Patrick wrote:

I do all my chess playing against a computer AI.

I prefer playing humans. A simple "Hello, good luck!", "Good game.",
and a chat about the game afterwards makes it more entertaining. To
each their own.

Just recently I bought Chessmaster 9000, because I heard that it has a
"chess academy" that's about as good as CM 10th. Indeed, I've been

A wise choice.

I loaded a "famous game" from the CM library and read through it, but
the annotations are so sparse that I didn't learn much from it.
guess I should try having CM analyze the game first, after which there
should be annotations for more of the moves.

Watching grandmaster games is entertaining and instructive, but a
computer should not be your primary source for annotations. Computers
are tactical by nature--they easily spot hanging pieces and knight
forks, which decide many beginner-level games.

However, they are clueless at evaluating positional characteristics
such as a lead in space or development, pawn structures, etc. If you
want good annotated games, I recommend Chernev's Logical Chess: Move by
Move or Nunn's Understanding Chess: Move by Move.

Reading through Chernin-Van Der Wiel, 1997 was funny. Nunn tells me
it's completely won, the computer says it's even! A few moves later,
the computer comes to its senses.

always go back to 2D.

On the computer, I also prefer a simple 2D board.

But I'm wondering what more I can do to get the most out of CM 9000

Well, it offers a variety of computerized opponents and many tutorials
/ quizzes. What else are you looking for?

Another big question right now is time controls. In tournament mode
(for rated games), it doesn't seem possible to have separate time
controls. I don't want to sit and wait a long time for the computer to
make its move, but I don't want to be under time pressure myself either
(I blunder enough without having to worry about that).

If you want different (unfair) time controls, you can play in the game
room instead of the tournament room. Those won't affect your rating.

You say you "sit and wait" while the computer makes it move. Imagine
that the computer's time is extra time for you to consider the
position, just like in a real tournament game.

I prefer 15 minutes + 10 second increment. It's a good compromise for
the busy between playing blitz and playing long games.

--Patrick