US Amateur Team North Results...5th Place!!

Congratulations to The Chess Club A-Team for their 5th place finish in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Way to go Ken, Frank, Tony, and Conrado. A special well done to Tony on Board 3...applause.

Is Fritz 11 Worth the Money?

Fritz 11 arrived on the scene last November and Chessbase touted its improvements and increase chess playing strength. Well, I am a sucking for a good line; in addition, I like to keep my Playchess subscription going, so I purchased the new Fritz. First things first, Fritz 11 is a pretty good deal to start with because you get the chess engine, database, Internet chess site, and many more features for about $44 dollars. That is a bargain in my opinion! Next, it offers ways to play and improve your chess. My favorite is the tactical training against the clock for Elo points. The others include opening training, attack training, defense training, and find the check training. All of these exercises are against a clock! You can do much more with the program and the possibilities are boundless if you use your imagination.

There are naysayers among you that will object and tell me that Fritz 11 isn't the strongest chess engine out. I will stipulate that is true; however, Fritz 11 is stronger than the best human chess player is. If you will recall, for those of us who played GM Larry Christiansen, just how strong his chess play was; imagine how much stronger an added 300 plus Elo points would be. That is the power of Fritz. Plenty strong enough for our use as club players.

A few weeks ago, I arranged a Rybka 2.3 (32 bit) v. Fritz 11 themed engine match. The results are below.
Clearly, Rybka is stronger, but who needs that extra strength? In my opinion, only the top Grandmasters in the world would even appreciate the subtle differences between the two. Go buy Fritz--unless you have something against Chessbase--you won't be disappointed.