Monday, October 17, 2005

Need a little help with Fritz

I have been semi-diligently going over my ICC losses in Fritz (note: Fritz 9 is due out in a week or so). I have been examining the evaluation profile, which plots who is winning by how many pawns, trying to understand the inevitable major jump in my opponent's favor. I have been confused about a few things regarding Fritz:

1. Is it only possible to get the evaluation profile using Blundercheck with the threshold set to 0? I haven't been able to get a profile to appear in Full Analysis mode: is it possible?

2. What evaluation criteria are used in calculating the evaluation profile?

3. In one of King of the Spill's posts, he said that you can get Fritz to list the best move for a position, second best, etc by simply typing '+'. I have tried this to no avail. Do I have to be in some special analysis mode or something or is supposed to work all the time?

4. What is the best online or book-length tutorial on how to get the most out of Fritz? The manual that accompanies it is awful.

8 Comments:

Blogger Pawnsensei said...

I'm still trying to figure out how to use all the features with that program myself! Let me know what you find. Did you check out the TNotes?

PS

10/17/2005 04:33:00 PM  
Blogger Smith-Morra said...

I use fritz 7 and I dont understand everything it can do either :)

Turn on infinite analysis first, to see the best line in the current position. Then the "+" button adds another line of evaluation, so instead of looking at just the best line, you can see what it thinks is 2nd best. Keep clicking + to add more lines, 3rd best, 4th best etc. Use "-" to remove lines. There is a "+" and a "-" button as well, you dont need to press the +/- keys

10/17/2005 06:02:00 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I have ordered my first major chess software - Fritz 9. Almost all of my queries on Fritz get answered by Steve Lopez (who also writes articles on various chess sites) on ChessExchange. Do post here what answers you get for your questions.

10/17/2005 08:02:00 PM  
Blogger Pale Morning Dun - Errant Knight de la Maza said...

The Hun's are capable of developing one of the most sophisticated chess software programs on earth, yet they have given absolutely zero attention to an appropriate manual. I wish I could offer you more advice than smith-morra, but I'm still trying to figure out how to use the analysis function to the best of it's ability.

For example, let's say white won the match, and you have the option of analysis for white, black, loser, winner or both. What's the difference between white and winner? Why not just put both everytime? I'm amazed that when I put the full analysis function on, I only get like a two or three move suggestion. I'm pretty sure my chess isn't that good.

10/17/2005 11:39:00 PM  
Blogger bahus said...

Yes, the manual is fairly useless. There are good hints in the T-Notes (at Chessbase) and especially in the Mig's columns (Chess Cafe).

- bahus

10/18/2005 07:37:00 AM  
Blogger Pawnsensei said...

That was an awesome tip Smith-Morra. I have been trying to figure out how to do that since I purchased the program. I've been running Crafty alongside Fritz to do the same thing.

PS

10/19/2005 07:30:00 PM  
Blogger Temposchlucker said...

I don't know what it is.
All those chessprograms like Fritz, Rebel, Arena, Chessbase, Chess Assitant etc. have terrible user interfaces. Maybe they think that chessplayers are so intelligent that they have no problem with it?

10/19/2005 08:41:00 PM  
Blogger Pawnsensei said...

^^ So true TS. Man I gave up on the Chessbase Light interface. That thing was close to impossible for me.

PS

10/20/2005 04:04:00 PM  

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