Deep Fritz 14 – Elo 3150 on your computer

Deep Fritz 14 – 64 bit multiprocessor version

Review by Sean Marsh

A new Fritz for the New Year. Even the number matches the year.

I can remember the first time I encountered a Fritz. It was Fritz 2 and a trendy student insisted on trying it out against me.

It was clearly a huge improvement on the dedicated machines we had played against from the mid-1980s onwards: Super Novags, Chess Challengers, even the mysterious Phantom (it could move the pieces by itself). All had their weaknesses which, once discovered, could be repeatedly exploited.

Fritz changed all of that by handing out humiliating defeats with alarming regularity. It was no longer enough to keep the position closed or find a pawn sacrifice which would lead to massive compensation just beyond its horizon. As we all know, it didn’t take too long for Fritz and similar programs to beat world champions in high-profile matches. Humans can’t match them anymore.

Deep Fritz 14 claims to have improved on its great predecessor by adding 100 Elo points to its playing strength. There’s another important difference too: “Single-processor engines are a thing of the past – that’s why the new Fritz comes as a powerful multi-processor version right from the word go.” So now we have a 64-bit engine, in addition to a new opening book by Alex Kure – featuring four million positions. Furthermore, the ‘Let’s Check’ facility offers access to 200 million positions. The numbers involved are obviously incredible.

I tried a number of games against the monster, with results resembling almost constant one-way traffic. There was one anomaly; Fritz accepted my draw offer after the following moves:

All versions of Fritz I’ve ever played have been extremely reluctant to agree draws in any sort of position and I don’t know why it agreed to this one. A few hours later, I tried the same sequence of moves again and offered a draw at the same point, but this time Fritz declined the offer immediately. Strange.

Fritz 14 can analyse one’s games, just as before. Will it make one stronger at chess or just lazier? It depends how much time is available to spend picking over the analysis. It will, however, make it easier to win the post-game arguments regarding who stood better and when (“My Fritz 14 is better than your Fritz 13 and it says I was better from move 15 onwards...”).

Bragging rights aside, do we really need to upgrade from older versions? Not really, as Fritz 13 will do more than enough for the average player. I am suddenly reminded of the famous interview with Brian Clough and Don Revie on a 1974 edition of ITV’s Calendar show. Clough, who had just been sacked from Leeds United, was asked by Revie (the highly successful manager of Leeds just before Clough) why he took the job in the first place, having been very critical of all things Leeds beforehand. Clough said: “I wanted to win the league, but I wanted to win it better.” Revie replied, “There’s no way you could do that. We only lost four games”, and Clough said words to the effect that he could win it by only losing three games. Yes, Fritz 14 will definitely beat you “better” than previous versions – in fewer moves, for sure – if that’s what you really want.

Newcomers to chess programs will find this an excellent jumping-on point; there’s no doubt about that. It’s very easy to get up and running; it took ten minutes on my laptop and most of the features are easy to get to grips with. There’s also six months access to the PlayChess server (an interesting reduction from the previous standard of 12 months).

Fritz 14 is compatible with Windows Vista, XP, 7 and 8, which should make it suitable for virtually everyone’s PC or laptop.

Source: CHESS Magazine February 2014

New features at a glance

• Fritz runs faster and smoother than ever before, supporting up to eight cores and 16 GB of hash memory, so Fritz can take advantage of developments in PC hardware.
• New Fritz playing/analysis engine. Approximately 100 Elo points stronger than previous versions. Think Magnus Carlsen's Elo rating of 2870 is impressive? Deep Fritz 14's rating is an astonishing 3150 Elo.
• Access to the 'Let's Check' (with 200 million extensively analysed positions) and ChessBase engine Cloud.
• New FritzBook by Alex Kure with over 4 million positions - Fritz knows the latest opening theory, allowing you to hone your opening repertoire.
• Six months Premium membership on Playchess.com.
• Database with over 1.5 million games, including all top-level games from the last 50 years (up to the end of 2013!).

Deep Fritz 14 By ChessBase 64-bit multi-processor version ChessBase PC-DVD Delivery: Download or Post Price: €69.90 – €58.74 without VAT (for Customers outside the EU); $80.47 (without VAT). In England: RRP £59.99 Special price £50.00 Order this program in the London Chess Center the ChessBase Shop