An
Amazing Program
By Stephen Kullas
Deep Fritz 12 is the newest incarnation of the extremely popular Fritz franchise
of chess engines from ChessBase. Deep Fritz 12 is designed for multiprocessor
use, not to be confused with Fritz 12, which utilizes a single processor. Deep
Fritz 12 is a powerful program that can be used for training in a variety of
ways: by simply playing games, using the tutorials, or watching the free chess
media that accompanies the purchase. The program is useful for players of all
abilities; it acts as an opponent, an analysis partner, and chess coach. Deep
Fritz 12 is a solid program whose features are enormous in scope.
The purchase of Deep Fritz 12 (or Fritz 12) also includes a one-year premium
Playchess.com accout. This allows you free access to the ChessBase playing server,
where you can play online against opponents from all over the world, listen
to the audio commentary during major events, receive live training, play in
simultaneous exhibitions, watch ChessBase TV shows, or play in league tournaments.
However, I was disappointed with my experience in accessing my Playchess.com
account. For one, it asks for a serial code every time I log in, and I have
yet to be able to take advantage of any of the "premium" content.
When I viewed my account status, it told me my premium account privileges expired
in 1990, and I was unable to ascertain why.
Solving the problem
We would like to use this opportunity to help Setphen and other users to overcome
the problem described in the second paragraph above. The basic misunderstanding
is that the serial number printed on the Deep Fritz 12 handbook needs only be
entered once, when installing the program. It does legitimize the legal use
of your copy of the program on your local computer (and can be used three times
for this purpose). If you switch hardware you can unregister the old installation
and use it on the new computer.
The serial number has a different use as well: to legitimize your Playchess
account. You can access the Playchess server in any number of ways, using Fritz,
Deep Fritz, Rybka, ChessBase 10, ChessBase Light or the free client which you
can download for free from Playchess.com.
However, if you want to make use of the full Premium membership that is part
of the Deep Fritz 12 package, you must show "proof of purchase" to
the Playchess server.
This is normally not a problem, especially if you create a new Playchess account
after installing Deep Fritz 12. However, if you already have an old Playchess
account, which may have expired, you could run into the same problem as Stephen
Kullas. The solution is, however, fairly simple:
When you are logged into the Playchess server you should click on "Enter
serial number" in the "Account" tab:
This will produce the following input window (for obvious reasons we have blurred
some of the characters):
Now comes the important part: Playchess may be showing you the serial number
of an account which you created years ago. You must enter the new serial
number from your Deep Fritz 12 handbook and you will be ready to go –
as a Premium Member with all the free content, for a period of one year. Note
that you have not "used up" an installation in the process –
you have only legitimized your Premium account at Playchess by showing proof
of purchase of the Deep Fritz package.
