Your online play is extremely poor, probably why not many hange out there. When there are people there often you can chat with them but your not able to challenge or accept challenges from them. Seems sad to have such great graffics and not be able to use your system online. I have the latest version on The Art of Learning Chessmaster grandmaster edition. I have a new laptop running vista.

Are you sure you understand the nuances of Online Play?

My guess is that your problem challenging and/or accepting challenges is because of a ratings difference -- you can't play a rated game if the difference in your ratings in more than 400 points.

If you read Page 31 - 46 in the User Manual (Page 18 - 26 of the PDF file), you might find solutions to some of your problems.

I logged in for the first time at 1200 rating. Tried to play against someone 1200 rated, both rated and unrated play, and when i chose to join the game nothing happened. There is definately a bug to be investigated there.