FRITZ 11 now available

A year ago Fritz became the first commercial chess program in history to defeat a reigning World Champion in a formal match. Hundreds of thousands of chess fans followed the event on the Internet. In its games against Vladimir Kramnik Fritz displayed an astonishing degree of strategic understanding, underscoring its reputation as one of the strongest and best-loved chess programs in the world.

The new Fritz 11 – now availabe in the ChessBase Shop – has been vastly improved, compared to the version that beat the world champion. Its playing strength has improved by 80 Elo points. But it is also the entire package of new features that will impress chess fans. The program helps you with practical play, training and analysis, and does so in an entertaining way that fosters learning and understanding.

The main Fritz database contains over one million games, ranging from the years 1625 to 2007 – from the early beginnings of chess history to the latest top-level tournaments. The revised and extended openings book is more diverse and better tuned to the strengths and preferences of Fritz. A complete new feature, the “magic eye”, visualizes the thought processes of the engine on the 3D chessboard. You can directly follow the ideas that are going through the “mind” of the program.

The "Magic Eye" of Fritz 11

Fritz 11 has new training functions that will help you to dramatically improve your chess skills, especially in an area that is central to playing strength: the calculation of variations. In any position you can enter a line that you feel is critical in the current position on the board, without moving the pieces, just as you would do in a real game. Fritz remains in the original position but watches your moves in the notation window. It then tells you whether you have committed any tactical or strategic errors, or overlooked important alternatives. It also gives you an evaluation of the quality of your analysis.

Naturally there are also a number of new features for Playchess.com. For instance Fritz 11 introduces a novel sporting discipline on the chess server: solving contests. You are presented with tactical chess positions and must try to find the critical moves faster than other visitors on the server. From the point of view of entertainment value and competitive spirit, solving contests are as intense as bullet or blitz chess. It is the most enjoyable way to chess improvement that we have yet devised.

New "Tactics Training" on the server – click for a video demo of this function

Fritz 11 gives you twelve months of free access to Playchess.com, the largest and fastest growing chess server in the world. Every day many thousands of players from all over the world log in, to play casual games, take part in tournaments or official championships, attend grandmaster training, watch live coverage of top events, with GM commentary, and much, much more.

Unique chess training with Garry Kasparov and Fritz 11

Have you ever been trained, one-on-one, by a grandmaster? Fritz 11 offers you thirteen hours of video training with chess greats like Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexei Shirov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and leading chess teachers. You can lean back and enjoy their lessons in video and sound, stopping to analyse with Fritz if something seems unclear. There is no better way to improve your understanding of the game.

System requirements: Pentium III 1.4 GHz or higher, 256 MB RAM, Windows XP or Windows Vista, GeForce5 or compatible graphics card with 128 MB RAM or higher, 100% DirectX compatible sound card, Windows Media Player 9, DVD ROM drive. FRITZ 11 costs 49.99 €uros Buy Fritz 11 now Explore more functions