Customer Reviews

Fritz 9: Play Chess

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'd recommend staying with Fritz 8, a far more stable version, even if it is a slightly weaker computer chess engine.

As others have written, the reason for chosing an older version of Fritz is that Fritz 9 crashes so often to hinder your playing experience.

Heck, I've been playing Fritz since 5.32, and 5.32 crashes less and was a lot funner to play. Unfortunately it doesn't work on all Windows XP machines.

Back to Fritz 9... the post-analysis mode of Fritz is worth noting. You can play a game and have a full analysis in anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours, depending on where you set it. One annoying feature of Fritz 9 is that sometimes you have to insert the CD to wake up the engine to do the analysis. Fritz 8 does not have this feature.

Also worth noting is the infinite analysis mode, where you can watch a grandmaster game (or any slow game), put in the moves live, and see what lines Fritz "likes", as it calculates and gives a score to each line.

There is also opening training, endgame training, or you can add a kibitzer to your games, get help from a coach, and/or put it in handicap mode after you feel like you're beating your head against the wall.

Fritz 8 also has all of this, but is the most stable of the two, and cheaper.

Chessbase has been providing the best chess programs for probably a decade now. I well remember buying my first chessbase program, Junior 5. That engine was so strong that it would annihilate even the strongest chess players. Now, a long time has passed, and I just don't see chessbase engine's improving that much. As the author of Hiarcs 10 mentioned in one of his interviews, Fritz and Shredder authors have decided to cash in all the money they can by coming up with new versions every 6 month or so. The only notable improvement to this version of Fritz is the Turk Table, which is really not useful to hardcore players such as myself. Mind you, my PC crashed everytime I tried to move the table around. Fritz 9 is a good engine, but in every tournament that I have put it in with engines such as Toga II or Kutula and Ruffian, it finishes third or fourth best, which is not exactly what you expect from chessbase's newest engine. Also, this program has been rushed into market just to come out a month or two earlier than the superior Hiarcs 10. Fritz 9 crashes a lot, and I get Exception this, Exception that messages from it. Besides, when in tournament mode, if you drag you mouse over the crosstable, it will copy a game from the database and ruins the tournament. In any case, I recommend Hiarcs 10 over this game, unless you have money to buy both! Also, while you are at it, get Toga II UCI. That seems to be an excellent engine!

It is unfortunate that several reviewers on this site have given totally wrong information. The two main errors are (1) to claim that new versions of Fritz (unlike Hiarcs) appear every six months, and (2) that Fritz 9 is no stronger than Fritz 8 and is weaker than Hiarcs 10.
Take the dates first. Fritz 8 was offered for sale in December 2002, and Fritz 9 in October 2005. A gap of almost 3 years - NOT 6 months! Hiarcs 9 first appeared in October 2003 and was followed by Hiarcs 10 in March 2006 - a gap of 2.5 years.
What of playing strength? Some reviewers assert - without any supporting evidence whatever - that Fritz 9 is little better than 8 but the rating lists show that Fritz 9 is between 70 and 90 Elo points stronger than Fritz 8, which is a major improvement. What about the claim that Hiarcs 10 is stronger? Well there are 7 major independent chess engine rating lists. Two (SSDF and PEJ) have Hiarcs just ahead but all the others (CCRL,CEGT,Koppel, Sedat and CSS) have Fritz 9 above Hiarcs 10. CSS is now the most respected rating list. Anyone can find out the strength of chess engines by typing "CSS chess rating" in their search engine to view the list.
In all respects other than the chess engine the two programs are identical. Hiarcs and Fritz both use the Fritz GUI, which some claim to find "buggy" but I have no problems with. Any problems that arise are likely to be in special circumstances in engine tournaments and are unlikely to affect the average user. I used to own both Fritz 8 and Hiarcs 9. I now own both Fritz 9 and Hiarcs 10. Fritz 9 is slightly stronger according to the rating lists but both engines are excellent and have own interesting and individual styles. I thoroughly recommend BOTH programs but ask that people are not fooled by ill-informed statements. The facts about the time periods between major version changes and tested playing strength are in the public domain and are easily accessible to all who take the trouble to ascertain the real truth.
The numerous features of Fritz 9 have been described in other reviews. Fritz is the first choice program of serious chess players. In a recent interview world champion Vladimir Kramnik said that Fritz is the only program he has ever used.
I note that one reviewer suggests waiting for Deep Fritz 9. Deep Fritz is for dual-core processors. On a single CPU its strength will the same as Fritz 9. The difference is that it is very much more expensive!

I have Chessbase 9.0 and Chess Assistant 8.1, Fritz 9, Shredder 8 and Chessmaster 10th Edition. I also own the Rybka 1.1 and Fruit 2.2.1 engines and have a Palm Tungsten T5 with Hiarcs 9.6 on it. All of these I use for different purposes:

Chessbase 9 is the industry standard chess database package (very user-friendly) and Chess Assistant gives me a bit more technical options (as well as a huge openings tree with assessments) and allows me to play on the ICC.

The Rybka engine is the strongest engine in the opening and middle game (probably by 100 Elo) and Shredder is the best engine for analyzing endgames (Fritz 9 is also better than Fritz 8 in this respect).

Fruit is the engine with almost no weak points. It plays a steady game throughout and performs well in blitz games and at longer time controls.

Fritz 9 is a tenacious defender of slightly inferior positions and is probably the best positional engine of the bunch (Hiarcs 10 is the best program in this respect).

My favourite playing partners are Hiarcs and especially Chessmaster. Hiarcs plays the most human-like chess (feels like playing against a strong GM). The Chessmaster program's options is not nearly suitable for the serious chessplayer but the engine plays very creatively. The training lessons of Chessmaster are quite useful.

To conclude I can say that Fritz 9 offered me the best standalone chess playing program package.

I can't comment on how the Fritz 9 engine compares to other games out there, but what I can tell you is that if you are a casual player, it will whoop your butt every time. Finding a lower setting on Fritz 9 is not intuitive at all. The only thing I could find is the "Friend mode" where Fritz will keep track of your playing ability and slowly bring down its own to more closely match yours. This process can be frustrating, because while it's trying to figure out your level, it's destroying you. And I'm a pretty good player. I'm not a newbie at all. Why can't it just have low, medium, high settings like every other game in the world?

Also, the interface is difficult to navigate. You definitely have to read the manual and even when you do, it will still be hard to figure certain things out. For example, I still haven't found a way to force the computer to start as black or white as I choose. I start a game, and if it's not the side I want, I quit and start another. Dumb right? And Fritz doesn't seem to remember certain settings. I'll play a game in Friend mode, and the next time I run the program (for example, the next day) it will be back to the mode I didn't want. It can't seem to remember that I like to play in Friend mode. Also, I want to play and learn certain openings, but I can't find a way to position the board the way I want it and start the game from there. So while I'm trying to learn the Ruy Lopez, Fritz is using everything but that one.

My point is that if these features are in the game, I haven't been able to find them and I've read the dang manual. If you have more patience than I do and think you'll be able to figure these playability factors out, then you may very well enjoy this game. Especially if you're a expert player or love deep position analysis, then Fritz will deliver. I have no doubts about that. But the interface is klunky and the usability is low.

Fritz is by far the best product of it's kind on the market. But Fritz 9 is no upgrade from Friz 8. Everything looks and feels exactly the same. The engine (contrary to popular belief) is no stronger. If you own Fritz 8, don't waste your money on 9, very little has changed. Just another software company, releasing a slightly tweaked "upgrade" and charging $40 for it. If you don't own any version of Fritz, I'd still recommend 8 because you can find it cheaper.

Fritz is the ultimate software for the serious chess player. So many features make Fritz a wise investment for anyone who wants to improve their game that it is hard for me to know where to start. Here is a brief list of some of the features I find the most useful:

1) Fritz's analytical capabilities are great. It will examine a game and compute annotated variations that allow you to better understand certain positions.

2) The ability to instantly enter into new variations at any point in the game is very good. The current main line is preserved as well as any other variation(s) that you have already entered into. Variations upon variations can be used and any variation can be promoted/demoted or even set to be the new main line, with the current main line becoming a variation.

3) There is the capability of switching sides at any point in a game in order to see how the computer will handle playing with your position. If it is your turn, all you have to do is tell the computer to move and it will instantly take up your pieces and play, giving you the other pieces.

4) Sparring mode. In this mode, Fritz will play a relatively strong game against you, but will make a tactical error if given the chance. You can select the difficulty of the tactical error from "very easy" to "really hard". You can also select wether Fritz will notify you of the error. When notification is on, a small, blinking light below the chessboard indicates that Fritz has intentionly made a bad move that gives you a tactial shot. In either case, if you miss the move, an annotation will appear that let's you know so that you can go back and examine the position closer and/or have Fritz point out the move.

5) Training. Fritz has attack, check and defense training. For attack training, you have a limited amount of time to pick out every piece on the board that can currently be captured by another piece. For defense training, you must pick out all undefended pieces. For check training, you must pick out all pieces that can deliver check.

As some have mentioned, the Fritz interface is not always the most intuitive. I would suggest that you simply prepare yourself for having to learn the software. This is one of the few packages that I had to actually sit down and read the manual to get a better understanding of. It may take some time to figure out how to use all of the features, but once you do, it is well worth it.

but...the interface needs serious work in the user-friendly department. I would much rather study chess, than how to take advantage of all of Fritz's many features - which the manual does a markedly poor job of explaining. A few more helpful dropdown menus, plainer explanations, and features (for example - loading opening books, cleaning up user files, difficulty of the "coach" feature - advice offered at unpredictable and unuseful times) would go a long way.

Chessmaster 10th looked much more appealing, but I got this cause I just couldn't ignore all the technical problem reviews associated with it (Chessmaster).

You want a simple chess program? Go search for WinBoard. If you want to play 3D Chess just for the look, then I am sure you can find all sorts of swanky looking 3D chess boards out there. If I want to play on-line I can go on yahoo games and play any one of the thousands of chess games for free for as long as I want. If however you are interested in chess engines (the AI behind the chess software) then obviously you are considering getting a decent piece of chess software with some brains rather than just a ritzy looking chess board (why not actually spend on a ritzy look chess board instead!). The Fritz 9 package is basically offering the latest Chessbase software and the Fritz 9 engine. There are many engine players out there who like to play with the best engines such as Rybka, Hiarcs, Shredder, TOGA II, Deep Fritz or Fruit. Fritz from Chessbase currently offers the best chess analysis software. Most people who want to play chess complain that it is too complex for their needs. Chess players, who play computer chess, play it with Chessbase. Even the GMs (grandmasters) are known to use it. So for people who just want to play chess, then Fritz is probably not for them, especially at the price tag, which is near a whopping $40 for chess and can be upgraded to a $100 worth of chess software if you go with the latest engines. Let us just state for the record right now that there is a very cheap and excellent Chessbase product called "Deep Fritz: Grand Master Deluxe" for $20. It comes with the Deep Fritz 8 engine and the Fritz 8 Chessbase software. That is a very powerful engine and a very nice piece of Chessbase software, which has all the same analysis tools as the latest Fritz 9 Chessbase software update. For $20 that kind of chess power is an absolute steal. The problem is that it is just not the latest Chessbase software. Before we talk about engines we should talk about the Fritz 9 Chessbase software which is at its cheapest in the Fritz 9 chess package. The Fritz 9 manual is a bit better than any previous offering. It is in full color. There is also an entirely separate manual for the on-line Playchess feature. Fritz 9 loads quicker and runs quicker. It defaults to a blue and white board that is not so harsh on the eyes. The icons are nicer. The arrows indicating movement are transparent and do not look as stark. There are some new game types. The 3D board is greatly enhanced with a new 3D control panel for moving the board and camera. There are expanded 3D settings with new character animations, such as the Turk, Mia and the Fritz room with enhanced visual effects with fully rendered backdrops. The manual however is probably what sets Fritz 9 apart from it predecessors as the tutorial is much easier to follow and if you spend a bit of time you can learn all there is to learn about Chessbase just by reading the manual, something that was not really possible with earlier versions without asking someone who knew what they where doing. Is it worth the extra $20 to go from "Deep Fritz: Grand Master Deluxe" to Fritz 9? The answer to that depends on what you want. If you find that Deep Fritz 8 does not offer much of a challenge anymore then you will probably want to improve your engine. The problem is that Fritz 9 might not be the best improvement available to you. The "CSS - Rating List" is a good chess engine rating list. The "bff-liste" is also good and so is the "SSDF Ratings list". Although Rybka leads them all there is some discrepancies between Hiarcs 10, Shredder 10 and Fritz 9. TOGA II is free from UCI and Chessbase can import UCI engines. That is a phenomenal free upgrade. If you want to pay for the best then Rybka is where it is at, but that costs a whopping $70 without Chessbase software. Hiarcs 10 and Shredder 10, come with the new Chessbase software but at a price of $50. Fritz 9 is $10 cheaper with an engine that can compete (note compete, not always beat, but compete and even loose) with Hiarcs 10 and Shredder 10. Fritz 9 is currently the standard Chessbase offering. It is available almost everywhere. Hiarcs 10 and Shredder 10 are a bit harder to get because they are professional chess engines and not mainstream like the Fritz and Deep Fritz offerings. The truth is that your best deal is "Deep Fritz: Grand Master Deluxe" for $20 which gives you Deep Fritz 8, the last Chessbase software without a great manual but with full analysis and an import function for the UCI Toga II engine. That is a very powerful piece of chess software for $20. If you really want the latest Chessbase software then Fritz 9 gives you just that for $40 plus the Fritz 9 engine. Fans of Hiarcs or Shredder would probably feel better shelling out the extra $10 for their favourite engine that comes with the Fritz 9 software package. The top professional players will probably get Fritz 9 for $40 just for the Chessbase software update and buy the Rybka engine for $70 for a whopping $110 chess software package. Right now it is all relative to how much you want to spend and if you have a preference for Hiarcs or Shredder. Also Chessbase software is not the most stable software in the world. Fritz 9 chessbase software does solve some its old crashing problems and analysis bugs. A lot of the mystery lockups and functions that cease to work in previous editions are working now. The bottom line however is that there is nothing like Chessbase software out there, but there are optional versions of this software. Since nothing can compete with it we should be lucky to get a Chessbase upgrade at all, even if it is a poor one, it at least tries to correct a few things... but it could correct a whole lot more. If you own a previous Chessbase I don't think you should be worrying too much. If you have bought Hiarcs 10 or Shredder 10, then you have the latest Chessbase and some of the nicest engines out there. What you really need to know is that you can work out a better engine configuration than Fritz 9 with "Deep Fritz: Grand Master Deluxe" plus TOGA II, for half the costs ($20). For $40 you spend an extra $20 on the latest Chessbase software, but the TOGA II engine can beat the Fritz 9 engine. The very existence of TOGA II for free with Chessbase's ability to import that engine is why I would say doing a bit more research is important. However you can easily slap down $40, get Fritz 9 with the latest Chessbase software, and TOGA II for free also. You can pay an extra $10 and have the same configuration with Hiarcs 10 and Shredder 10 with a free TOGA II. "Deep Fritz: Grand Master Deluxe" offers the best value overall. Fritz 9 is nice to have but absolutely not necessary, but it is still a great engine, and not as bad as many would like to make it out to be. I am sure many software users are waiting until Deep Fritz 9 comes out... and probably rightly so. Maybe then we would have a new Fritz engine worth talking about.

Pros
- Quicker
- Better manual
- Some bug fixes with analysis mode
- New 3D

Cons
- Deep Fritz: Grand Master Deluxe is $20 and comes with Deep
- UCI TOGA II is free
- Fritz software needs a big improvement.
- Deep Fritz 9 will probably solve these problems

I gave my Chessmaster 9000 to a friend and bought Fritz 9 as a replacement. Big mistake. Fritz may have a slightly more powerful engine but there are only a few Grand Masters who would even test the limits of any chess program. For 99% of the people, Chessmaster would crush them.

Fritz reminds me of German shareware. It all has that stripped down, unorganized and low budget look to it. It took me quite awhile to get the analysis panes to do what I want but it still does not have the functionality or ease of Chessmaster. I have experienced bugginess and crashes that I never had with Chessmaster.

If this is for a child, there is no way I would get Fritz. The teaching functions and features for kids are all far superior in Chessmaster.

If you read the reviews on Chessmaster, people say they have problems with the copy protection or graphics load. All I can say is:
1. Quit trying to steal copyrighted material
2. Buy a real graphics card

I also feel better about the company that makes Chessmaster as far as support and updates - Ubisoft.