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<title><![CDATA[Grand Master Chess  comments:]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/</link>
<description><![CDATA[free licensed software daily]]></description>
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<lastBuildDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2009 04:32:33 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Carol]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-101043</link>
<description><![CDATA[I forgot to mention major BUG #6:
The "hints" are sometimes the WORST POSSIBLE MOVES. Why give a "hint" that ends in disaster? Fortunately, "hints" can be turned off and that's what I did for my chess student ... and my student has a mentor to tell him that you don't move your queen into a triple-fork position for any reason whatsoever.  YES, this is true!!!

I want to add that other than this application, everything else I've downloaded from game.giveawayoftheday.com has been in the very good to GREAT range! THANKS!!]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:32:33 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-101043</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carol]]></dc:creator>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: Carol]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-101042</link>
<description><![CDATA[PLEASE... DON'T COMMENT UNLESS YOU'VE ACTUALLY USED THE PROGRAM FOR A WHILE.

Have any of the people making positive comments actually used this program???  This is one of the buggiest and user UNfriendly programs I've ever seen, and I've been writing and using software since the 1970s!!!

Many of the comments read like "a good indicator is to look at the size of the program, and as you can see this bad boy comes in at a 178MB just for the installation!" NOPE - SIZE IS NOT AN INDICATION OF ANYTHING! I've rewritten applications that were more than 1MB, and ended up providing a BETTER application with more features and with a size of 400K. SIZE can be BAD.

Other comments say something like "looks good;" "It is only 177mb retard lol…. IT’S FREE wow…. it looks awesome;" "looks nice;" "it's free;" etc., etc.  WHY NOT TRY IT FIRST, THEN MAKE A COMMENT?

The major problems are:
1) Unbelievably cumbersome user interface. Did they actually try it I wonder???
2) "Levels" do not correspond to anything (other than the "monkey" level were the moves are pseudorandom. Perhaps it's a database problem.
3) Freezes up on certain moves. Serious debugging REQUIRED!
4) ACTUALLY A NICE display in 2-D display showing the possible moves of each piece for a beginner ... BUT ... program ALWAYS resigns much sooner than a human would. IN FACT, it resigned early in a game with a "chess beginner" although the computer could have easily won the game in three or four moves (I've been playing 40 years and I know what I saw). Besides, you NEVER "resign" when teaching chess to a beginner. So although this is set up as a GREAT learning tool, it doesn't follow through and FAILS.
5) The 3-D view is next to worthless.

My chess student ended up playing Mr. Smoozles and VEGA ... Vega is a GREAT game that requires a lot of skill - maybe too much - and that's probably why it has a low rating.]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:22:39 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-101042</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carol]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: John Region]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98792</link>
<description><![CDATA[I just wanted to thank you for the Chess Game of last week. Downloaded and worked real well in five of my computers in the house. I have to tell you I,m really enjoying them... John R. using XP and Vista]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:37:31 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98792</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[John Region]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: Mad Ollie]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98572</link>
<description><![CDATA[@GrayKnight: 

"Too long a splash-screen" - You can turn it off in the Preferences.

"Takes over the entire screen" - You can run the game in windowed mode (Visual FX).

:)]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:33:27 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98572</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mad Ollie]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: GrayKnight]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98350</link>
<description><![CDATA[#51  I remember such a game for the Amiga (How many?  I'm dating myself...) years ago.  I seem to recall "BattleChess" as the name, too...


#63  Oh, yes!  That annoying voice.  I forgot to list that as my dis-satisfaction (4) because, fortunately, I found the option (open "Sound Effects" in the lower set of menu items) that will turn the stooopid thing off.

#50 says &gt;  the game cheats, by making illegal moves to capture pieces, and will not allow you to use your king to kill pieces, but will use it’s king to kill.

#66 says they forgot to include the en passant rule


Those last two, if true (I haven't confirmed), would constitute *SERIOUS* deficiencies in the main purpose of the game, in my opinion.  All in all, seems to be showing some of the earmarks of a Beta-test-stage program.

Well, maybe in the next rev...]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:28:06 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98350</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[GrayKnight]]></dc:creator>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: Hadron]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98349</link>
<description><![CDATA[I managed to get the huge file downloaded but the key checking component would not connect to the GiveAwayoftheday server. I even took the huge risk of disabling everything and it still would not connect.
I probably could say the Chess software was fine (accept I couldn't get it opened) but the GOTD key thing blows.]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:19:47 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98349</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Hadron]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: GrayKnight]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98346</link>
<description><![CDATA[I only tested it so far in single-player mode.  Gives me a good, tough game (your mileage may vary...)  Pretty "skins", though leaves me hankering for more (sculpted pieces, for instance).

A few dis-satisfactions:  (1)  Too long a splash-screen (though, in all fairness, it lets you skip it by hitting "Escape").  I don't like programs that get too self-important, as though they're the only thing I'd ever want to use my computer for.

(2)  Takes over the entire screen.  Does not have -- or at least, I have not found -- a way to Minimize (to do, say, some real work in between moves) or resize.  Falls in the "self-important" category.

(3)  SIGNIFICANT PROGRAM BUG:  When you try to "UNDO" a move.  Sometimes it works okay, but if you looked cross-eyed at it when hitting UNDO, or you double-clicked it, or your timing was off or the phase of the moon was out of sync, the program completely hangs and the only way out of it is to end it w/ Task Mangler.

Existence of (3) suggests there might be other programming holes I haven't found simply because I haven't played it very much, but that's just conjecture on my part, not an observation.]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:56:02 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98346</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[GrayKnight]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: TK]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98334</link>
<description><![CDATA[78# yes, effectively these games that just unpack as a sub folder of C:\games are in essence portable programs. If you have enough space on your USB thumb drive and it is fast enough to read the large files some of the games have without introducing an unplesant delay it isolates the giveaway from system crashes and upgrades.]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:33:43 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98334</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[TK]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: Mad Ollie]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98314</link>
<description><![CDATA[Oh my... You can't uninstall this game because (like many others) it hasn't been installed in the first place. 
A game that is only unpacked into a folder just doesn't have to be uninstalled. Simply delete the folder it's been unpacked into, and voila - it's gone.

(Remember this for future Merscom games - and others...)]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:04:14 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98314</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mad Ollie]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: Dryss]]></title>
<link>https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98313</link>
<description><![CDATA[has a level around 1900-2000 fide i would say. Not much for a chess program today. 
Takes also too much place.
But still great for beginners.]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:56:48 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/grand-master-chess-merscom/#comment-98313</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dryss]]></dc:creator>
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