:attn: :attn: :attn:
Managed to run a Mental Ray render with Maya closed:
' "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya8.5\bin\Render.exe" -r mr D:\Benny's\Maya\Projects\Chess\Figures5.mb '

I tried this before without the quotes... my brother told me today that I should put the .exe address in quotes and it worked :attn:
Now I just need to wait and see what comes out

Here's an update:

Improved the murky glass...
I'll improve the lighting and do another test render.
This time no background...

Edit: this time the render works fine, though I had to look for the output file for a pretty long time. Found it under 'My Documents\maya\projects\images\...'
also found other cool forgotten stuff... ( see first post thread in members lounge)

Benny