Most chess games are decided by tactics — and practising tactical patterns will improve your chess and your results. You will spot threats and tactical possibilities quicker and more often, and as a result, you will score more points.
Fritz 16 helps to practice tactics — from basic patterns to sophisticated combinations. Let's have a look at how to train some basics:
After starting Fritz we click on "Use classic Menu style" in the lower left bottom of the starting page.
Chess is a materialistic game — being a pawn down or being a pawn can make the difference between winning and losing. Material is so important that most players simply know all the time whether they are material up or down.
Fritz 16 counts material automatically but if want to practice counting material quickly we can ask Fritz not to show us the material balance: we right click with the mouse in the notation window and uncheck "Show Material". This option shows which player is material up (but note: this does not indicate which pieces have been captured!)
The "Training" tab offers you to select an aspect of the game on which you want to focus your training:
The program now selects positions from the database of your choice and asks you to solve simple tactical tasks. If you want to you can set a time for the solution of the tasks. E.g.
Chess players sometimes say: "Never miss a check — it could be mate". This is, of course, a joke, but there's a reason for it.
When the time you set for the task is over, the program shows you the right answers and how you did.
Check your score
Power user tip: It is possible to reset your statistics to zero: You can use the Windows search function to find the "Highscore.cbini" file. If you delete this file all results of your training will be deleted.
Go ahead and give it a try! Have fun training tactics!
