Fritz 18: Evolving Genius

[Madeleine Birchfield]

those who want to compare their pet beta GUI with the Fritz GUI, which is marketed to a much broader audience, doing things the other GUI (which is promising for what IT is designed for) probably ever will...despite the almost daily request for 'this or that' to be added or changed or fixed.

The pet beta GUIs have macOS and Linux support, something that the Chessbase Fritz GUI probably never will, despite the frequent requests for macOS and Linux versions to be made.

[Eduard]

Hello Ted,
could you do an online test with Fritz 18 in the engine room? Just a short game Eng vs Eng.

While an Eng game is running, click on the "My Moves" button (next to the notation). What happens if you do this? What happens if you go to notation afterwards? Do you see a correct position on the board and the correct notation?

Fritz 17 has a BUG here. Even the CB 16 program has a BUG if you play online as a human against an engine. That's why I uninstalled Fritz 17.

The same under Fritz 18. I tested it before few minutes. After a few seconds the game window closes and the game is rated as lost.

[Cornfed]

those who want to compare their pet beta GUI with the Fritz GUI, which is marketed to a much broader audience, doing things the other GUI (which is promising for what IT is designed for) probably ever will...despite the almost daily request for 'this or that' to be added or changed or fixed.

The pet beta GUIs have macOS and Linux support, something that the Chessbase Fritz GUI probably never will, despite the frequent requests for macOS and Linux versions to be made.

So?

I presume it's not profitable for them to do so (just a guess). OS is really not for most gamers (host echoed that in This Week in Tech a week or so ago) and Linux...well, very few people even know what that is.

If you care to talk about program features, fine, I have the new Fritz 18 GUI now, otherwise....

[BrendanJNorman]

For the record I think these are the types of positions that Fritz 18 can help one improve at, but I do understand that you do not care for it's style of play.

I've gotta say, this Fritz is fun to play against, although I find the hints distracting and prefer to just play the weakened engine in silence/with no hints.

[pgn][Event "Fritz 18 Easy Game"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2021.11.18"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Norman, Brendan"]
[Black "Strong Club Player (Fritz)"]
[Result "1-0"]
[PlyCount "77"]
[EventDate "2021.11.18"]

1. Nf3 f5 2. d3 Nc6 3. e4 e5 4. exf5 Bc5 5. Nc3 d5 6. g4 Nf6 7. h3 h5 8. g5 Nh7
9. Nh4 Nxg5 10. Bg2 d4 11. Nd5 Nf7 12. Ng6 Rh7 13. Qf3 Qd7 14. f6 Qd6 15. fxg7
Rxg7 16. Nf6+ Kd8 17. Nh4 Bb4+ 18. Kf1 Qe6 19. Nxh5 Rh7 20. Qg4 $1 {Super} Bf8
21. Ng3 Nb4 22. Ng6 Qf6 23. Nxf8 Bxg4 24. Nxh7 Qa6 25. hxg4 Nxc2 26. Be4 Kd7
27. g5 $1 {Defying gravity} c6 28. g6 $1 {Undeterred} Nd6 29. g7 $1 {Hot move}
Rg8 30. Nf6+ Ke6 31. Nxg8 Nxe4 32. Nxe4 Qxd3+ 33. Kg1 Qxe4 34. Rh3 $1 {Sharp}
Qe1+ 35. Kg2 Qe4+ 36. Kh2 Qe1 37. Rf3 Qe4 38. Rf6+ Kd7 39. Rh6 $1 {Fancy Fritz
resigns} 1-0[/pgn]

[pgn][Event "Fritz 18 Easy Game"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2021.11.18"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Club player (Fritz)"]
[Black "Norman, Brendan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[PlyCount "100"]
[EventDate "2021.11.18"]

{2457MB, Fritz 18.ctg, DESKTOP-C9L0ID5} 1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5 3. exd5 Qxd5 4. d4
Nc6 5. Nf3 Bf5 6. Qb3 Qxb3 7. axb3 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Nxd4 9. cxd4 Bd7 10. Be2 Bc6
11. O-O a6 12. Ra5 e6 13. Bf4 Nf6 14. Nd2 Nd5 15. Be5 Bb4 16. Nc4 Bxa5 17. Nxa5
Rc8 18. g3 f6 19. Bd6 Kd7 20. Ba3 Bb5 21. Nc4 Rc6 22. f4 g6 23. h4 h5 24. Bd3
Rg8 25. Kh2 a5 26. Kh1 a4 27. Ne5+ fxe5 28. Bxb5 e4 29. bxa4 Kc7 30. Re1 e3 31.
Bxc6 bxc6 32. a5 Rb8 33. Rb1 Rb3 34. Bf8 Kb7 35. Bg7 Ka6 36. Kh2 Kxa5 37. Be5
Kb5 38. Kg1 Kc4 39. Bg7 Kd3 40. Bh6 Nc3 $1 {Pin} 41. Rf1 Rxb2 42. Ra1 Ke4 43.
Rf1 Ne2+ 44. Kg2 Nxd4+ 45. Kh3 Nf3 46. Rxf3 Kxf3 47. Bg5 e2 48. Bf6 Rc2 49. Be5
e1=Q 50. Bh8 Qh1# 0-1[/pgn]

Time for some more tinkering!

[BrendanJNorman]

Honestly, I was seconds from buying Fritz 18, but am a bit disappointed with the "human-like" games it plays - especially since it (the Evolving genius feature) seems to be locked to the Gingko engine.

How do you know it is the Ginkgo engine?

There we go.

[Odd Gunnar Malin]

Yes, you can play an engine match against Glikgo, but this wasn't the topic.

Some more:
It does not use the external engine for moves in either Friend mode or Rated game under Training (Classical menu), here it start the engine so it could look like it use it (you see it in task explorer). But no positions are sendt to the engine, it just sit there waiting. The moves are comming from this 'unknown' internal engine.
To play against the external engine you have to start the game as long or blitz game (home/level menu).

I also saw when fidling with this that it send 'setoption name UCI_ShowWDL value true' .
You turn this option on with rightclick in the analysis pane (Display win probability). Tested with Stockfish 14.1

[BrendanJNorman]

Yes, you can play an engine match against Glikgo, but this wasn't the topic.

Some more:
It does not use the external engine for moves in either Friend mode or Rated game under Training (Classical menu), here it start the engine so it could look like it use it (you see it in task explorer). But no positions are sendt to the engine, it just sit there waiting. The moves are comming from this 'unknown' internal engine.
To play against the external engine you have to start the game as long or blitz game (home/level menu).

I also saw when fidling with this that it send 'setoption name UCI_ShowWDL value true' .
You turn this option on with rightclick in the analysis pane (Display win probability). Tested with Stockfish 14.1

Yeah I think I misunderstood your original statement. My bad. Yeah I have no idea how that Easy Mode works, but its reasonably fun.

By the way, has anyone managed to use Fritz 18 in another GUI? I added it to Banksia, but it always crashes.

[Odd Gunnar Malin]

Yeah I think I misunderstood your original statement. My bad. Yeah I have no idea how that Easy Mode works, but its reasonably fun.

By the way, has anyone managed to use Fritz 18 in another GUI? I added it to Banksia, but it always crashes.

Yes, the program is only a few days old, it going a bit fast here too. In a month, maybe the conclution is somthing else.
And sorry if I say something obvious, I'm not an expert in Fritz. I have had many Fritz's in the past but they have usually been used the first 1-2 days before I forgot about them, just like all the chessbooks in my shelf that only collecting dust.

The Fritz 18 (Glikgo) engine works from Aquarium.

When testing I try to be objective, but of course I like the new Fritz and how they try to create a nice playing machine for human. I don't think it is any disadvantage that the use an internal engine for all these training modes. It is the end result that count, and it looks nice.

[AdminX]

Yes, you can play an engine match against Glikgo, but this wasn't the topic.

Some more:
It does not use the external engine for moves in either Friend mode or Rated game under Training (Classical menu), here it start the engine so it could look like it use it (you see it in task explorer). But no positions are sendt to the engine, it just sit there waiting. The moves are comming from this 'unknown' internal engine.
To play against the external engine you have to start the game as long or blitz game (home/level menu).

I also saw when fidling with this that it send 'setoption name UCI_ShowWDL value true' .
You turn this option on with rightclick in the analysis pane (Display win probability). Tested with Stockfish 14.1

Yeah I think I misunderstood your original statement. My bad. Yeah I have no idea how that Easy Mode works, but its reasonably fun.

By the way, has anyone managed to use Fritz 18 in another GUI? I added it to Banksia, but it always crashes.

Hmm, It worked for me on my laptop using the Banksia GUI, I had no crashes over here. I just pointed Banksia to the path where Fritz 18 was installed.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ChessBase\Engines.uci\Fritz 18

[AdminX]

For the record I think these are the types of positions that Fritz 18 can help one improve at, but I do understand that you do not care for it's style of play.

I've gotta say, this Fritz is fun to play against, although I find the hints distracting and prefer to just play the weakened engine in silence/with no hints.

[pgn][Event "Fritz 18 Easy Game"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2021.11.18"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Norman, Brendan"]
[Black "Strong Club Player (Fritz)"]
[Result "1-0"]
[PlyCount "77"]
[EventDate "2021.11.18"]

1. Nf3 f5 2. d3 Nc6 3. e4 e5 4. exf5 Bc5 5. Nc3 d5 6. g4 Nf6 7. h3 h5 8. g5 Nh7
9. Nh4 Nxg5 10. Bg2 d4 11. Nd5 Nf7 12. Ng6 Rh7 13. Qf3 Qd7 14. f6 Qd6 15. fxg7
Rxg7 16. Nf6+ Kd8 17. Nh4 Bb4+ 18. Kf1 Qe6 19. Nxh5 Rh7 20. Qg4 $1 {Super} Bf8
21. Ng3 Nb4 22. Ng6 Qf6 23. Nxf8 Bxg4 24. Nxh7 Qa6 25. hxg4 Nxc2 26. Be4 Kd7
27. g5 $1 {Defying gravity} c6 28. g6 $1 {Undeterred} Nd6 29. g7 $1 {Hot move}
Rg8 30. Nf6+ Ke6 31. Nxg8 Nxe4 32. Nxe4 Qxd3+ 33. Kg1 Qxe4 34. Rh3 $1 {Sharp}
Qe1+ 35. Kg2 Qe4+ 36. Kh2 Qe1 37. Rf3 Qe4 38. Rf6+ Kd7 39. Rh6 $1 {Fancy Fritz
resigns} 1-0[/pgn]

Time for some more tinkering!

Nice games, I liked that move order you chose to bring about the Kings Gambit as white. I bet that game had your adrenaline going!