Fritz Chess
Normal Price:$29.99
Our Price:$19.49
Availability:Usually ships in 24 hours
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Manufacturer: Viva Media
Binding: Video Game
Publisher: Viva Media
Label: Viva Media
Platform: Windows Vista
ESRB Age Rating: Everyone
Platform: Windows Vista
Features for Fritz Chess:
- Extended and updated database
- Dynamic hints: when entering a move, you see arrows highlighting direct and indirect attacks and defences of each square your mouse moves over
- Improved pieces for the 2D board. Highest resolution for boards of any size. Improved move entry on the 2D board: highlighted start and target squares avoid mouse slips.
- New set of very high resolution, classical wood 3D-pieces
- Engine animation: while the chess engine is calculating, typical elements of the calculation (e.g. frequented squares) are visualized directly on the board
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Customer Reviews
Very good and cheap chess software 
2008-06-20
This is a cheaper but full version of the Fritz X software.
I have used it with Vista on a laptop. There were no bugs, the chess software, the database and the training programs runs without any problems.
You can also use this software to store and analyze your games.
However, the chess engine is very strong for beginners.
If you have used Fritz before, this program has significantly improved interface and engine than its predecessors.
Fritz Stinks!!!!!!! 
2008-03-08
I bought this product because the only programs I read about were Fritz or Chess Master. It seemed like the "serious" players all used Fritz so I bought Fritz. I was very disappointed. The program was buggy, clunky, and not really fun to play. AND the tech support stunk! It took them more then a week to get back to me, just to tell me they had forwarded my email to someone else. Another week elapsed, and then they gave me the wrong advice and not only did they not fix the problem, but the program never ran well again.
So I have moved on to Shredder Classic 3 and I love it!! I am kind of surprised no one ever mentions Shredder. Shredder is awesome...Fritz stinks!
Good Chess Engine Bad Old Interface 
2008-02-21
I have been a long time user of Chessbase's products (ever since Fritz 4 (early 90s)). I purchased Fritz 10 because Fritz 11 was twice as expensive and had many bad reviews. Fritz 10 looks almost identical to Fritz 8 (what I had before). The engine is definitely stronger (Fritz 10) in terms of comp vs comp strength however the interface is exactly the same. Like a lot of Chessbase's recent products it is buggy and crashes if you don't use it just right (especially when doing Engine Room matches in the Playchess server).
I'd recommend this for anyone wanting to upgrade from an older Fritz interface as it does allow you to use more of Playchess' new features such as smiley faces and the world globe options. (Definitely not a MUST but for $30 its nice).
As far as first time Chessbase users - this isn't the easiest chess software out there to use but it has one of the most powerful chess engines. If you are looking for a good analytical engine I would definitely recommend this software to you - otherwise ChessMaster has some good products.
The introduction videos are nice but not long enough... It was really interesting seeing Kasparov talk about chess in person (via the video) but it is just too expensive in my opinion. Buying Fritz 10 just for the videos? I wouldn't recommend it.
This is Fritz 10 
2007-12-09
You may be wondering what this product is. It seems to be a new release of Fritz 10 for the U.S. market (it's described as Fritz 10 at the Viva Media website), and as such it sells at a reduced price compared to the latest version, Fritz 11.
With these new versions of Fritz, there is really nothing added at all. It's basically the same game as the previous version with a slightly improved chess engine. If you are simply looking for a playing partner, unless your at the Master level or higher, you're not going to get anything out of a stronger engine. But a stronger engine is of interest to people interested in analyzing chess games, because it will give a more accurate analysis of a position.
All versions of Fritz are not very friendly to the novice player. Chessmaster, despite its interface bugs, provides a better opponent for beginning and intermediate players, and Chessmaster also has much better tutorials. Fritz is NOT the product to buy if you don't know the rules of the game!
This product is a very good deal (especially if it's on sale) if you don't already own a version of Fritz and you are serious about chess.
