Fritz 9: Play Chess Review

The strengths of Fritz 9 will likely only appeal to the most advanced chess players.

Fritz 9 is the latest version of the superpowered chess engine that was able to defeat Garry Kasparov, one of the world's best players. If that sounds like a challenge you're up to then Fritz 9 won't disappoint. However, if you have anything less than an enthusiast's interest in chess, then you'd be better off playing online for free or picking up the much more accessible Chessmaster 10th Edition. Fritz 9 does have plenty of features that might appeal to the casual chess player, but if that's all you're looking for, then you'll end up missing out on most of what makes Fritz a remarkable program.

Fritz 9 is a tough game of chess, but thankfully you can scale the AI to meet your level of skill.
Fritz 9 is a tough game of chess, but thankfully you can scale the AI to meet your level of skill.

Fritz 9 is less a chess game and more a program that lets you meticulously analyze your own abilities as well as those of some of the elite grand masters and other notable players from the past 350 years or so. If you refer to chess pieces as "material" and are familiar with opening strategies such as the Queen's Gambit or the Sicilian Defense, then you'll be at home here.

Supposedly the Fritz 9 engine is even more "intelligent" than the previous version, although the increase is so incremental that, unless you play at the grand master level, you probably won't be able to perceive much, if any, improvement. However, even if you're unable to fully appreciate the strengths of the Fritz 9 engine's most advanced calculations, you can still scale to the artificial intelligence to match your skill level. There are several modes available, most of which simply alter the AI of your opponent. For example, in friends mode, the program analyzes your level of play and adjusts the opponent's skill to roughly match yours. You can also adjust your opponent's handicap based on a wide variety of parameters. If you want to play against an aggressive opponent who likes to move his queen early and often, you can do so. There are also preset AI opponents that play differently based on these elements. You can play against a drunk, reckless, or "fraidy-cat" opponent, each of which behaves quite differently based on the preset behavior characteristics. The problem is that lower-level opponents seem to make completely arbitrary blunders that clash with their otherwise careful strategies. The result is an opponent that seems to intentionally screw up at random moments rather than make subtly worse decisions throughout the course of a game.

That might not make for a natural opponent if you just want a comparable match, but in sparring mode the intentional blunders offer up opportunities to improve your game. In this mode, the AI will play a strong game but will make a serious mistake at a key moment, letting you sharpen your ability to perceive and exploit weak moves that your opponent makes. In addition to sparring mode, there are several other training modes available in Fritz 9. There's an option to play with a chess coach watching, so that every time you make a potentially costly move, you'll be warned and given a hint about why that move isn't advisable. Unfortunately, about a third of the time the coach isn't able to offer any hint beyond the initial objection to your move. Other training modes include an opening-play scenario, which lets you play a game according to a specific opening theory. If you stray from the rules of the selected opening, the coach will chime in and let you know about it. For a more hands-off approach to learning chess, you can watch a series of included videos where chess masters explain the basics of the game as well as a couple of selected openings. The videos are helpful for beginners, but the lessons are a bit too obvious for anyone with even the slightest idea of how to play chess.

If you're beyond the level of video tutorials and hand-holding coaches, you can still improve your game by utilizing the strength of the Fritz 9 game engine to analyze any game you play. You can select infinite analysis to have the program go over each and every step of a game to determine where the weakest and strongest moves occurred. In the interest of time, you can simply set the engine to analyze only the blunders that cost the losing player the game. If you prefer, you can load up one of the one million games available in the database to examine blunders, checks, and power moves from previous years. It's the database and analysis features that set Fritz 9 apart from casual chess games.

Bear in mind that since you're basically paying for the game engine, everything else is ancillary. The interface in Fritz 9 is functional, but it does nothing to help guide you through the various features of the program. Without previous experience with advanced chess programs, you'll be lost. But, on the other hand, if you've played Fritz 8, you'll be at home here, as not much has changed in terms of presentation. Fritz 9 has several 3D chess sets to choose from, and they all look quite nice, although they also look quite similar to one another. You can play against a couple of fully rendered 3D opponents as well, including the swami Turk and the robotic Mia. The 3D boards and in-depth computer analysis do require a bit more in the way of system resources, however. The game locked up on us a few times while playing on a computer that far exceeded the recommended system requirements.

Included with Fritz 9 is a one-year subscription to playchess.com, which is a $35 value in and of itself.
Included with Fritz 9 is a one-year subscription to playchess.com, which is a $35 value in and of itself.

There isn't much sound to accompany the game of chess, so in that regard Fritz 9 is spot on. The tinkling of moving pieces matches the material that they're made of, so you will hear a difference when you switch from the wooden sets to the glass. There's also a derisive voice to accompany your opponent, which sounds like a series of outtakes from a Robin Williams movie. As such, it gets annoying rather quickly, but thankfully you can turn the voices off. Also, since Fritz 9 plays in a window, you can listen to your favorite music as you play.

Whether or not you enjoy Fritz 9 depends entirely on your level of interest in the game of chess. On the one hand, you have to be a fairly high-level chess player to appreciate Fritz 9's strengths. But, on the other hand, if you're a high-level chess player you've probably already played Fritz 8, which really isn't much different. Still, Fritz 9 comes with a one-year subscription to playchess.com, which is a $35 value, and you can play against people all over the world in friendly and ranked games, tournaments, and more. So, if you want to play against one of the strongest chess engines in the world, or if your subscription to playchess.com is just about to run out, then you should definitely pick up Fritz 9. If you just want to play chess every now and then on some novelty boards, you'd probably be better off with Chessmaster.

The Good

  • Powerful chess engine to challenge even the best players
  • Countless ways to customize your game
  • Game engine will analyze your game to point out weak spots
  • One-year subscription to playchess.com included

The Bad

  • Confusing, dated interface makes it difficult to take advantage of many of the features
  • The game locks up occasionally
  • Instructional videos are brief and aren't especially helpful

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