Fritz 18 - Review
Updated: Jan 20
Fritz.
A commercial program developed by ChessBase for over 30 years. A companion and training partner for chess players and computer chess enthusiasts across generations.
Fritz is a program sold around the world, considered by many to be the best in its class - a benchmark for other competitive products.
Fritz has written beautiful pages in the history of computer chess. In 1995 he became the Computer World Champion by winning against a prototype of the famous Deep Blue chess computer. At the beginning of this century he played with the strongest grandmasters and got good results against World Champions like Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kraminik and Rustam Kasimdzhanov.
Those were fascinating times for computer chess, when talented programmers through their chess programs were discovering more and more possibilities of programs in this software field.
Source: ChessBase
In late 2021, Fritz 18 (F18 for short) was released, while an update called Fritz 18 Neuronal was released on March 31, 2022.
This latest version of Fritz 18 Neuronal will be reviewed.
First, let's take a look at some of the data in the table below.
Table of Fritz 18 specifications.
Dear reader, you may be wondering reading this specification:
Why ChessBase has not released Fritz for other platforms such as Macs or computers running Linux ?
Why there is no Fritz for mobile devices ?
After all, ChessBase as a company has been producing and selling software for over 30 years !
These are the kinds of questions Fritz supporters have repeatedly asked ChessBase after articles on their website.
Unfortunately, until today we have not lived to see the answer and the release of Fritz for the above-mentioned platforms.
This is all the more puzzling because, for example:
Contemporary Mac computers using Apple Silicon processors (ARM architecture) are very efficient, working noiselessly and using much less power than other competing solutions.
And they cost reasonable money, such as the Mac Mini with the Apple M1 processor. On top of that, working under the macOS, considered by many to be the best operating system.
Undoubtedly, chess is becoming more prevalent - with an emphasis on online play and software. It is worth knowing that customers leave many times more money in the Apple App Store and other sources than in the Windows store. What I wonder about is the business strategy of ChessBase, which is, after all, one of the largest developers of chess software. Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Slack, Oracle, Valve and others most notably companies make software for the Linux and Mac. I would like to see ChessBase join this esteemed group one day.
Well... hopefully that will change in the future and we will eventually get Fritz and other ChessBase software for Linux and Mac. Although earlier we will probably live to see full-fledged ChessBase web apps than their versions for other operating systems ;)
For those interested, here's a link to an article on how to use Windows system and Windows applications comfortably on a Mac.
In the meantime, let's revisit the Fritz 18 Neuronal and see...
Does the Fritz 18 Neuronal engine provide significant competition to today's most powerful chess engines ?
Will the functions related to the analysis and use of chess engines meet the expectations of a sophisticated user ?
Does the Fritz 18 offer the best and most useful training features ?
Are the database functions sufficient to handle games and chess bases efficiently ?
Does F18 offer useful web integrations / online apps ?
I will try to answer these and other questions in this review.
Let's start with...
Like the reviews of other chess programs on this blog, this one is divided into several topic segments. This is to make it easier for readers to possibly compare different programs.
When you run F18, you are greeted by a window with program functions divided into thematic sections:
FRITZ
PLAYCHESS
ONLINE APPS
At the very top more to the right you can see the login status of your ChessBase account. If you see your login name then you are logged in.
PLAYCHESS
PlayChess is one of the components of the ChessBase ecosystem.
By purchasing F18 you also receive Premium access to the PlayChess server for a period of 6 months.
In this article I described the PlayChess server and its capabilities available with Premium access.
Let me quote a few words from the mentioned article:
"
Play Chess is not only a place to play chess over the Internet, it is also an excellent center for many services provided by ChessBase, such as broadcasts of events, game streams, participation in simulations, access to chess games databases and various types of training.
"
When I want to play chess online, I like it when I can chat with a player or many players I know. And sometimes I can chat with the tournament referee, exchange opinions, ask about something - just chat in a human way.
That is why I have been playing online for many years on the PlayChess server.
PlayChess is a very good server for playing chess online.
Having Fritz 18, it would be a pity not to try PlayChess, even more so having Premium access for 6 months.
ONLINE APPS
Fritz 18, like other ChessBase programs, offers access to web applications dedicated to specific purposes.
The best way to use them is to have Premium access - such as Fritz 18 offers.
Video Portal - Enhance your chess with Video lectures.
This is a place dedicated to chess training.
More than 5000 videos in which tutors discuss each phase of chess with examples: openings, middle game, endgame.
Videos are added on a regular basis.
The hosts are well-known Masters, Grandmasters and coaches such as Andrew Martin, Daniel King, Lawrence Trent, Svitlana Demchenko, Karsten Müller, Herman Grooten, Robert Ris and others.
In addition to the videos - courses, we can also watch videos on variety chess topics:
Looking for a video that talks about a specific opening or position ?
Nothing easier, use search engine!
After setting the position and clicking the Search Position button...
..., You get the results:
Another example, much more popular opening -> much more videos :)