Fritz 19

[Eduard]

Fritz 19 was released. ChessBase presented the chess program Fritz 19 today. Is it worth buying? My answer is NO. The reason is --> HERE. I have purchased all of the newer Fritz chess programs. Today it is November 2023, but I am still playing on the PlayChess.com server with a Fritz 18 update from August 2022. Reason: All newer updates have a Syzygy BUG! I reported about it in detail --> HERE (Talkchess Forum):
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=82242

I'm still waiting for this BUG to be corrected. I also own the database program ChessBase 16, but this BUG is also present here. I don't know whether Fritz 19 no longer has this BUG, but as a buyer of Fritz 18, Powerfritz 18 and CB 16, I would like to have BUG-free software that I have already purchased.

Engine Fritz 19: In my tests with Powerfritz 18, this engine landed in last place in my position test. And nothing could be gained on the Fritz server PlayChess.com, there were almost only losses. Fritz 19 is advertised as computer chess world champion (like Powerfritz 18). You have to know: Only 4 chess programs played at the WCCC 2023, which on normal hardware have no chance against Stockfish, Lc0 or Komodo-Dragon.

Playing at the WCCC 2023: https://icga.org/

Arasan: 24 cores
Fritz: 2x Boston AMD Epyc 9654 (2×96 cores) overclocked; 1.5TB Ram
Jonny: Cluster of 100 x AMD Epyc 7302 (100×32 cores)
Stoofvlees: AMD Threadripper Pro 5995wx (64 cores, 128 threads); 4x nVidia RTX 4090 256GB Ram

There were 4 engines playing for three world champions titles! The hardware was also partly utopian. If you want to convince yourself that Fritz has absolutely no chance against Stockfish on normal hardware, please buy Fritz 19 and then go to the Fritz server PlayChess.com to play with it. You won't have much fun. I'm sorry.

https://solistachess.jimdosite.com/solista-news/

[Odd Gunnar Malin]

Well, I bought it last night. Have only installed it.
For me Fritz is a playing program and nothing else, so whatever happend on the server have little of interest. When playing online I play on Lichess or chess.com. I'm sure the engine can beat the hell out of me.
Lets hope I use it more than the previous version(18), which I maybe only used the first 1-2 week after release. I'm sure I will try out this new sparring feature.

Odd G.

[Eduard]

Good for you if you have no chance against Fritz 19. It's OK for what you do.

But for me it is not OK if a new software is sold while an older one is full of BUGs and these are not corrected. The company also advertises premium access to PlayChess.com (which was also the case with Powerfritz 18). But there you have no chance against other engines with Fritz 19 (the world champion).

[Odd Gunnar Malin]

Ok, I see some links in the startup dialog to play bullet, 3-min, and 5-min. on site, I thought it was for human play. I don't play any of those time controls so I haven't tried it. I see the Playchess icon too where I guess you can play other timecontrols, but since the blitz/bullet timecontrols are advertised I would think it is few people outside these pools.

[Eduard]

The BUGs shown have nothing to do with time controls. The GUI would play this at every time control - incorrect and would also lose in correspondence chess!

Not even a correspondence chess player can rely on the display. Neither is an analyst who uses the ChessBase 16 program (not a cheap program). Should I throw these programs away now and buy Fritz 19?

[Odd Gunnar Malin]

I have no idea if your problem is fixed since I don't have any tablebase installed. In the way I use the engine is to spar against it. If I spar endgames it just give 'non human' moves if I let the engine or GUI use tablebase.

[Eduard]

For me it's a matter of principle: If I buy software, it should work as described. If it says "GUI uses Syzygy" then the GUI should do that correctly. It seems to me that you are only happy because you can play against Fritz 19 and Fritz 19 is strong enough for you. But you don't need to buy a Fritz 19, you can do it with free software.

[Odd Gunnar Malin]

I haven't bought Fritz to play against the Fritz 19 engine, it is to use the other feature in the GUI. It should be fun and motivated to play chess, and I think this is something Chessbase try to do with Fritz. I doubt you even play against the Fritz 19 engine while you play in the GUI. I haven't tested it on Fritz 19, but for Fritz 18, you always play against a internal engine, both when playing the "easy game" or playing with reduced strength. The Fritz 19 engine only shows up in the analyze pane as analysis engine and/or as a buddy engine.

[Odd Gunnar Malin]

I just want to add, that my usual endgame/middlegame sparring GUI is Hiarcs that even is more expensive than Fritz. This is because it is very easy to have all your positions at hand to start sparring. There I use many engines, including Fritz 19 engine.

[peter]

Fritz 19 was released. ChessBase presented the chess program Fritz 19 today. Is it worth buying? My answer is NO. The reason is --> HERE. I have purchased all of the newer Fritz chess programs. Today it is November 2023, but I am still playing on the PlayChess.com server with a Fritz 18 update from August 2022. Reason: All newer updates have a Syzygy BUG! I reported about it in detail --> HERE (Talkchess Forum):
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=82242

8/8/8/5pp1/4k3/4P1K1/5P2/8 w - - 0 1

Analysis by CorChess 4 dev-20231104-473a9eab: (in Fritz 19 GUI)

1. = (0.00): 113.Kg2
2. = (0.00): 113.Kh2
3. -+ (-2): 113.Kh3
4. -+ (-1): 113.f4
5. -+ (-1): 113.f3+