Fritz Chess Tenth Edition [Old Version]

by Viva Media

Product Features

• Extended and updated database
• Dynamic hints: when entering a move, you see arrows highlighting direct and indirect attacks and defences of each square your mouse moves over
• Improved pieces for the 2D board. Highest resolution for boards of any size. Improved move entry on the 2D board: highlighted start and target squares avoid mouse slips.
• New set of very high resolution, classical wood 3D-pieces
• Engine animation: while the chess engine is calculating, typical elements of the calculation (e.g. frequented squares) are visualized directly on the board

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000TYUXJ0
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 20, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,283 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #14 in Video Games > PC Games > Board Games

Product Description

The ultimate chess game Product Information For beginners Fritz will explain 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 theirgames and find new opening ideas for their next tournaments. A databasewith more than a million games provides the basis for state of-the-artanalysis. Even Garry Kasparov has used Fritz on a regular basis.How often have you attended personal grandmaster lectures or training sessions With its Chess Media System Fritz brings the world's greatestchess players into your home via DVD in full high resolution video and soundand a synchronized graphic chessboard. Listen to Garry Kasparov ViktorKochnoi Alexei Shirov or (former world champion) Rustom Kasimdzhanov while theyexplain important openings and ideas that lead to success. A host of famous chess teachers provide instruction in more mundane subjectslike opening traps middlegame strategy or endgame skills. Fritz makes iteasy for you to play against other human beings at any time day ornight. It provides you with a one-click connection to the largest chesscommunity in the world playchess (1 year access). You can play quickand informed games at any level take part in tournaments or attend livelectures and training sessions. New Features New engine developed for the Kramnik match and an extended and updated openings book. Extended and updated database. Dynamic hints: when entering a move you see arrows highlighting direct and indirect attacks and defenses of each square your mouse moves over. Improved pieces for the 2D board. Highest resolution for boards of any size. Improved move entry on the 2D board: highlighted start and target squares avoid mouse

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

101 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is Fritz 10, December 9, 2007

By 

Bob "Bob" (USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fritz Chess Tenth Edition [Old Version] (DVD-ROM)

You may be wondering what this product is. It seems to be a new release of Fritz 10 for the U.S. market (it's described as Fritz 10 at the Viva Media website), and as such it sells at a reduced price compared to the latest version, Fritz 11.

With these new versions of Fritz, there is really nothing added at all. It's basically the same game as the previous version with a slightly improved chess engine. If you are simply looking for a playing partner, unless your at the Master level or higher, you're not going to get anything out of a stronger engine. But a stronger engine is of interest to people interested in analyzing chess games, because it will give a more accurate analysis of a position.

All versions of Fritz are not very friendly to the novice player. Chessmaster, despite its interface bugs, provides a better opponent for beginning and intermediate players, and Chessmaster also has much better tutorials. Fritz is NOT the product to buy if you don't know the rules of the game!

This product is a very good deal (especially if it's on sale) if you don't already own a version of Fritz and you are serious about chess.

65 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent program that could be better, July 30, 2008

By 

Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fritz Chess Tenth Edition [Old Version] (DVD-ROM)

The real question for most chess players looking for some chess software is whether to buy Fritz or Chessmaster. I have used both for many years. I actually go back to the days of Chessmaster 2100, which had the playing strength of perhaps a subclass F player, if such a player existed.

Fritz Chess is Fritz 10 in a different package that will run on Vista. Unlike Chessmaster it will run without the DVD being in the drive. As such it is an outstanding piece of software, the undisputed first choice for tournament and professional players.

It has various chess engines. I've only used the default. It is so strong that it can beat Grandmasters at blitz. There are no "personalities" such as Chessmaster has. However Fritz features a "Handicap" mode of play in which you can set the strength of your computer opponent (from Elo rating 1375 to 2337) and vary its tendencies, such how likely it will go for a king side attack or how often it will exchange pieces, or how much it will value defense of its king--even how often it will blunder. There is also a "rated game" mode in which you can select a playing strength and then play for an Elo rating. Fritz will update your rating and keep track of your record. Be warned: unlike Chessmaster which tends to overrate the playing strength of its "personalities," Fritz underrates its--at least at the levels below 2200, that I have played against. An 1800-rated Fritz opponent plays most of the game like a master player. It may give away the positional equivalent of say half a pawn, but having done that, it defends like Petrosian!

There is also a "sparring mode" with computer strength from "very easy" to "very hard." A nice feature here and in the "friend" mode (which automatically adjusts its strength to yours) is that Fritz has a window that lists all the moves that have been tried in the current (usually opening) position by players in its database. It's a nice way to learn openings or to avoid making an opening blunder. By the way, you can find modes of play under the "File/New" tabs.

Which brings me to a problem with Fritz: it is just not as user friendly as it could be. Why playing a new game should be under the "File" tab is beyond me. It just isn't intuitive. However you can get to a new game through the "Game" tab. But again there are quirks. You have to go to "Game/Levels" to pick the mode of play you want (sparring, handicap, etc.) and then back to "Game/New" to play. If you just go to "Game/Levels" you won't find "rated game." That's in the "File/New" tabs. Furthermore, if you set up a new level in the "Game/Levels" tab but fail to go back to the "Game/New" tab Fritz will not change the level! Fritz is full of maddening little quirks like this. Really I should call them BUGS.

It is also a pain in the neck to set up the time limit for the game, especially if you want a time differential so you don't have to wait for the computer to pretend to think. (Say two hours for you and 20 minutes for Fritz.) However you can under most modes simply hit the space bar on your keyboard and that will force Fritz to move. So Fritz's time setting isn't important. Be aware that with only just a few seconds of "thinking" time per move Fritz will play at something like the master level in its regular strength.

Fritz will analyze your game and give you hints if you like. It will analyze a tournament game you played, but you have to enter the score into a database or play out the moves in the human vs. human mode, which frankly I haven't found yet, and which may not exist. (If somebody knows how to set this up, please advise! Thank you.)

Fritz will play "giveaway chess" with you and Chess 960 (also known as Fischer chess) in which the setup of the pieces on the first rank is by random draw. This makes knowledge of specific opening moves practically worthless, and may be the chess of the future.

The DVD includes a database of over one million games with many sorting options (under "Edit/Filter games" tabs), including by player, by color, by opening (using ECO categories), by Elo rating, year, even by number of moves (in case you want to look for short games, or very long games, I guess). You can even combine options, such as Fischer between the years 1960 and 1968, which I just did. However Fritz's search engine is annoyingly quirky. I tried to get "Fischer, Robert J." Nothing. I tried Fischer, Bobby. No good. I even tried "Fischer,Robert James" which is exactly the way he is listed in the database. Nothing! Only "Fischer" worked and, alas, it also brought up some other players named Fischer.

Fritz has an Internet play feature that I haven't used.

So--which is better Fritz or Chessmaster? You know the answer--it depends! Personally I like them both for different reasons. But if I had to choose just one, I would choose Fritz because (1) the huge database, and (2) you don't have to have the DVD in the drive to play. For the less than master level player Chessmaster may be the better choice because the software is easier to navigate and more intuitive.

Final question, if you have a previous version of Fritz, should you upgrade to FritzChess (Fritz 10)? Putting aside Fritz 11, which I haven't tried yet, my short answer is no, at least if you have Fritz7 or higher. There is very little change, although the newest chess engine seems stronger--which could be a kind of "coals to Newcastle" type of feature.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Chess Engine Bad Old Interface, February 21, 2008

By 

P. McGuire (USA, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fritz Chess Tenth Edition [Old Version] (DVD-ROM)

I have been a long time user of Chessbase's products (ever since Fritz 4 (early 90s)). I purchased Fritz 10 because Fritz 11 was twice as expensive and had many bad reviews. Fritz 10 looks almost identical to Fritz 8 (what I had before). The engine is definitely stronger (Fritz 10) in terms of comp vs comp strength however the interface is exactly the same. Like a lot of Chessbase's recent products it is buggy and crashes if you don't use it just right (especially when doing Engine Room matches in the Playchess server).

I'd recommend this for anyone wanting to upgrade from an older Fritz interface as it does allow you to use more of Playchess' new features such as smiley faces and the world globe options. (Definitely not a MUST but for $30 its nice).

As far as first time Chessbase users - this isn't the easiest chess software out there to use but it has one of the most powerful chess engines. If you are looking for a good analytical engine I would definitely recommend this software to you - otherwise ChessMaster has some good products.

The introduction videos are nice but not long enough... It was really interesting seeing Kasparov talk about chess in person (via the video) but it is just too expensive in my opinion. Buying Fritz 10 just for the videos? I wouldn't recommend it.