Suggestions for getting the most out of Fritz 12

Thanks to my loving wife I now am the proud owner of Fritz 12.

Initially I was a tad overwhelmed at the program, it's not the easiest thing to master, however as a beginner (in chess and Fritz) I found a few things were very useful for me and thought I would share them here. Also, if you read this and can make a suggestion of something I'm missing out on please do.

1. Blundercheck your own games.

Fritz works overtime on this for me, as I'm rather blunder prone. However like any good work horse it simply crunches and annotates. Best of all in reviewing the resulting annotations I'm seeing a pattern of what I mis-read. The key challenge though was figuring out how to load my chess.com pgn into Fritz. For those who are wondering it's not simple until you've done it once. Go to the Database section, open a new Database (optional) and then open a new PGN file by changing the filetype in the open window from Chessbase to PGN.

2. Explain all moves (Training Hints)

This option is a God send! I turn this on and try not to look at the output until I've made the move I want to in my head, then I check out the list of legal moves and see what Fritz thought of my move. Sometimes it's pretty bad, but lately it's been getting better. This has been a great way to get me thinking about moves before I make them.

Lately that's all I've discovered (keep in mind I've only had it for a week), if you've got Fritz 12 and use it for training/fun what else do you recommend?

Thanks!

-f

Highly recommend you visit the chesscafe.com archives and dig up Steve Lopez's tutorials/ articles on using Fritz. You'll also find a few directly at chessbase.com

Another point to add to new Fritz12 owners is that if you're looking for Fritz to do adaptive training, then I suggest that you use the "Friendly Game" mode -- the result will be that fritz will adjust its handicap based on all the games you play in said mode.

So, consequently, you'll get your arse handed to you the first couple of games, but then it will begin to be competitive.

Another comment would be, depending on your level of skill, to use threatened pieces highlights and opening suggestions.

I got Fritz a couple of months ago and I love it.  My kids still like Chess Titans because they can whip its butt routinely, but I like Fritz because its a challenge.

-C

@cjsteele, there are a couple of less formidable engines that come with Fritz. You could try setting one of those as the main engine and your kids may inflict similar damage as with Chess Titans.

   ooo, a Fritz thread. I must make an appearance here.

   Well, anyone who has talked to me lately knows about the great relationship Fritz and I have. My gameplay has improved immensely because of the tools in the "Training" menu of the game. Eventually, I will shut them off and hopefully my progress won't be rewound because of it. This is a great program. I'll start rated in another few weeks as now my handicap is well below the negatives and I want 1800 status. This has been the best money that has been spent in my chess career yet.

   -Mark

@ChessMarksTheSpot -- can you explain the rated mode?  I.e. I wonder if I've been playing in rated mode and screwing the learning engine-up by then turning around and ganking engine parameters, etc.