Fritz 10

I am trying to use Fritz 10 to help my chess. Particularly to analyze games.  I find the manual that comes with the disc to be of little help and the interface hard to deal with.  Can any experienced players let me know how they use Fritz and any links to good info on how to get the most out of the program.

 Two things in particular I could use help with.  When inputting a game for the engine to analyze what is the easiest way to do it?  I end up starting a new game, dragging the pieces to replicate the game I just played. Of course the engine wants to make its own moves and I endlessly take back and force moves to get in the correct data.  Is there a way to download the .pgn file from chess.com and just load into Fritz and let it do its thing?

A simple way to use a chess engine to improve is to play against a human at a time control where you can really think about your moves and take notes about all the variations you considered, then analyze the game with Fritz to see what you missed (for the moves played and the moves not played!). Fritz is superb at tactics but only so-so at openings, endgames, or positional play. Identify your mistakes and focus your studies in those areas.

A more common way to use a chess engine and gain nothing from it is to play quickly without thinking, fire up Fritz, then say "Oh yeah, that was my blunder!" and move on.

"When inputting a game ... what is the easiest way to do it?"

In any chess.com game (except live chess) click on the "Moves" tab and you should see a "Save as PGN" option which is quite handy!  :)

 If you go to the Engine Menu and select 'Switch Off Engine' then Fritz won't keep responding to the moves you enter.

In any case, you should be able to download the pgn of your game from chess.com and then copy it and paste it using Edit>Paste>Paste Game. 

1. Go to the game in chess.com.

2. Click on the "Moves" tab.

3. Click on "Get PGN". If you're using Firefox it will ask which program you want to open the PGN with. Select Fritz and you're in businesss.

 I wouldnt it "so-so" in any of those areas :D. Ill call FM or IM level sufficient for most of us.

Fritz is certainly not IM level at positional play or in the endgame.

1. I can often crush Fritz in the endgame, and I can't crush IMs in the endgame. 
2. I've seen IMs glance at a position and see strong positional moves in seconds that it tooks Fritz 20-30 minutes to see far enough ahead to identify, and this was not an isolated incident but repeated several times.

Of course, Fritz can defeat anyone in a tactical melee.

Fritz is great... I'm just saying I take its advice in those situations with a grain of salt. According to Chessbase Fritz 11 is 80 ELO stronger. :)

 Do you have the tablebases installed, including five piece? In my experience, Fritz handles endgames well, although there are exceptions, such as Shirov's brilliancy: