Is Chessmaster or Fritz right for me? | Forums

[jack2k3920]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to decide between purchasing Chessmaster 10th Edition or Fritz 9. Let me tell you about myself and what I want out of the chess software, so hopefully someone knowledgeable about both software can point me to the right direction.

My chess skills are below intermediate. I'm okay until the point where I need to checkmate, which takes longer than it normally should.

So I'm looking for a software package that can teach me and strengthen my chess strategy skills, which is subpar right now.

Does Chessmaster teach and help in chess strategy, or does it only give simple, basic advice, such as not to move the horse 'there' or the pawn will capture it?

What sort of tutorials does Fritz include in comparison to Chessmater? Also, it appears Fritz includes a 5-hour video tutorial. Is that any good? Does Chessmaster include any video tutorial?

Thank you, looking forward to some informative replies that will help me make up my mind.

[c1arinetboy]

If you're below intermediate I'd definitely go with chessmaster. It's tutorials are excellent and should be right at your level.

Chessmaster's real strength is the "Academy" section, which includes the tutorials, a few hundred annotated famous games (definitely look at these), a database of 400,000-500,000 (obviously not annotated) games, and a partially annotated visual opening book. However, the engine's simulation of weaker players, advice, and auto annotation are completely worthless; there are still serious bugs left in the game, which is now unsupported; and there are only about 20 people online at a time on the CMX server (in part due to the server bugs), compared to a few thousand at peak times on Fritz. Of course, CMX's graphic are much better than Fritz's too.

Fritz, on the other hand, has an engine that is better than CMX's in every way, the things like its game database are better, and the online section actually works (you have to pay for it, but you get a free year with the engine). On the other hand, Fritz's graphics and interface aren't that great, and although I don't know what's going to be in the videos it comes with, my guess it that the CMX tutorials are better for beginning to intermediate players.

[JRLok]

You might want to check out this article...

http://chesscentral.com/buy-chess-software.htm

[Ruy-Lopez]

If you have real interest in becoming better in chess you should go and buy fritz from the start.

Chessmaster = piece of buggy software, with no support, online play wich is a joke, absolute useless analys function.

Fritz = Chessprogram usefull from amateur to profesional, join online server with 7000 other chessplayers, best analys function you will ever want 100 times as many options that compared to chessmaster.

You can find a review of both programs here, you might have to go back some pages.

Chessmaster http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=70670

Fritz
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=15948

[darthmix]

The early reviews I've heard are that the "training videos" Fritz 9 are a pretty big disappointment - many of them are simply promotions for other Chessbase products. I haven't picked up the program yet, so this is heresay. But Fritz has never had any tutorials that come close to what Chessmaster offers, and it looks like it still doesn't.

[BinaryAssassin]

Originally posted by Ruy-Lopez:
If you have real interest in becoming better in chess you should go and buy fritz from the start.

Chessmaster = piece of buggy software, with no support, online play wich is a joke, absolute useless analys function.

Fritz = Chessprogram usefull from amateur to profesional, join online server with 7000 other chessplayers, best analys function you will ever want 100 times as many options that compared to chessmaster.

You can find a review of both programs here, you might have to go back some pages.

Chessmaster http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=70670

Fritz
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=15948

You're completely ignoring the huge amount of teaching content that comes with Chessmaster? Computer algorithms that analyze your games are good and all... but the lessons by Josh Waitzkin, and the many other hours of interactive lessons that come with Chessmaster have gotten me further than any computer analysis could.

Your best bet? Buy both. ...but that's expensive, and probably unrealistic. If you're interested in analyzing your games, go with Fritz -- Chessmaster will do it too, but not as well. If you want *good* lessons, go with Chessmaster.

(Many people on the boards have complained about "how buggy Chessmaster is", but I haven't had any problems outside of online play (which, while functional, is seriously lacking)).

[freakssssjoe]

I think you should buy chessmaster because of it's lessons and graphic. Chessmaster's graphic is way better than fritz 9 there are many realistic 3d sets for you to download and its really easy to navigate. I bought fritz 8 several months ago, the analying part is great but i dont know how to use it. It took some time for me to get use to fritz's interface. Not much chess sets only a powerful engine and some complicated options. I rarely use it because of the graphic problems.