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Overly complicated... Only for the VERY advanced PC chess player

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 35 / 41
Date: May 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am 25 years old, and an avid chess player and PC user. I recently purchased Deep Fritz: Grandmaster Deluxe, only to find that although the game advertises itself as fun for the beginner to the expert, only someone with extensive computer knoweldge and/or knowledge of this product line should consider purchasing this game. While installation, game setup, and play options are fairly easy to get the hang of, the more advanced options, such as loading saved games from other programs in .pgn format, are extremely difficult to understand. For some reason, I can't get the 'openings trainer' option of the game to display itself in English!

Furthermore, while the game does offer a free six month subscription to playchess.com, there is no human vs. human option in the game itself. You HAVE to play against the computer; which may be a problem for some potential buyers. Also, while not as strong a selling point for me, those players who enjoy chess games with multiple 2D and 3D board styles and/or animations should be advised to stay away from this game, as there are only four 3D board sets, and the graphics on these sets are mediocre.

I would recommend Deep Fritz: Grandmaster Deluxe for those experienced PC chess players who enjoy no-frills chess and do not wish to pay for some of the higher-end games which use the Fritz engine. For the rest of us, I would say to stay away from this particular game and instead purchase something like Ubisoft's Chessmaster: 10th Edition or Chessmaster 9000.

Incredible Bargain On An Excellent Piece of Software

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 31
Date: November 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As another reviewer mentioned, this is, indeed, Deep Fritz 8 packaged under a different title. Whether you have a single processor or a dual-processor computer this is a super application.

If you do have a dual-processor machine then you've got a top 10 piece of chess software. Deep Fritz 8 is ranked 10th on both the CEGT site and the SSDF website with ratings of 2793 and 2783, respectively.

And contrary to another reviewer, Fritz 9 is almost twice the price of this product (comparing Amazon prices today). And for the extra dollars you really don't get any more power. Fritz 9 is ranked 11th (CEGT) and 6th (SSDF). Why pay more for essentially the same playing-strength? Not to mention the fact that some users have complained about the bugs in Fritz 9.

DF8 engine for $20 = what are you waiting for?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 40 / 58
Date: June 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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!). Let's just cut to the chase and see what is in the top 10 chess engines and how much they cost.

1 Rybka $70
2 Hiarcs 10 $52.95
3 Fruit 2.2.1 $35
4 Shredder 9.0 $56.95
5 Fritz 9.0 $52.95
6 Shredder 8.0 (replaced by Shredder 9.0)
7 Shredder 7.04 (replaced by Shredder 9.0)
8 Junior 9.0 $46.95
9 Deep Fritz 8.0 $69.98
10 Spike 1.1 Free (beta)

The "Deep Fritz: Grand Master Deluxe" package costs $20 and comes with the Deep Fritz 8.0 engine and some other game engines to choose from. Apart from Spike, that makes Deep Fritz 8, if got the "Deep Fritz: Grand Master Deluxe" way, an excellent quality chess engine. Not only that but you get the whole chessbase software with it which is able to run game analysis and has too many features to describe in one review. It takes a few days to learn the package and how it works, but it is worth learning because this is precisely the kind of engine you need to learn how to improve your game. It could well be the best money you ever spent on chess. Unless you are GM (grandmaster) quality then DF8 is probably going to be on your machine for the next decade at least. If you are GM then spend a bit of that tournament winning cash on some of the super engines like Rybka, Hiarcs 10, Shredder 10, Toga II or Fruit.

*Note: There are a few analysis and play bugs that have been solved in the Fritz 9 Chessbase.

More headache than pleasure

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I am not all that happy with this software. I thought I would be clever and save thirty or forty dollars by buying this edition (which is basically the Fritz 8 engine). While I am sure the software's playing strength will be more than enough for me (being approx. a class B player), as other reviewers have commented, it is indeed a non-intuitive GUI that requires too much effort to do even very simple things. I knew this was not going to be as friendly as Chessmaster, but since I work with computers professionally I reasoned I would prefer the superior engine to user-friendly bells and whistles. I am beginning to regret this decision.

Just for a few examples, one would think it would be easy to save and load your own games with the computer. Well, not really. You need to assign your saved games to databases and it's often confusing as to which you are saving or dealing with, a game or a database. Rather than load a game from a Windows-type interface you must open the appropriate database and find right game. The games are not date-time stamped for easy identification so this is more time consuming than you might think. You cannot delete saved games to free up your hard drive.

Just a couple more examples of problems/inconveniences: The talk feature does not work for me. Not important, but annoying. It does not seem to save your time control parameters if you change them from the defaults, so you must redo them every time. If you select Endgame Training, you are given an endgame which often is un-winnable for either side (well, I guess that is practice), and you never know which side you are playing or who's turn it is when you begin.

Most chess players are at least semi-intelligent folks and most are also computer literate....but Deep Fritz Grand Master Deluxe will really test your patience unless you are used to archaic GUI's and fighting the computer to get the results you want. I may wind up just buying another program.

my review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 26
Date: December 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I got this game yesterday from gamestop, and man it is cool! only one problem, some times when you press move now, it doesn't, and it will switch sides on you, so if you started out the game contolling the white army, now you'll be contoling the black army. but this isn't to bad, just don't hit the move now button to quickly and be patient. overall I'd say this is a good game, with a good chess engine, the AI has many different levels of diffuculty, I've been playing chess for 7 years and am only using level two of six! this also has very nice 3-D chess sets, and also a 2-D mode. also has very helpful tips for beginers. very good game, i would definatelly recomend it for any one who plays chess, from a beginner to a an FIDE grandmaster.

Excellent software with minor drawbacks

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: April 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Ok, I agree the interface is not so friendly but who cares ?

Once you find all the tools you need, for less then 20 dollars you have:

1) An opponent to play at ANY level, from almost random-pushed pieces to grandmaster

2) A way to analize your own games. You get your human-readable annotations and you can easily learn from your own mistakes and,
if you are not a grandmaster, you bet Fritz is telling you the truth.
I would have bought this software twice the price just to get this functionality

3) You can use games database or manage your own's.

Higly Reccomended

ho hum chess program

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: September 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My favorite feature is the analyze all moves option that I use to go over games that I've lost and want to see where I went wrong or missed something. That's about all I use it for. It is good for analysis.

It's a lousy opponent often making off the wall moves while waiting for you to blunder so it can kill you. So I never just sit down and play chess against Fritz.

I will admit that I haven't played it and stored any games so it could learn my style as I'm not into playing computers and prefer playing a real person on line.

If you want a tool to analyze your games it's good but if you want a
chess game, find a person or look elsewhere. Imho in a game it doesn't
play the kind of game people play.

I didn't even bother to turn the sound on assuming it was just as lame as the previous version. I could be wrong there.

Next time I'm going to try something else.
One more thing, it's a bit difficult to figure out. I had to search for quite a bit to figure out how to turn on the coordinates and this is my
second version of Fritz; not the easiest software to learn for sure.
Michelle Ress

Fritz

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have not had any running problems with this software and it really plays a good game of chess. It is a little light on instructions. I have found that the supposedly "friendly" mode is just a very advanced player stooping down to allow you to survive a few more moves than necessary. Some of the features are obscure for a hobby player but the overall experience is very educational and I know from playing other humans that it has improved my game.

Awesome Chess Engine, But...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Deep Fritz is an incredible chess engine. The big thing it lacks is training and mentoring. I have been out of the game of chess for a while and wanted to work on and sharpen my chess skills. Playing Deep Fritz for me was like going from T-Ball to the Major League overnight! When Deep Fritz recognizes you're not a high level player, it will reduce its level of play though. I did end up getting Chessmaster as well which does have an incredible training and mentoring component to it (IMHO). The difference in engine strength between the two is very noticeable (Fritz being much better) but Chessmaster has much more flexibility in how you can use it to train and learn. My bottom line opinion: If you're an expert, Deep Fritz is your best bet. If you're a beginner even up to an expert, Chessmester may be a better option. Oh, one other thing about Chessmaster: you do indeed have to keep the disk in the drive to use the software - get with the times Ubisoft!

No, This really is the Deep Fritz 8 Engine

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 12
Date: October 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

A review of my engine management screen shows that it is Deep Fritz 8. An "acid test", in my own mind, was the pairings with my regular Fritz 8 engine. My Deep Fritz 8 wins about 55% against my Fritz 8. The 8/2006 poster is incorrect about the product being Deep Fritz 6. Deep Fritz 6 would not have a chance against Fritz 8, much less score 55%. This is a great bargain in the modern world of cheap information that we live in, of course.

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