Excalibur Publishing will be launching the latest version of their chess engine/interface, Fritz, this week. Fritz 12 is faster (and therefore stronger), contains a new opening book, updated game database, and an updated interface. The new interface looks pretty slick, with what looks to be easier access to important features like database lookup, book classification, and analysis features. Yet, as an avid chess player, known to have 8 engines filling my screen at once for analysis, I’m not all that excited.

Why not? Well first of all, it’s PC only, though I have had no trouble running previous versions under WINE. More importantly, though, the vast majority of players are not Kasparovs, and most engines (even those freely available) can make quick work of most people – Fritz itself has always been strong to the point that upgrading just seems like kicking you when you’re down. Additionally, no mention has been made by Excalibur (or the game’s creator, Chessbase) about a fresh release of Deep Fritz (Fritz’s multiprocessor counterpart). This in mind, it makes sense that Excalibur seems to be touting their (admittedly beautiful) interface and database/book features more than their engine. Fritz 12 launches this week for £25.

Fritz 12

Excalibur Publishing Ltd. to launch the newest arrival to the hugely popular Fritz Chess series

Fritz Chess 12, as its predecessors, will continue to fascinate the chess world. Fritz Chess is in fact well known for defeating a reigning world champion in the battle of ‘Man vs Machine’.

Even so, it doesn’t matter if you are a beginner, club player or a professional as Fritz Chess has something for everyone. For example the coaching function either helps teach you how to play or improve your game. It boasts over a whopping one million games to play so you’ll always have plenty to do without repetitiveness making it boring for you.
So what’s different compared to Fritz Chess 11?

The program is faster, stronger than ever before and is packed full of tutorials from world class masters such as Alexei Shirov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Vladimir Kramnik and even chess legend Garry Kasparov. The menu layout has been updated to make navigating your way through functions a lot easier. Some well known features such as game rating and analysis have been improved along with adding new features including a new openings book by Alex Kure. Fritz Chess 12 also includes a three month basic subscription to playchess.com, the world’s biggest chess server which you can log onto and play against real players to match your playing strength all over the world.

Robert Stallibrass of Excalibur Publishing says: “Fritz Chess continues to be the only full price Chess program on the market, with Chessbase continuing to make more and more improvements and refinements with each new version. The new interface is just brilliant ”

The product will retail at £24.99. Further information is available at www.excalibur-publishing.com. Fritz Chess 12 will officially hit the shelves of retailers on 6th November 2009.