User Reviews (11 - 17 of 17)

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Best on the Market

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: January 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

My son plays chess on the computer frequently. He says this is the best program he has ever used. He has learned many strategies by using it.

Everything you'd want in a chess game plus lots more.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 20
Date: January 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I cannot review Fritz 8 because it was not available when I bought Fritz 6 just after Christmas this last year. But if Fritz 8 is better than Fritz 6 you will love this program. It has all the features it says it has plus more. It has a kibitzer that you can adjust to any degree of power to give you ideas on what to play next. This can help you see moves you would normally have not thought of before but depending on the power they may not be good moves either. But the choice is yours on adjusting the power. It does have an analyzer that will go through the game after you've played and tell you if it was a good move, not a good move, or maybe a move that didn't really help your position. If you do the full analysis you'll be looking at close to 45 minutes to an hour before it completely finishes. But there are lessor power analysis available too.

Fritz 6 is an excellent chess game for all levels of play and I got a whole lot more than what I had expected. Had Fritz 8 been available I would have bought it.

Fun with Fritz

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: November 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a really fun game, and it will improve your chess quickly. You will have use the help function to really understand how to completely use the program. The opponents voice is great, and you will enjoy winning very much, when you actually do. Kasparov's analysis is difficult to keep up with, but is a nice add on. If you want to learn chess this is a good place to start. The program is practically unbeatable if you set it to full strength, but it gives you the option of gradually increasing strength of play.

TOO MANY FILES

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 13 / 23
Date: April 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The chess playing is OK, but trying to save a game is absurdly difficult. Why do software writers think we need a ZILLION FILES. Why do they think we want to click a dozen times to access one simple function. I operate under the princilpe of SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY. Why is the operating principle of this kind of software COMPLICATE, COMPLICATE, COMPLICATE. While code writers get orgasmic over all the crap they include in the software, we users have to waste riduculous amounts of time TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH SIMPLE TASKS. In my wildest dreams I could not design a more ABSURD system for saving games than the code that comes with Fritz 8

Awesome Software

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: March 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I dabbled in chess for a few years, but never really got into it until I got this software. The analysis tools are amazing. My favorite feature is the explain all moves. Every legal move gets ranked, a quick description, and the expected variation. The only drawback is that this is not for true beginners. If you just know how the pieces move, you might want to look elsewhere for basic tactics. Even on a weak setting, this engine will PUNISH a bad move.

Not exactly what i had expected.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 15
Date: September 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Chess. Not much to it. However since i was a first time player to the game, i thought due to other reviews of this game that this would be the game i needed to teach myself how to play. How wrong i was. It's not that this is a BAD game, i guess my complaint is more along the lines of the user interface. I'm pretty well rounded with computers and software, and even i was confused as to how to change games, change boards, difficulty, ect ect.

I passed the game along to a few other people, and not to my surprise, they returned the game back to me after about a day reporting the same frustrations that i was having.

All in all, i learned to play the old fashioned way, on a real board.

Improve Your Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game took me from a good household playing level (adult - 7-800) to a poor chess club learning level (adult 11-1200). It has made me more aware of my blunders and helped me find basic opening moves which play to my strengths.

The "friend" mode was the most help - it continues to provide a balanced challenge for me. I liked the presets like the patzer and the drunk - it helped with five minute speed chess and with my park play.

The endgame practice could be stronger and the game would benefit from revisions to make it easier to use for beginners (I marked it down one star for these reasons).

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