I didn't know 15 was coming out soon. Simple as.
Fritz 16

I didn't know 15 was coming out soon. Simple as.

I have never liked the way Chessbase does it's marketing/sales. They're still selling CB14 @ full price, while not divulging the release date of CB15, even though we all know it's right around the corner.
ChessBase releases new version once every two years during the month of November. ChessBase 15 will be released in Nov 2018.

Hope they offer an upgrade to 15, as I only bought 14 a month or so ago
Yes bro they offer an upgrade but they still charge f**king high prices for it. Sometimes I feel that ChessBase is just too much, in the sense, that they offer too many functionalities but I never use them much. It's just like Excel Spreadsheet, you know, there is so much out there but in the end we don't use them at all. Also using them requires a lot of time investment which only chess pros can do. Me as a college going student can't find time for that.
So there you go, I am happy with SCID. Just download monthly updates from Kingbase website and you are all set. If you want more then visit 365chess.com or database.chessbase.com . This will definitely satisfy your database needs and is more than enough. FYI, I use both SCID and ChessBase 14.

I have never liked the way Chessbase does it's marketing/sales. They're still selling CB14 @ full price, while not divulging the release date of CB15, even though we all know it's right around the corner.
Also they include a lot of SHIT games in their DB.
Like unrated players, and tournament games between 10 year olds rated under 1000. Absolutely awful.
The "top games" button doesn't always work either.

I have never liked the way Chessbase does it's marketing/sales. They're still selling CB14 @ full price, while not divulging the release date of CB15, even though we all know it's right around the corner.
ChessBase releases new version once every two years during the month of November. ChessBase 15 will be released in Nov 2018.
Are we sure of this? Again - it would be nice if Chessbase actually clarified things and informed customers. Having us literally just buy and see with products is really asking too much, IMO.
If you go by the pattern of their releases, then what I have said is true.

I have never liked the way Chessbase does it's marketing/sales. They're still selling CB14 @ full price, while not divulging the release date of CB15, even though we all know it's right around the corner.
Also they include a lot of SHIT games in their DB.
Like unrated players, and tournament games between 10 year olds rated under 1000. Absolutely awful.
The "top games" button doesn't always work either.
Yeah, that's one drawback of ChessBase. They should include games of players above 2000 ELO just like how Kingbase does, but they simply stuff it up and make it a HUGE database.
@m-p-b: Could you be more specific? Which features are missing? Are you going to contact them about it and (essentially) complain?
I find it strange to hear that some features are missing as software generally tends to grow in complexity through successive iterations. If things have been removed, that may be cause for concern indeed.

Chess programs can be a little confusing, especially chessbase products. To clarify for those that are interested....
Chessbase basically has two Graphic User Interface programs (GUI):
#1 is Chessbase (currently Chessbase 14), this is most often considered the BEST commercial program for game analysis and database software. This is what most chess professional use. This is expensive and not necessary for every chess player that wants a chess program. This is the most functional chess software on the market and is for super users that spend lots of time analyzing games.
#2 "Fritz", this is confusing, because the program is sold under different names based on the chess engine it is packaged with. This has some functions the #1 programs does not have like friendly play (look it up on youtube), it will analyze games very well, you can install any UCI chess engine, and it includes a database. The analysis and database functions are not as powerful as the #1 product, but sufficient for many casual less computer capable players. This is a great product for someone that wants a product to play games against a computer engine, computer assisted analysis of their games and other games, a database and database tools to make their own database, and computer assisted study of every phase of the game.
Chessbase offers many other products that all complement the two primary products. They have a third product for kids that I have never looked at, its called "Fritz and Chester", this is for kids that want to learn how to play and know nothing about the game. They also have a less expensive version of Fritz called "Fritz for FUN", not really clear on the difference between the regular Fritz and Fritz for FUN.
commercial competition is:
Chess King - I own an older version of this, it not as powerful as the chessbase products, but user interface is much easier especially for younger kids or adults that have trouble with computers. This is competition for the Fritz #2 product.
Chess Assistant - Have never owned a copy of this I cannot comment. I'm pretty sure this is competition for the #1 product.
Freeware:
Arena - this is very dated, but a FREE GUI that will run many different chess engines. This is very similar to older versions of the #2 chessbase product, like 15 years ago.
Chess Engines, there are many of these, the BIG three right now are:
Stockfish - open source and free
Komodo - commercial, older versions are free to download from their website
Houdini - commercial, original version is free to download from their website
There are also many resources on the internet that I am not permitted to mention, This website is one of those resources.
If you have Fritz 15 I wouldn't be in a rush to purchase Fritz 16, unless you just have to have the most recent software. I'm sure the chess engine will have some improvements. Looks like chessbase has made some changes to the "front end" of user interface of the Fritz #2 product. Seems like an attempt to make it more user friendly for those that find computers not so friendly. Chessbase may have improved the analysis tools, if so, it may be worth the update for Fritz 15 owners... still not enough information about the new program to say for sure.
Yeah, i bought Fritz 12, then shortly afterwards Rybka 4, thinking it was a different program. I won't make the same mistake again...
In case anyone is remotely interested, Rybka 4 was just another version of the Fritz 12 GUI packaged with the Rybka engine. Apart from 1 extra analysis feature and the packaged engine, the two programs are identical.

I already have the diamond here and access to the databases offered. I have a Chessbase premium account and access to the live database 24/7. I also use a couple of other sites that have loads of games on them. With all of that, I honestly don't think spending money on a database makes any sense for me. That money could go to tournament fees or something that will help me progress more.
Databases are of huge benefit for correspondence players...
@m-p-b: many thanks for your detailed observations on the differences. It sounds a bit disappointing that they seem to have stripped some features out of the latest Fritz. I haven't got close to looking into how to use it in full detail yet, but I'm hoping I'll still find it a useful tool to supplement other analyses etc. Thanks again.
Nope, I own HIARCS for example, but I have done little in the way of analysis with it. In general, I prefer people to analyse my games.

..Fritz it has negative enrgy or waves and it belongs to German school of chess! that is a school of magic(absurd or desire to win only) and has nothing to do with memory chess(european chess) or thinking chess(american chess)!
naturally it has been left alone by people after tasting its power really. it is like Crafty but more aggressive at inducing its black ideas!
Through Fritz 13, the engine was a product of Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist (Germany). Fritz 14 (updated Pandix engine) was by Gyula Horvath (Hungary). Fritz 15 and 16 were by Vasik Rajlich (Czech-American). You can think of Fritz 15 and 16 as updated or tweaked versions of Rybka.

I've been using Fritz 16 this week. My only issue so far has been that sometimes the kibitzer will blank out.
I prefer the interface of 16 over 15, it feels cleaner. I need to use it much more though before I could give a more detailed review but at the moment I don't really see THAT much of a difference from Fritz 15, so whether it is worth getting if you already have 15 is hard to call. If you have 15 maybe wait for a sale (I got it with the 25% launch discount).
Hope they offer an upgrade to 15, as I only bought 14 a month or so ago