In the middle of a chess game I get a message,
Microsoft has developed a problem and has to shut dowm and gives a choice sedn or not send.

How about providing some detailed information (i.e., operating system, hardware specifications, if you've installed the appropriate patches, etc.)?

I got a similar error and I was two moves away from checkmate!!!

Sometimes it will just not allow me to make a move and the pieces (clash) just sit there checking their weapons.

Specs:

Vista Home (32 bit)

Intel Celeron M 1.73 GHZ

2GB memory

I have installed the patches.

Okay, you installed the patches for Chessmaster... do you have the latest service packs and patches for Windows installed, as well as current drivers for your video card, etc.?

Could you also provide the message you received? Saying "I got a similar error" doesn't help much.

Yes, I have all of my updates installed fromn MS as well as HP.

Unfortunately I was so annoyed at the program closing when I was just about to win, I do not have the exact wording of the message.

It was akin to "This progam has experinced an error and needs to shut down". I believe there was something about being notified when a solution was found.
That was the weird thing, it didn't tell me anything of use, just that it needed to shut down.

Don't you just love Microsoft's error messages?

Here's some recommendations if you routinely have problems running Chessmaster:

• Make sure you run as few programs as possible while playing Chessmaster. The more background programs you have loaded in Windows, the less processing power your system will have to make moves within the game.
  
• Use as few child windows as possible. Some of the windows that open within the game can take up a decent amount of CPU time due to either their visual updates or because they might cause a mentor engine instance to be launched.
  
• Do not activate the blunder alert feature in the Training Mode. This feature will also launch a mentor engine instance to watch your game.
  
• Do not switch to other game modes, or access other game features or dialogs while running a game, and try to avoid adjusting game settings in the middle of the game. Some of these features/dialogs will actually restart any chess engines that may be associated with the current game, causing that memory that these engines has allocated to be destroyed.
  
• In the "Piece Movement" tab of the Sound dialog, select "No Sounds." This will prevent the program from taking up a significant portion of time queuing up and playing piece movement sounds.
  
• Change the priority of the engine. Go to the Preferences menu and select 'Engine'. From there you can adjust the resources of the Chess Engine and Blunder Alert Threshold, as well as set the priority of the Chess Engine and Blunder Alert.
  

I'll give those a try.

Thanks!!