I purchased Fritz 15 during a steam sale, thinking is was the perfect opportunity to step up from the free alternatives I was using. I had heard that Fritz, and it's big brother Chessbase, were the gold standard of chess programs. I thought that I would finally be able to use just one program for all my chess needs.

24 hours later I had received my refund for this terrible, dated, and underveloped mess. It is in fact several seperate programs, which are not tied together in any significant way. Just a nasty flash launcher, most of which just sends you to a webpage. And when I compare each peice of this "program" to the free programs I was using before, Each one is worse. The UI of Fritz is especially awful. Lucas Chess is free and better for training and analysis. SCID is every bit as good as the database software found here. And Chessbase may claim that their catalog of mastergames is worth something, but these games dont belong to them, they are available for free online.

Perhaps most annoyingly, most of the "features" of the software are actually just a 6 month subscription to the subpar playchess.com. Just like every other part of Fritz, there are better and cheaper options out there like lichess or chess.com

Do not support this lazy developer thats been cranking out the same software for many years. There are better tools and better engines available.

Fritz 15 describes itself as a Training-program/AI/Database/etc. In actuality, almost all of the functions except the game-AI open up a web-site in your browser, which then asks you to register an account, and then pay another $50 or so to access the content that you'd supposedly already paid for.

I'm sure that it's a fine game-play AI, but you know what?
1) There's oodles of fine chess-programs that you can play against
2) It doesn't matter whether it's at Grand Master-level or not... if you're buying a chess-program on Steam, then you do not need that level of skilled-opponent, and you won't for another 10 years.

The selling point of Fritz 15 for me was that it was a full chess training-program that I could use to refresh my skills, and work my way back up to the level I used to be at. (I used to be quite good.) It is not that, even though it says that it is.

I've used Stockfish before buying this, but I needed a complete pro software package with an existing pro opening book, a powerful database and functions to make custom opening books. After watching a video on how to use Fritz 15 to make a book, I decided to buy it and add the Stockfish engine to it. I made a pro book in 2 full days of heavy processing of 100,000s of games, thanks to the powerful Fritz database functions. Not bad considering I can learn from it for months or years to come. And I can develop my opening book further anytime. This is what serious players sometimes do, not for playing just friends but rather, also for competing on a much higher level. I can also make opening books on individual opening lines, like the Sicilian Dragon for example. Not just complete repertoires. You can change the weights of moves in the opening books as well, so if you find a drawish line, you might want the computer to avoid those lines, unless you're preparing to play a draw-master.

And then after achieving what I wanted to do with Fritz 15 so far, I noticed, the opening book plays reverse openings (it will treat 1.e3 e5 2.e4 as a reverse 1.e4 e5 - just a simple example) and it correctly uses ALL the same stats for each and every reverse move. This is especially important when white loses a tempi mid or late opening.

And then I noticed, the built-in training functions are way better than previous versions (I used to regularly use Fritz years ago). By default, often Fritz let me know after making a move what its main threat is. I turned this feature off since I already train to see these immediate threats, without hints. (It's long term threats that are difficult to see.)

And then, to my surprise, Fritz drew the first game it played against Stockfish on my machine. Stockfish won the overall match, but Fritz is a good alt engine if you want to try a different style player. But like I said, Fritz 15 is more than an engine, it's a complete package.

To a beginner, this makes no difference right away, but if you're serious about Chess, this program is great for years of high level training and practice. Fritz will even adjust to your level of play in Friend mode if you choose, which I'd recommend playing often, but try the hardest level at least sometimes to get a better idea of top level play. Note, there is no fast way of mastering Chess, it takes time, and this program is one of great value for learning to play really tight, if used right.

The GUI is a bit complicated, but not nearly as complicated as Chess, so if you play Chess well, you can get used to the GUI. I had an easier GUI for engines, but it didn't have all the functions I was looking for. There are some things I don't like but you get used to it. When I press New Game, I also seem to have to press Levels to play the AI. However, when analyzing, I simply press New Game and don't have to stop the engine from playing, so I can analyze my tournament games or set up a position to search for in the database without interruption.

If you prefer Stockfish or another engine, you probably still need a GUI and an opening book! The Fritz opening book is much more powerful and accurate for strength of moves, than any free opening book I've seen out there. There's a free opening book based on millions of games, but it has many weak variations in it (noticeable to someone doing proper opening study).

I'm using a quad core with 8 GB RAM, and have no problems with the GUI. On a slower computer, it might seem to freeze, but it's probably running the CPU at nearly 100%, which is normal, unless you're playing Friend mode or reducing the number of cores like I often do. I can run Fritz 15 on 2 cores and still have 2 cores for Windows and other apps, and my fan doesn't even turn on as the CPU can easily handle it no problem without overheating. With 4 cores running Fritz, the game makes maximum use of the full computing power available, if preparing a tournament opening line or maximizing the moves per second.

Note to serious players: you can also add endgame tablebases to Fritz 15, which will play any position within its base perfectly. There are up to 7-piece tablebases, not sure if 7 works, but up to 6-pieces should work perfectly. I've had 6pcs years ago. Haven't tried it in Fritz 15 yet. Great for analyzing tournament games, or boosting your computer's elo.

So, no I don't use the Fritz 15 engine often, but I use the Fritz opening book, GUI, database and opening book creation functions (there are easy videos on how to do this). For that alone, it's worth the price. Haven't tried online features yet, as I'm busy preparing openings and sometimes playing complete games against the AI to ready myself for the city championship.

I could've bought a previous version of Fritz, but I wanted the up-to-date Fritz 15 opening book, and to use newer functions.

It's too bad many are quick to judge the value here. If you simply want beautiful graphics and a little fun, there are other programs out there, some free, but you might learn bad moves from those programs and you might even have chessmaster friends who can beat that software. For a tournament Chess player or a beginner who wants to master the game, Fritz is well worth the money.

Sometimes one must research before investing money, ...and your precious time! Chess is not an easy game.

If you play Chess for 1000s of hours, why not spend a few 100 hours learning, experimenting and training properly? Or if you don't have much time for Chess but would like to learn fast, use Fritz 15 to see where the threats are, and correct blunders, etc. Chess is a great way to keep the mind sharp and to get an example of how incredible AI can be!! Man vs Machine, anyone?

I spent an hour to write this review. In business, I can charge as much as I paid for this software for an hour's work, but after seeing so many negative reviews I had to write this, for the community! Fritz 15, saved me many hours developing my opening book so far, for tournament level play. And when I'm unsure about the opening book I created I can use the Fritz 15 opening book, database or analysis features to test each move.

Very highly recommended!!

Got thins on a discount - 30 Dollars.

Now what everybody needs to understand: This is NOT a Chess-GAME. It's a Chess-Game-Analyzer.
You analyze your games with a chess engine, it suggests better lines and such so you can improve your game.

It's not even a chess engine really (even tough it provides one), but you can switch the engine out, which is EPIC!
It is basically en engine-GUI with lots of features. It's great! I usually play on chess.com, they use the stockfish engine.
It LITERALLY takes you 2 minutes to integrate stockfish here, it's amazingly simple! Comodo is also free if you take an older release.

Fritz 15 also provides training features and simple puzzles for you to get better.

To make it simple: If you look for a Chessgame, DON'T buy this, there are better ones. Check out 'Pure Chess' - it's beautiful. And Warhammer Regicide of course, the most brutal animated chessgame ever! :)

If you are a chessplayer looking to get better, well, give it a shot. :)

I never used a Chess Engine / Analyzer before, and it's a bit of a learning curve. But it sure pays off, as it offers a VERY deep analysis.

Note: this is my first Edition of Fritz. Some users owning Fritz 13 and 14 said the improvements are not worth spending the money. However, since this is my first Fritz Release I bought, I cannot compare it to older versions. So if you already own Fritz 14, I suggest researching for yourself. :)

Garbage.

While the underlying engine might or might not be fantastic, the actual application is rubbish. This might have been a decent application in 2009. The interface is dated and very clunky.
I ran this application for 30 minutes... of which i played for maybe 3 minutes. After steam install there's further installation... with errors... and another registration on playchess.com (for which my serial doesnt work)....and then i tried playing on fritz itself... and the application itself tries to pretend to be a talking creature...with a very condescending voice. I told it to f itself. a couple of times. Then i thought i'd try out the 3d boards. Wow. They dont even render ... theres maybe 15% of the board visible and this horrible screeching squealing noise is emitted from my speakers. This game reminded me very strongly of 1996... back when top class software had issues like this.

Thank our dear lord Gaben for steam refunds.

Fritz is great for analysing games only and perhaps pitting chess engines against each other and running deep chess analyses overnight. Chessbase 14 is for managing all of your games and also building your knowledge without killing your processor with long calculations.

If you are interested in buying Frtiz , please do some due dilgence and research on Fritz before buying, I personally believe that FritzChess 15 should NOT be used by those new to chess or beginners. This is very important and really should have been included in the game's description.

If you are serious about learning chess, please invest in Chessbase 14 along with the Chessbase membership AND be forewarned that you will need to spend additional funds for training that can purchased through the Chessbase shop (which are are very good and recommended). The membership also has many perks that are totally worth the money.

If you still prefer to only use Fritz, I do recommend it for its purposes, but please have the right expections before you buy.

I decided to give it a try because of the sale price. I would not recommend wasting money on it, since it is almost the same as the Fritz 14. Additional value is so low, you would not notice coming from 14 to 15.

The interface makes it much more difficult to find things from the menus than in previous versions. Also, the removed the great "Sparring Mode" that was fantastic to help with tactical training during games. They only have the "Friend Mode" now. Additionally, to utilize some of those great features that are advertised, you need to spend more money for a premium membership to playchess.com / chessbase. In my opinion, this version is worse than previous versions and isn't worth the cost.

What do I say? I just got lucky, picked up the software for 18$ instead of the 60$.

While there are decent free available alternatives for most of the features Fritz provides, its still an all-in-one solution for any Amateur to Candidate level chess player.

The biggest mistake people here on Steam make is in thinking that this is a fancy chess game, IT ISN'T.

Think of it as an educational tool which helps you learn, improve, train and play against any engine of your choice.

Also comes with a 6 month premium subscription for Chessbase which is also pretty cool.

For my Indian friends, Fritz15 is on an INSANE price just north of 18$ do pick it up if you want to have some money to spare and want to learn and improve in this amazing game.

Only CONS that I see are:

-The software is still slightly buggy since its pretty recent, and now that I have it for around 18$, 60$ for the rest feels a little overpriced when you can acquire Fritz14 for much cheaper and 90% of it is the same. IF you have good money to spare, go for Fritz15, otherwise go for Fritz14.

-The 3D pieces are pretty buggy and VERY tasking on the CPU.But I can easily live without them and use 2D pieces (which they have a huge collection of).

-There are many free alternatives for 'basic chess stuff' like playing against people/computers, analyzing/watching games, annotating ,maintaining an opening repertoire/game databases like Chess.com ,lichess.org etc.

Go for it if you have the cash. 10/10

In spite of the blurb, Fritz 15 isn’t best at chess playing. Sure, one can goof around with playing chess against the engine, and the supplied one is unquestionably super-GM strength. On this point, the included “rated game mode” can adjust the engine to a level us mortals can appreciate. It will even attempt to assess a game with an Elo number (as opposed to the typical loss in centi-pawns). Mileage will vary with this. But with that said, chess playing is not Fritz 15’s purpose.

Think of Fritz 15 as an introduction to the wonders of computer chess categorization and organisation. Games can be stored and their quality assessed by a chess engine. The supplied engine/s are totally fine, but there are somewhat stronger ones available at a price between free and $USD50 or so. Games also can be analysed on screen, with variations easily recorded, and the potential is there to dive into the parent ChessBase software (at further expense) to compare your games with a master database. Once committed there is no turning back.

In my opinion, chess game collections and the included Playchess subscription are the meat here. This version of Fritz added around 500K chess games (80K at GM level) to my chess games database. A Playchess sub can increase further access to chess games, and what’s more I have lost myself in the chess videos therein that probably haven’t done much for my game (ditto with the abovementioned database features) but are a heck of a lot of fun in rendering a complicated game easier. I am surprised this access doesn’t seem to be the key hook in buying the latest Fritz license.

To be sure there are expense/s here: this Fritz license and probably ChessBase and an ongoing Playchess subscription are typical. But once those up-front costs are met, there is in here an all-consuming hobby like little else.

I have been asked as a frequent Fritz user whether the latest version is worth a price premium. My answer is probably not. Fritz 15 still has a couple of quirks around organizing databases, but certainly looks cleaner. The “rated game mode” is a great way to guarantee a slow chess game, but the engine isn’t all that human-like and the calculated Elo grade must be taken with a grain of salt. However, the six months Playchess subscription included is worth something (it retails for around €25-€30) and indeed would be enough to draw out an upgrade.