Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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71 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is Fritz 10, December 9, 2007
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
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.
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent program that could be better, July 30, 2008
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.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Chess Engine Bad Old Interface, February 21, 2008
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
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.
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