Fritz 8 or Chessmaster 10?

Hi guys,

Just wondered if you have any views on which is better to help a low rated player improve?

Thanks

Fritz plays a stronger game, but Chessmaster has a buttload of tutorials, etc., that may help a new player improve quickly, and Chessmaster 10's strength is nothing to sneeze at. It was good enough to beat Larry Christiansen in a 6 game match.

There was a web page (sorry, I don't remember it) which listed the "official" ELO ratings of about 20 top PC chess engines. Fritz 8 was about 30 points higher than CM9000. When you are playing around 2800 ELO, 30 points is really an insignifigant difference from our view down here in the mortal world. I own F8, and it is great. But the tutorials on CM are much better. I would recommend CM, especially since the later versions have incorporated a blunder alert feature similar to that of Fritz.

Good luck.

BLR

Originally posted by BLReid
There was a web page (sorry, I don't remember it) which listed the "official" ELO ratings of about 20 top PC chess engines. Fritz 8 was about 30 points higher than CM9000. When you are playing around 2800 ELO, 30 points is really an insignifigant difference from our view down here in the mortal world. I own F8, and it is great. But the tutorials on CM are ...[text shortened]... ersions have incorporated a blunder alert feature similar to that of Fritz.

Good luck.

BLR

You might want to research the programs. Some people are having problems with ChessMaster 10. Some are having no problems with it. ChessMaster 10 searches for a device that burns cds and will not play if it finds such a program.

Originally posted by gambit3
You might want to research the programs. Some people are having problems with ChessMaster 10. Some are having no problems with it. ChessMaster 10 searches for a device that burns cds and will not play if it finds such a program.

Chessmaster 10 has may have a few problems if you don't have an uptodate video card. The tutorials are nice. You must keep the disk in your drive to use cm10. As for playing strength, Fritz is stronger, but at your level it doesn't make any difference. Why not pick up cm9 at a cheaper price? I have both and actually prefer the 9. Another, bigger advantage of fritz is that it gives you access to playchess.com for free, a terrific site for blitz and standard. Also I like the Fritz analysis and their analysis graph which makes turning points easy to see. All in all, I'd say Fritz 8 a better buy. Now that they're coming out with Fritz9, mabe 8 might be a bargain. the 3d offered by CM10 is a bit of fluff as far as i'm concerned. Serious chess players overwhelmlingly like 2d on a computer. I was surprised to see fritz for sale in a common department store here (Target), although I wasn't able to determine if it was 8 by the package. I'd also say that RHP is a terrific place to get reviews, because here you'll find practical players with a variety of opinions and not out to hype something that doesn't deserve it. Hopes this helps.

I see. Thankyou for that. I have just got a copy of Fritz 8 but Im finding it hard to use, the manual isnt brilliant I find? Still, Im sure ill work it out by the end of today!

Thanks again for the help.

And why not?
Probably because the company wants to discourage people from stealing programs by burning them onto another CD.

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
[b]And why not?
Probably because the company wants to discourage people from stealing programs by burning them onto another CD.[/b]

I own both CM9000 and Deep Fritz 8. They are both excellent programs. I think CM is probably better for the beginning player because of the excellent tutorials and the variety of chess personalities that you can play against. Fritz is better for the intermediate to advanced player but can be useful to beginners also. However, it just doesn't have as many beginner features as CM.

One advantage of Fritz is the excellent learning add-ons that you can order from Chessbase. I am currently going through Bangiev's Squares Strategy 1 add-on. Fritz also has a scaled down version of the Chessbase database software installed. It is by far a better research database than what comes with CM. Also, Fritz has substantially better annotation features and game analysis.

Basically, Fritz is just like having a super-grandmaster trainer on your computer. It has really improved my game.

I have CM9000 now on the kids' computer and have Deep Fritz 8 on my computer. Both are very good programs.

Originally posted by Feivel
And why not?

Originally posted by gambit3
Copyright stuff? I guess they do not want ChessMaster 10 copied.

Originally posted by Feivel
Cmon...read the post I am replying to. There is NOTHING about copying in it. Besides, if ChessMaster is alienating all people with a CD burner that is not only stupid but totally moronic. Chessbase had a dongle in the past but they listened to their customer base and got rid of it. CM has a small enough place in the market (as does chess as a whole) so why are you going to alienate 90% of the little base by requireing no CD burner?

Feivel

Originally posted by gambit3
That is what was ChessMaster 10 is reported to be doing.

ChessMaster 10 searches for a device that burns cds and will not play if it finds such a program.