If I was going to purchase a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM chess game, which one would you recommend? I already have Battlechess off of here and play chess on chess.com on rare occasions, but I wouldn't mind a bonified chess program in disc form, or as a digital download.

Note: I've never actually owned or played Chessmaster or series similiar >.> ....

I have more experience with the good ol' tabletop version :D (speaking of, if you want to play and your near Concord (New Hampshire) let me know).

Chess Titans is pretty dumb actually. Chessmaster is the way to go. Even older versions of Chessmaster (like 5500 and up) were of a tremendous playing strength and great tutorials. Battle Chess and Combat Chess are nice for a time, but the animations tend to be annoying after a while. Unfortunately gog pulled Chessmaster 9000 a while ago, that would've been a very good game to play.

Ouch.. Well, I play Chess Titans just for simple fun and a bit of thinking. I guess I am not really suited for real chess game :D

Perhaps sometimes I'll take a look at the game you mention..

This thread is maybe helpful to you, there you will find some interesting suggestions. In short: Fritz seems the most present and active chess series today, you can get the latest and a cheaper older one drm-free from gamersgate. Alternatively you can build your own chess game using the free GUI in combination with a [url=http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/]chess engine. Some engines are also for free, which means you get a free chess game.

Edit: Mmh, somewhere on the forum must be another thread about chess games, I miss some suggestions/postings in my linked one. As example someone mentioned a genre-mix between chess and rpg (not Achron!), something like Puzzle Quest with chess.

There's this recent thread for more ideas. I posted in it myself.

My favorite chess program was the chess engine Junior. Most "human-like," swashbuckling, attacking, sacrificed material for such nebulous things as initiative and "play".

The best chess programs have a mode of play where you can get a beatable but still challenging A.I. opponent (In Junior and other Chessbase engines' case it was "sparring" mode). Also features that elevate it beyond simply "another computer chess" program.

I would have liked a "career mode" in a computer chess game (the way there's one in many sport sims) that took you from impoverished novice playing in local, no-name basement chess tournaments to big national events with capacious prize funds, with randomized draws and ladders of opponents. Plus maybe an under-the-table element in your player's "career," like playing chess for money in parks and seedy billiard halls. To my knowledge this sort of role-playing narrative has never been attempted in a computer chess game; I think it could be engaging if done right.