In 1989, Computer Gaming World found Chessmaster 2100's features 'the clear winners' over Sargon 4, in 1992 reported that Chessmaster 3000 had added 'a lot' to its predecessors, with new tutorial features and a variety of computer opponents making the game 'a truly impressive sequel', and in 1994 approved of Chessmaster 4000 Turbo's new AI 'personalities' based on historical chess players. The series surpassed 5 million units in sales by 2002, making it the highest-selling computer chess series ever at the time. The combined sales of the Chessmaster series had reached 1 million copies by September 1996.

The Stanley chimpanzee personality inspired the Stanley Random Chess Variant. In Chessmaster 10th Edition, the creation of new personalities has been made easier than before. The personality feature has inspired many amateur computer chess enthusiasts to attempt to find more optimum personalities. Chessmaster 9000, for example, features over 150 different personalities ranging from International Grandmaster strength down to Stanley, a chimpanzee who, in most situations, plays completely random moves. Individual piece values can also be adjusted. The King engine allows users to create new playing styles, also called 'personalities', by manipulating several dozen different settings, such as King Safety, Pawn Weakness, Randomness, Mobility and others. CCRL places it 84th on its February 2017 list. The latest version, Chessmaster 11th Edition, was released in 2007, and has lagged behind more current chess engines.

As of May 2008, Chessmaster 9000 remains the most recent version rated by the SSDF. If multiple versions of other engines are stripped out of their list, Chessmaster 9000 ranks 14th among all engines tested. The second edition had an engine designed by Kate and Dan Spracklen of Sargon fame.Īccording to the September 2009 Swedish Chess Computer Association (SSDF) rating list, Chessmaster 9000 has an estimated Elo rating of 2718 on an Athlon-1200 PC. It was introduced in Chessmaster 4000 the first edition featured a chess engine written by David Kittinger, who went on to develop the engines for Interplay's USCF Chess, WChess for the German company Millennium 2000, and Sierra Entertainment's Power Chess, Majestic Chess and Disney's Aladdin Chess Adventures. The Chessmaster chess engine is called The King, written by Johan de Koning of the Netherlands.

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