Fritz 13 (1 core) vs Stockfish 5 (8 core)

Fritz 13 (1 core) vs Stockfish 5 (8 cores)

How do these engines compare?

What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Which one is better for a beginner like myself?

"How do these engines compare?"

Stockfish will run rings around Fritz.

"What are their strengths and weaknesses?"

Stockfish is free, Fritz isn't. I'm guessing that Stockfish's evaluations would be a bit higher than Fritz's, based on what I've heard. I also think that Stockfish's endgame would be better than Fritz's.

"Which one is better for a beginner like myself?"

I don't know. What do you want to do with it?

Thanks very much for your reply!

What do I want to do with it?

2 things:

a) practice against (play against)

b) have it analyze my games

They are both rated over 3300

Fritz costs $60

Stockfish is free

Stockfish is just an engine; You'd have to find a GUI (graphical user interface) to go with it and install Stockfish into the GUI. There are a few popular free ones to choose from (Scid vs. PC, Winboard, Arena, LucasChess), unless you want to pay for a commercial GUI. If you're a beginner, Stockfish at its lowest level might still be a bit strong for you. If that's a problem, you could use Stockfish for analysis and download other free engines to play against.

I guess to get the Fritz engine, you'd have to buy the Fritz program, which is both the Fritz GUI and the Fritz engine. I'm not too familiar with recent versions of Fritz, since I only have an ancient version. Maybe others can give their opinions of Fritz.

No, Fritz 13 single core is rated a bit less than 3000. (Not that it would matter for analyzing his games.)

And in the interest of full disclosure, most people will advise you to play against other people instead of an engine, whenever possible. (Exceptions might be if you don't have internet access at all times, or if you're worried about cheating opponents.)

That was my point :-)  At those ratings, it doesnt matter if one engine is 100-300 points higher.

Thanks again!

How about a very human like engine like HIARCS or better yet, Vitruvius?

Isn't therer an advantage to playing a computer? For example, you can analyze your game as you play it.

Good point. The thing is, I've heard from high-rated players that they prefer certain engines to others, and even that chess engines have their own personalities or playing styles, such as Rybka being "quirky".

I think the only advantage of playing a computer is just the fun of it. I also think trying to analyze your game as you play the computer would be completely counterproductive.

The consensus advice is that after you've played a game, try to analyze the game by yourself first, just using your gray matter. Only then should you run the game through an engine for a blunder check. (And if the game was against a higher rated person, try to get him to go over the game with you. It's a great opportunity to learn ideas from a stronger player.)

I don't know anything about Vitruvius.

Hiarcs is the most human engine I know, but it's not a human. I have Hiarcs 13, and even on its weakest setting, I'd guess it's about 1200 elo. That works for me since I'm rated a bit higher than that, but a rank beginner would probably lose most of his games against it. I don't have Hiarcs 14, so I don't know whether it's any weaker than Hiarcs 13 at the lowest setting.

Hiarcs plays like a good over the board player. Stockfish plays like a good correspondence chess player. I can give them a difficult technical position to play against each other, starting with a winning position for Hiarcs (if it makes the best move for 20+ moves), and Stockfish can grind down Hiarcs and beat it. None of this has anything to do with mere mortals playing chess. Stockfish is amazing and free.

if you have a mac with OS X 10.8.5 or higher, stockfish is available with an UI on the Mac App Store for free

Stockfish has adjustable skill level, from 1 to 20.

Just set it to 1, and now you have an absolute patzer to beat.

Yeah, when you've been losing a few gmes it can be great for your ego to set stockfish to a low setting and beat it. 

pfren wrote:

EscherehcsE wrote:

Stockfish is just an engine; You'd have to find a GUI (graphical user interface) to go with it and install Stockfish into the GUI. There are a few popular free ones to choose from (Scid vs. PC, Winboard, Arena, LucasChess), unless you want to pay for a commercial GUI. If you're a beginner, Stockfish at its lowest level might still be a bit strong for you. If that's a problem, you could use Stockfish for analysis and download other free engines to play against.

Stockfish has adjustable skill level, from 1 to 20.

Just set it to 1, and now you have an absolute patzer to beat.

What defines patzer? A patzer for you, or for us?

Actually, it's 0 to 20, but who's counting?