Fritz 11 for Windows (DVD)

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Product Features

• The Strongest Chess Player Program Ever - 80 ELO points stronger than Fritz 10
• World Champions Kramnik and Kasparov use Fritz - Shouldn't you?
• Over 13 hours of instructional video from Kasparov, Kramnik, Shirov and others.
• Includes a free one-year membership to PlayChess Internet Service - a $39.95 Value

Product Description

Product Description
Fritz 11 for PC, the program that for many years now has fascinated the chess world. Whether it was the 2006 match where it defeated World Champion Vladimir Kramnik or drew former World Champion Garry Kasparov in 2003, the pitting of wits of the strongest players on the planet against the world's finest chess playing program has generated unprecedented media attention and fired the imagination of people from all walks of life. "Man vs Machine" has become one of the great themes of our time. Don't be afraid! Fritz has a different side to its personality. The program can help you during the game, with sophisticated coaching functions, adjusting its playing strength to exactly match that of any opponent. It displays threats and plans, and provides full opening statistics. For beginners Fritz will explains moves and positions, or warn you of dangers and of errors you are committing. It has instructive training modules and amusing handicap levels. For club and tournament players Fritz has long become a trusted friend and indispensable advisor, helping them to study their games and find new opening ideas for their next tournaments. A database with more than a million games provides the basis for state-of-the-art analysis. Even Garry Kasparov uses Fritz on a regular basis. With its Media System Fritz brings the world's greatest players into your living room, in high resolution video and sound and a synchronized chessboard. Listen to over 13 hours of videos of Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Viktor Korchnoi, and Alexei Shirov while they explain important openings and ideas that lead to success. A host of other famous chess teachers provide instruction in more mundane subjects, like opening traps, middlegame strategy, or endgame skills. For those of you who have never played chess before there are elementary courses to teach you the basics in a matter of hours. Includes Free Subscription to PlayChess.com - A $39.95 Value

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Note: Gift-wrapping is not available for this item.
• ASIN: B000YI5BZC
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,577 in Sports & Outdoors (See Bestsellers in Sports & Outdoors)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Funny! There is a good part but there is also outright [...], December 7, 2007

By	Christopher Doten - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First of all, if you look at my buying record, you will see that I have bought a lot of Chessbase products (and for the most part happy), but this latest effort is a serious insult to the customer's intelligence. Basically they advertise 14 hours of video that for the most part turns out to be selling clips for other products, thus of little value for the customer. I am very offended.

Good part: new training function for calculation training*** two thumbs up, this is great and what gives it the two stars! I am confident that this will improve my rating!

Updated opening book and game database: nice but that is also available in many software.

Puzzles: you can get free good puzzles, just try www.chessok.com

3D eye: still evaluating

Overall: Fritz 11 offers one very good addition, but at the same time there is false advertising (or very misleading advertising). I cannot figure out how to evaluate such a situation, it is almost as if your best friend helps you and also lies and cheats you at the same time.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Training Tool, December 27, 2007

By	Harley Greninger (Hoquiam WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What I love about Fritz 11 is the Calculation Training function... this, in and of itself, makes Fritz 11 worth the purchase! The remainder of the program features have been to the greatest extent duplicated elsewhere. I've never seen anything on the market that resembles the Calculation Training function at all.
The video clips, though obviously promoting the full DVDs, are nice since they do give an entire game or entire training session. If they were to cut the game (or training session) off mid-stream, it would be a poor marketing ploy. The way it's set up is useful, as well as an excellent way to test drive other Chessbase DVDs.
Being able to set up a Tournament, using several different engines as well as allowing a human to participate, is an nice feature that I have yet to experiment with.
The only thing I really don't like about the program is the electronic eye that hovers above the 3D board, along with the thumbnail viewpoint of this E-eye, I find it to be annoying and have yet to find an option to make it disappear.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still Improving, May 5, 2008

By	Martin (Nashville) - See all my reviews

If you can't find the improvements, you haven't looked. In fact, if you've played Fritz 11, you would have stumbled onto them!

They are improvements that help play, study and analysis. Mostly a lot of practical fine tuning that makes already good features better. But a few new major features like calculation training, which improves your ability to see ahead without moving the pieces. You can jump into calculation training from any game. Your calculations show up in notation, but not on the board. The engine can then analyse your calculations. You can then go back to the game and play them (or not), or see what happened in a database game. Whatever you happen to be working with.

There are some new rapid-fire tactics training features. Not the usual "find mate" puzzles. (Yawn.)

If you've been impressed by the competitor's handicap levels, only to find that the handicaps are mostly blunder ratios, you'll like Fritz's handicap levels. Clearly Fritz is weakening the engine and not merely averaging out with blunder ratios. But be advised that Fritz's handicaps still start around 1400.

The interface is somewhat improved. As usual you've got the simple 2D board or the fancy graphics -- if you like that sort of thing.

It boils down to how much time you spend on chess. If you spend a lot of time, the changes will be worth the upgrade. If you only play now and then, it's too much to spend on an upgrade.