always know far far more. And most of what people believe is true is in fact wrong. I love chess.

There, introduction done with. I am a noob to this specific forum but not a noob to forums in general. I have some noobish questions, so I figured best to put them all in one place.

The computer players in Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition have ratings. What are those ratings based off of(ELO, etc), if anything and how accurate are they? Basically I am curious how good I am. Or rather, how badly I suck. If I am best matched against a computer play on Chessmaster around 1300-1400 could anyone take a guess at what my rating would be in a real rating system (assuming the CM:GME rating system is inaccurate) Or a simple way to get a guesstimate?

Second question. Looking at the forums, I saw the "Thats it I quit" thread, and the ensuing discussion (hard to miss I suppose) And I saw that there were previously links to instructional videos. Don't want to jump into the middle of a flame war I know nothing about, so Ill just ask if someone has any of those links still, or if anyone could point me in the direction of instructional videos. I loved the videos on Chessmaster, haven't watched them all yet as I only recently ought the game. Looked around some on line for free videos worth watching and haven't had much luck. Saw a few youtube channels with OK videos thats about it.

I don't expect responses and wouldnt take them for granted, but any helpful comments are much appreciated. Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

Welcome!

The ratings are ELO based -- read this for details. They seem to be pretty accurate. However, there are two caveats:

1. During the first 20 games, your rating is provisional, and will fluctuate quite a bit, as Chessmaster is gathering data about your playing style. After 20 games, your rating will level off and begin to accurately reflect your playing strength.

2. There is a current bug in the ratings. When you loose, your rating will fall, but sometimes when you win or draw, your rating will not increase.

As to the thread you read, it's a sad thing. In a nutshell, our moderator resigned because he felt unappreciated due to the fact that some members insulted him. Ubisoft is in the process of choosing a new moderator, but it's taking some time.

I'm working on trying to recover the links to the videos. If I am successful, I will repost them.

Again, welcome. It's nice to see new people here.

i have all the videos.. if someone can find a reliable website to host them, i wouldn't mind uploading them.... however, i don't want to upload them more than once, so i'm not sure if rapidshare.com is the answer, as the files get deleted after a period of inactivity.

Both of those replies are incredibly helpful, thanks much.

quote:

Originally posted by Tomski1981:
i have all the videos.. if someone can find a reliable website to host them, i wouldn't mind uploading them.... however, i don't want to upload them more than once, so i'm not sure if rapidshare.com is the answer, as the files get deleted after a period of inactivity.

Approximately:
How long are the videos?
How many videos are there?
How large are the files in question separately? and altogether?

I'm at a disadvantage here, not seeing them the first time around. My first suggestion would be a torrent site but since not everyone knows how to use it, the usefulness decreases tremendously. (on the other hand it's easy to figure out)

here they are, someone better and nicer and more patient than me beat me to it:

Chess.FM Video Lectures

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KHollister,

Thank you both KHollister, Tomski1981, and of course all of the people who made the videos originally.