The exciting world of achievements in Fritz 19

by Matthias Wüllenweber
11/22/2023 – Playing against Fritz is enjoyable because the program incorporates hidden errors. There could always be a tactical strike against it. However, Fritz 19 adds a new exciting dimension to your games: The hunt for "achievements". There's a competition for 136 different chess achievements, testing your tactical and strategic versatility. And there are rewards for it too.

ChessBase 18 - Mega package ChessBase 18 - Mega package

Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.

More...

Trophy hunt

The concept of achievements is well-known from other computer games, where special accomplishments in the game are virtually rewarded. In Fritz 19, you can now earn such achievements while playing. What's special about them is that they all have a chess-related significance and describe what's happening on the board. Examples include Attack a minor piece, Block a passed pawn, or Knight outpost. There are a total of 136 different achievements! Simple ones are Capture or Check. But there are also more challenging terms like Trap the queen, Opponent has an unsafe king, or Rook sacrifice. Whenever one of these events is recognized in your game, the program counts it. If you bring a specific event like Promotion onto the board often enough, you receive the corresponding achievement. For complex achievements, it's enough if the event happens once. More trivial ones like Castle kingside need to be recognized ten times to score points.

Achievements pop up at the bottom right of your windows desktop.

If you miss an achievement notification in the midst of an exciting game, you can always look them up later:

All Fritz 19 achievements are registered as Windows 11 notifications.

Achievements exist in three levels: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Bronze is awarded for achieving the specified chess event one to ten times, depending on its rarity. Silver requires a hundred occurrences for simpler events like Evading an attack, but only twenty for more complex themes. The pinnacle is Gold. This is awarded for a thousand checks or a hundred underpromotions. As you can see, it requires some perseverance. However, it doesn't matter whether you win or how strong the opponent you have set in Fritz 19 is.

Leader boards

You can view your earned achievements at any time: Fritz 19 features an Achievement List function. You need a ChessBase account to score achievements.

Call the list of achievements from Fritz 19.

You can also directly visit account.chessbase.com/de/myachievements.

If an achievement appears gray on this page, it means you haven't yet counted any events towards it. The precursor to Bronze (counted but not enough) is marked with a black frame. Then follow the colors Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Below the symbol, the current count and the threshold for the next level are displayed. By the way, if you click on an achievement, you can see the leaderboard of other users. Who has doubled rooks on an open file most often? Who has been in a winning position the most?

Trading Cards

The leaderboards reward with honor, but there are also tangible awards: Each Bronze achievement counts one point, each Silver achievement five points, and each Gold achievement ten points. For every ten points completed, you receive an attractive digital trading card on our new site ChessBase Cards

My test game for this article yielded a trading card.

There's also a market where you can exchange cards or trade them for ducats. More on this in a later article here.

My collection of "Famous Players" is not complete yet.
 

Fritz 19 in the shop

Index of all 136 achievements

N Name Category  Bronze Silver Gold
1 En passant with check Tactics 1 20 100
2 Played eight moves of theory General 2 20 200
3 Promotion with mate Attack 1 20 100
4 Played five moves of theory General 2 20 200
5 Rare move General 1 20 100
6 Mate by moving the king Attack 1 20 100
7 Queen endgame Endgame 2 20 200
8 Naked kings General 1 20 100
9 Punish blunder Tactics 1 20 100
10 Quadrupled pawns Positional 1 20 100
11 Opponent has tripled pawns Positional 1 20 100
12 Played eleven moves of theory General 1 20 100
13 Fifty moves rule General 1 20 100
14 Stalemate Tactics 1 20 100
15 Play N Moves Statistics 2 20 200
16 Mate with a pawn Attack 1 20 100
17 Mate with a knight Attack 1 20 100
18 Perpetual check Attack 1 20 100
19 Castling with check Tactics 1 20 100
20 Under promotion General 1 20 100
21 Traps the queen Tactics 1 20 100
22 Mixing concrete Positional 1 20 100
23 Queen for two rooks Tactics 1 20 100
24 Traps a rook Tactics 1 20 100
25 Traps a bishop Tactics 1 20 100
26 Pawn endgame Endgame 2 20 200
27 Mate with a bishop Attack 1 20 100
28 Zwischenschach Tactics 1 20 100
29 Traps a knight Tactics 1 20 100
30 Bishop outpost Positional 1 20 100
31 Artificial castling Positional 1 20 100
32 Block an exchange offer Material 2 20 200
33 Kingside majority Positional 1 20 100
34 Mate with a rook Attack 2 20 200
35 Promotion with check Tactics 1 20 100
36 Space advantage Positional 1 20 100
37 Activate a bishop Positional 1 20 100
38 Minor piece endgame Endgame 2 20 200
39 Outpost on an open file Positional 1 20 100
40 Wins the queen Tactics 1 20 100
41 Attack four times Tactics 1 20 100
42 Two minor pieces for rook Tactics 1 20 100
43 Double check Tactics 1 20 100
44 Promotion General 1 20 100
45 Mate with a queen Attack 2 20 200
46 Knight outpost Positional 1 20 100
47 Zwischenzug Tactics 1 20 100
48 Disturb opponents castling Attack 1 20 100
49 Rook endgame Endgame 2 20 200
50 Wins a rook Tactics 2 20 200
51 Opposite castling Attack 2 20 200
52 Discovered check Tactics 1 20 100
53 Pawn fork Tactics 1 20 100
54 Demolition Attack 1 20 100
55 Doubled rooks Positional 2 20 200
56 Closed centre Positional 2 20 200
57 Move to covered square Tactics 2 20 200
58 Thorn in the flesh Attack 1 20 100
59 Castle queenside Positional 2 20 200
60 Opens an attack file Attack 1 20 100
61 Hang your queen Tactics 1 20 100
62 Wins a piece Tactics 1 20 100
63 Offer to trade rooks Material 2 20 200
64 Blocks a passed pawn Positional 1 20 100
65 Exchange sacrifice Tactics 1 20 100
66 Queen sacrifice Tactics 1 20 100
67 Skewer Tactics 1 20 100
68 Trade knight vs bishop Material 2 20 200
69 Connected passed pawns Positional 1 20 100
70 Sacrifice a piece for pawns Tactics 1 20 100
71 Attacking the king Attack 1 20 100
72 Nail down the king Tactics 1 20 100
73 Opponent has a backward pawn Positional 1 20 100
74 Trade queens Material 2 20 200
75 Sacrifice Tactics 1 20 100
76 Offer to trade queens Material 2 20 200
77 Spoil opponents castling Attack 1 20 100
78 Pawn storm Attack 1 20 100
79 Fianchetto Positional 2 20 200
80 Attack three times Tactics 1 20 100
81 Endgame Endgame 2 20 200
82 Rook sacrifice Tactics 1 20 100
83 Full centre Positional 1 20 100
84 Hang your bishop Tactics 1 20 100
85 Trade rooks Material 2 20 200
86 Pawn sacrifice Tactics 1 20 100
87 Opposite color bishops Positional 2 20 200
88 Rook on 7th rank Positional 1 20 100
89 Opponent unsafe king Attack 1 20 100
90 Bishop sacrifice Tactics 1 20 100
91 Parry a mate threat Attack 1 20 100
92 Hang your rook Tactics 2 20 200
93 Knight sacrifice Tactics 2 20 200
94 Wins material Tactics 3 30 300
95 Hang the exchange Tactics 2 20 200
96 Hang your knight Tactics 2 20 200
97 Capture an attacker Tactics 3 30 300
98 Pawn lever Positional 2 20 200
99 Trade bishops Material 3 30 300
100 Discovered attack Tactics 2 20 200
101 Blocks pawns Positional 3 30 300
102 Knight pair Positional 2 20 200
103 Knight fork Tactics 2 20 200
104 Evade an exchange offer Material 2 20 200
105 Advanced passed pawn Tactics 2 20 200
106 Opponent has doubled pawns Positional 4 40 400
107 Block a check Tactics 5 50 500
108 Trade knights Material 5 50 500
109 Trade bishop vs knight Material 5 50 500
110 Knight manoeuvre Positional 4 40 400
111 Completed development Positional 6 60 600
112 Attack a rook Tactics 7 70 700
113 Sharp position General 2 20 200
114 Exchange attacker Tactics 7 70 700
115 Cover a square Tactics 7 70 700
116 Bishop pair Positional 6 60 600
117 Immobilize a piece Tactics 6 60 600
118 Mate threat Tactics 6 60 600
119 Opponent has an isolated pawn Positional 6 60 600
120 Double attack Tactics 6 60 600
121 Activate with tempo Positional 6 60 600
122 Winning position General 6 60 600
123 Gardez Tactics 7 70 700
124 Rook on open file Positional 1 70 700
125 Grabs material Tactics 7 70 700
126 Pin Tactics 9 90 900
127 Attack a pawn Tactics 9 90 900
128 Capture a hanging pawn Tactics 8 80 800
129 Trade pawns Material 9 90 900
130 Castle kingside Positional 2 90 900
131 Cover something Tactics 9 90 900
132 Check General 1 100 1000
133 Attack a minor piece Tactics 10 100 1000
134 Evade an attack Tactics 2 100 1000
135 Recapture General 10 100 1000
136 Capture General 4 100 1000

Matthias Wüllenweber, CEO of ChessBase