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I am disapointed

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 34
Date: December 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is the first time I buy Fritz. The software is full of bugs. It's hard to install and to use. It crashed on my brand new computer! Chess Master is much better!

I must be missing something...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 78 / 88
Date: December 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I purchased Fritz 8 in large part due to the recommendations on this and other sites. I had Chessmaster 7000, but wanted to get access to the powerful analysis and better graphics that Fritz had. Here's the thing: the graphics are great, the rest makes no sense at all. I was used to the simple Chessmaster interface where you pick a personality based on approximate ELO rating, set your timer, and off you go. Not here. There are no personalities, instead you set your handicap based on 1/100ths of a pawn. So, are you 2.3 pawns better than whatever you are bench marked against? Or are you only .6 pawns better? Maybe you're half a pawn behind. Don't know? Well, figure it out fast if you want to take a crack at configuring this thing. ASIDE: The instruction manual says it's based on 1/10ths of a pawn, and gives the example that 200 would be 2 pawns, but .1 x 200 = 20, not 2. It's full of logical and grammar mistakes like that. This program is written by German programmers, and having spent a lot of time in Germany as an exchange student, I can tell you that the program has a very German "feel" to it- it makes corny remarks like "Fritz to Enterprise- better have Dr. Spock take a look at this position" and has pictures of monkeys when you set your handicap- perhaps a jeer at the player who will not take on the program at full strength. If you've spent time in Germany, you know that this is the type of humor Germans (not all of course) seem to like. Go to any post card stand in Munich and they will have postcards of monkeys I guarantee it. ANYWAY, moving on... as far as time goes, in Chessmaster it was nice to set a little countdown or some Fisher time. You can do that here as well, but only in the "blitz", "long", or "rated" modes. Here's the kicker- all of those modes have the engine at full strength, and you can't change it, so you will never, ever play those modes, except for maybe once to confirm, once and for all, that you are indeed not the next Bobby Fisher. I also tried to enable the chess coach, which is supposed to give you tips and warn you of blunders. So, I turned it on, and started playing. After a while, no corrections, so I made a small mistake. No correction. Then I hung my queen. No correction. Same thing happened when I used the "Train Openings" option. I trained the Sicilian, and opened with b3, which it correctly said was the wrong move and I should open with e4. Hey, alright! It works, right? Nope. After a few moves it entered a line I hadn't seen before, so I again hung the queen. No correction. I checked the menu, and "Train Openings" was still turned on. Now I'll be fair- I'm sure all this stuff works, and I'm sure it's a great piece of software, and I'm going to do what I can to learn how to use it. My final word of advice is this: if you've been playing a long time, and want to really analyze your club games, and want this program for the strength of it's engine, and are not itching to start playing chess: go for it- I have no doubt it is the strongest program you can buy. However, if you are a beginner or intermediate casual at-home type player, looking for a simple interface where you can be challenged by a good program (it will still beat you at its highest setting, and at many lower settings as well) go with Chessmaster 9000.

Full of bugs

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 17
Date: February 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The above reviewer who noted that Fritz 8 was full of bugs sure wasn't kidding. The chess play is all right, but if you want to do something simple like saving a game or a position, well, forget it. I've just spent two hours trying to save a few positions, and I've been directed all over the place, but I still haven't been able to save just 3 games. In the future I'll have to replay each game each time to get to an established position. The directions are unclear, incomplete, or just don't work. A simple process such as saving and retreiving games should be, well, simple and user-friendly. Either my copy is defective or you have to be a grandmaster in software to figure out how the $%@*^%* thing works.

Good for playing and analysing, nothing else

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 19 / 31
Date: January 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If you want to buy a strong chess program to play against and get some analysis then Fritz 8 is the thing.

However if you want a traing program which gives you awsome training options (Fritz 8 does have these options but they are CRAP) and great game analysing with a lot of comments and explanations (Fritz 8 only tells you the obvious things) then go for Chessmaster 9000.

Fritz 8 for playing against and analysing with not so good comments.

Chessmaster 9000 for anything else. Chessmaster is much better.

Worst User Interface Ever Designed!!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 15 / 29
Date: October 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This program has a lot of features, however, it's pretty close to impossible to figure out how to get the features to work. I've never in my life seen a program with such a non-discoverable, non-intuitive, obscure interface. What is truly amazing about this program, is you can read the manual and still not figure out how to use the features! I've just spent 2 hours (including studying the manual) trying to figure out how to load a PGN file of some games that I've played to use the analysis features of the program and I still have no clue how to do it. Unbelievable. I've used several other chess programs and never had to even open the manual. I've used 100's of windows programs and this is clearly the worst interface I've ever seen.

EXCELLENT ONLINE GAME PLAY

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 64 / 65
Date: December 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If your searching for the perfect computer chess program, there isn't one. I own Chessmaster 9000 and Fritz 8, both are very nice computer chess programs, and both could learn from each other. If your looking for a tutor, Chessmaster 9000 rules! The multimedia approach for teaching chess is excellent for both kids and adults! I would have to give Chessmaster extra points for it's multimedia approach to game analysis as well. In addition, Chessmaster 9000 will analyze your game, just as well, in a fraction of the time, compared to Fritz 8. Both programs have an excellent game play interface, but I would have to rate Fritz slightly higher for it's 3D graphics, and 3D interface... Chessmaster still needs a little work in this area. However, I'll give Chessmaster extra points for user friendliness, it is much less complicated to use in comparison to Fritz, in my opinion. Where Fritz blows the competition away, is in it's online game play. If playing against a computer grows old, Fritz comes with a one year membership to playchess.com... if you want to play other people online with a nice chess program, Fritz 8 is the program for you! However, if your looking for a tutor to learn the game of chess, even if you know absolutely nothing, Chessmaster 9000 is the program for you!

It will kick my butt, but only if I upgrade

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 19
Date: October 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Obviously we are dealing with a serious program here; I mean this was Kasparov's sparring partner for Deeper Blue, so where do I come off thinking I will ever beat it at full strength. My other point is that the Amazon write-up states that it is compatible with Win95. The box that the program comes in says Win98 up to WinXP. Well, both of my computers run Win95, and the program would not install. So, I'm saving the program for my eventual computer upgrade, and then I can lose to Fritz8!
Final note- the upgrade and the thrashing did take place. For fun I put it in "desperado" mode. I will have to quit my job, so I can finally get good!

Fritz 8 is nice.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 16
Date: January 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I guess Fritz 8 is stronger than chessmaster 8000 (GOOD). I have almost the whole family of chessmaster xxxx (from 2000 to 8000). Fritz 8 human interface is not very friendly or intuitive, maybe I spent too much time with the chessmaster series. I could not find the self-play mode in Fritz. The analysis of Fritz is very professional, it even uses the international symbols to grade the position. However I'd like to see another mode to give numeric values at each position like chessmaster, the symbol =/+ , +/=, etc. are not specific enough (at least to a detail player like me.) The user manual is hard to follow.
OK, 4 1/2 stars.

For anybody past beginner level

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 100 / 102
Date: July 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you haven't heard of Fritz, search the web. This is serious chess software.

For a beginner, ChessMaster has a nice interface, and its tutorials are useful. For anybody else, ChessMaster lacks features.

Fritz is great for lots of things...

* Analysis: Whereas ChessMaster shows only the current line, Fritz can show as many lines as you want. It can even show a small chessboard in an analysis window.
* Annotation/Training: If you enter one of your games into Fritz (and you can save them all in a database) Fritz can automatically annotate it, and it can even come up with training questions for you at tactically critical positions.
* Sparring: This is a feature unique to Fritz. It will attempt to play at your level by ocassional giving you some free material, and then mercilessly regaining it. It keeps track of your level over several games.
* Friend mode: Fritz will play its usual game (with whatever personality and level you choose) but it will sometimes make a tactical error. The depth of the combination will be appropriate to your own level of play. In case you miss it, Fritz will flash a little red light at you optionally to tell you to look for something.

Other features:
+ A very nice, useful database. You can search for games from amongst millions by game, player, position, opening, etc.
+ An opening book. I like the way that ChessMaster names the opening as you play it. Fritz does that almost as well. What it adds is a full opening tree, which you can view while you play. It tells you the possible responses and their win percentages in high level play. (This is not really useful unless you are a very good player, but it is still interesting.)
+ Can play Shuffle Chess (piece positions swapped randomly) although it cannot strictly play Fischerandom.
+ Lots of timing modes, including Fischer time (bonus seconds per move).
+ Several personalities and playing styles. I prefer ChessMaster here for the weaker personalities, but Fritz does have a wide variety of settings.
+ Extremely strong and fast chess engine. (ChessMaster has this too. Most programs are well above master level these days, since computers have become so powerful.)
+ Nice user interface. I think ChessMaster is better to look at. The Fritz 3D board is playable, but not really necessary. Its 2D board is attractive enough. Its the GUI that's easy-to-use in Fritz. (Other programs with nice GUIs include ChessGenius, ChessPartner, and ChessAssistant.)
+ And there are plenty of features which are just too complicated to explain.

If you're a beginner, stick with ChessMaster. If you want more, try this. Great bargain. This software used to sell at a much higher price.

Currently the Best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 89 / 93
Date: August 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I had heard about Fritz beating many of he worlds best players but did not buy this program for a long time. At first it was too expensive. After buying this program I am ashamed to admit I ever owned Chessmaster and Battle Chess. The review on this page by "oblivion95" gives a good run down of the main features. I would just like to add a couple notes:
1. The current version comes with access to their game server (playchess.com) and it is the best internet chess playing interface I have ever used! I have used many to include USCF, ICC,Kasprovchess,yahoo, and many more.
2. It is easy for the average player to buy a program that can beat them time after time. Yes, most programs have adjustable levels but that is where the teaching stops. This program has many more teaching options.
3. The game analysis is awsome. Try this: Have chessmaster and Fritz analyze the same position from one of your games and compare the results. Better yet just save your time and money and buy Fritz.

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