English Chess Forum

Before buying the latest version of Fritz (which, for legal reasons, I would like to emphasise is in no way a rip-off of the Rybka Aquarium environment ) you might want some reassurance that you won't suffer the same fate as my sad self. I installed the program, activated it and upgraded to the latest version (already on version three it appears less than a week after the program was put on sale). Shortly thereafter I opened the database in which I store my own games - about 3,100 of them. Fritz 12 appears to have wiped the database clean I've confirmed this with the ChessBase program and a Windows file viewer. It's been over six months since I backed up the file (I know, I know) which is over a 100 games lost.

It may be that there was something about my particular computing set up that contributed to the problem (although I doubt it - I have no special hardware and my virus protection is up to date) but you may want to take care. Above all - back up your files before subjecting them to the vagaries of new software.

Brendan O'Gorman wrote:Before buying the latest version of Fritz

I wouldn't buy it at all. It's far easier to just download a free equivalent, such as Fruit. OK, it's not as strong as Fritz or Rybka, but it's good enough for most club players. It even works well with .pgn files. Fritz needs a lot of persuading (at least, the old version I used does) to do anything other than .cbh format.

thanks for the warning brendan as i will be bying fritz 12 to go with fritz 11 and rybka which i already have.

I was debating on buying it or put it on Xmas list as I have Fritz 10 and hardly use it (or any chess computer). I use chessbase when I get time and attempted transfer variations that I am interested in and general ideas from the hard disk to my brain. I prefer playing humans online or over the board most other times. Fritz is good for analysis and too good to play .

Ian Lamb wrote:thanks for the warning brendan as i will be bying fritz 12 to go with fritz 11 and rybka which i already have.

Hi Ian,
my kids are pestering me (surely not) about making an Xmas list - I did try to explain it was October but that excuse didn't wash, rather like my son, although he is an IT student

I see you have Fritz 11 and Rybka - I presume that we are of a similiar chess standard, so which of those would you recommend? And what does Fritz 12 have that Fritz 11 doesn't?
Although I notice that Amazon has version 12 3p cheaper than its younger sibling so maybe the difference doesn't matter unless the newer beast is going to consume more real estate on my laptop!

Thanks
Trefor

Thanks for the warning Brendan, I'll make sure I have taken a copy before using.

Out of curiosity, have you put Fritz12 head-to-head against Fritz11 ? I'm just interested in how much better it is ? How about Rybka3 ?

The free version of Rybka (off its website) is stronger than most other engines. You can download it and use it in your existing Fritz GUI:

file: http://www.rybkachess.com/index.php?aus ... mo+version
installation instructions: http://www.rybkachess.com/index.php?auswahl=In+Fritz

The free version is around 3024 ELO which is more than enough for anyone I think! (http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/c ... 2-bit_2CPU)

I don't see much point in buying a new version of fritz unless you want the playchess subscription, or you don't have an existing GUI (e.g. Fritz) and you need one.

Brendan,

If the 100 lost games had been manually keyed into Chessbase 10, then they will still be there in the "history" files in Chessbase, even if the main game file itself somehow got deleted.

I've just installed Fritz 12 on a virtual copy of Windows XP running on my Mac. Having first backed up my games database, as Brendan suggested. Then I ran into a problem. When I tried to open Fritz 12, I got an error message stating: "This application has failed to start because d3dx9_41.dll was not found. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem." (It didn't.) I checked the DVD and that file really is not there.

Either I've got an incomplete DVD, which I should return to that nice Mr Pein who sold it to me in the London Chess Centre, or there's a bug here which may or may not have been fixed by an update. I couldn't find anything on the ChessBase website. Can someone enlighten me?

I would like to get this fixed because I hate buying things that don't work. But it doesn't matter so much because the only thing I use Fritz for is to analyse games stored on ChessBase 10. Interestingly, CB10 has installed Fritz 12 in its suite of engines, and it works fine when I try to use it for that purpose.

By the way, my games database is still there in CB10 - Fritz 12 hasn't deleted it.

Having read the other posts I think I'll have a look at Rybka 3.

This might help with the missing DLL:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerr ... -error.htm

It's a problem with DirectX, so installing the latest version should fix the problem.

Laurie Roberts wrote:or you don't have an existing GUI (e.g. Fritz) and you need one.

You can download a free GUI, Arena, and runs with every chess engine. I think it even comes with free Rybka.

yes, Arena is great given it's free. But it's not as nice a GUI as Fritz/Chessbae in my opinion

Ian Kingston wrote:This might help with the missing DLL:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerr ... -error.htm

It's a problem with DirectX, so installing the latest version should fix the problem.

Thanks for the tip. I installed DirectX as suggested and then Fritz 12 opened without any problems.

hi trefor i would recommend rybka 3 over fritz 11 i belive its the best out there at the moment not got fritz 12 as yet but will be purchasing it on the 15th november so i let you know what i think of it then before christmas when you purchase it but with rybka 3 i also have the opening book as well.

I agree that Rybka3 is a better engine with which to do post-match analysis.

The Fritz12 interface seems to have changed dramatically

You will know what I mean if you have used Excel2007. Basically, the options bar is much bigger. Rather than having a drop-down menu for each category (Insert, Board, Training, Analysis, Engine etc) there is now a large area for managing various aspects of the interface and engine. On the one hand the design is quite sensible, but on the other hand this managment interface takes valuable screen space which is no longer available if you were using the Fritz Interface to watch the Fritz training DVDs - where one tries to making the board and video screen as large as possible. I've found no way to hide this options window.

Fritz 12 is alot better for adding annotations and symbols to your games which used to be something that was awkward in anything but Chessbase (unless you were a experienced user ofc).

There are attack, defence and check training features where you have to highlight pieces that are vulnerable or are undefended. You have to do this against a timer and are awarded a score. It's just a novelty rather than serious training.

There is also an opening trainer which is quite nice and tests your book knowledge of various openings. Quite useful if you are trying to learn a new repertoire.

Lastly the pane management is vastly improved, although I'm not sure you're going to knock out 40 sheets just for that !!


I assume the major change in look-and-feel is going to be incorporated into the next release of Chessbase. Overall it's an improvement - I just hope they look into implementing a way of minimizing the bulky options area which takes space from the rest of the window.