Some interesting new features for human players and 25% off on Nov 16th.
Chessbase wrote:
Instead of just increasing its playing strength – like adding 30 Elo points to its stratospheric rating, which we have actually done! – we decided to also create a new training tool for ambitious chess player. One that will teach you how to find brilliancies in your games. And it is a training tool that can be used by amateurs all the way to the World Champion, because Fritz 18 actually adjusts its playing strength, and the tactical opportunities it offers, to the proficiency of the opponent.
"Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions."
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Ted Summers
Sad that Fritz be still Windows only. I mean the engine, not the GUI. For the GUI I understand that it is not so easy to make it multiplatform. It it were possible to buy the engine separately, and if a Linux version were available, I would be able to buy it. (Even if there are free engines as good or maybe better.)
I bought Fritz 16 but unfortunately I no longer use Windows.
Qui trop embrasse mal étreint.
Author of Eschecs, a simple UCI chess GUI written in Pascal.
I don't know what it is, but every iteration since Fritz 14 it's been buggy, I have reported a half dozen or so problems to their support department. For example I have Fritz 17 and an engine could work perfectly fine in a engine vs engine match but put it in a tournament it will produce an exception and ruin the whole tournament you spent time setting up. I also hate that their database system and Fritz engine are proprietary instead of allowing a gui like Arena or CuteChess to use both.
Too many people on this forum... just do not 'get it'.
That is probably because 95% of the posts/talk in the "General Topics" tab is about ENGINES...and often an obsession of the "strength" of engines in relation to other engines. So...narrow is the thinking! Blinkered. Some are just off the reservation when it comes to PLAYING chess for its own sake. As someone who actually likes to PLAY chess and has done so constantly for 35 years in OTB tournaments...it breaks my heart.
Think like a human player for one moment - interested in getting better or just playing a good game of chess against an engine in a GUI actually built for that. THIS is clearly what the Fritz GUI is all about. It is "soft" AI, If I may use the term, and aimed at the masses, not a narrow range of enthusiast who, perhaps, get their jollies off of pushing a super-strong engine thru it's paces and maybe picking between its offered move choices against someone else doing something similar with another engine. That's not even AI, it's...well, I decline to even describe it.
For those who still enjoy PLAYING a game of chess, creating on your own and getting satisfaction out of your (own) efforts - like going to a club and playing against someone roughly your own strength or an OTB tournament (like I played in last weekend)...GUI's like Fritz are far more useful than yet another iteration of Stockfish. Treat it as such.
The Evolving Genius feature is an example of this "Soft" AI (I would turn off the annoying 'chat' feature of course when using it...). I watched Sager Shah's video on their website and would love to see it in more games than the tactical opening viewers suggested moves to. I would be interested in knowing how they actually go about 'allowing you' certain ideas (an not outright blundering to you...) while still retaining good overall strength of play.
If they could make the engine play 'positionally' 2nd/3rd best moves a certain percentage of the time, which are not outright 'bad' (just something a sharp or improving player could spot and try to make use of...say it creating a 'hole' on b6 or playing ...h6 as black in a position which might allow you good play against the 'hook' with 0-0-0 followed by g4), and if you miss the possibility of exploiting it, point that out, that in conjunction with features like this would make for a truly well rounded sparring opponent in Fritz.
THAT...is the future of 'computer chess'...not another iteration or derivative of Stockfish or Komodo / Dragon. Mark my words. We already see small steps in that direction at various chess playing websites...glad to see Chessbase is heading more and more in that direction with their Fritz GUI.
Cornfed wrote: ↑Sun Nov 14, 2021 5:42 pm
Too many people on this forum... just do not 'get it'.
That is probably because 95% of the posts/talk in the "General Topics" tab is about ENGINES...and often an obsession of the "strength" of engines in relation to other engines. So...narrow is the thinking! Blinkered. Some are just off the reservation when it comes to PLAYING chess for its own sake. As someone who actually likes to PLAY chess and has done so constantly for 35 years in OTB tournaments...it breaks my heart.
I really think all the posts about general chess engines topics should be split off into another forum, something like "Computer Chess Club: Chess Engines". Talkchess already does this for matches/tournaments/rating lists.
Cornfed wrote: ↑Sun Nov 14, 2021 5:42 pm
Think like a human player for one moment - interested in getting better or just playing a good game of chess against an engine in a GUI actually built for that. THIS is clearly what the Fritz GUI is all about. It is "soft" AI, If I may use the term, and aimed at the masses, not a narrow range of enthusiast who, perhaps, get their jollies off of pushing a super-strong engine thru it's paces and maybe picking between its offered move choices against someone else doing something similar with another engine. That's not even AI, it's...well, I decline to even describe it.
For those who still enjoy PLAYING a game of chess, creating on your own and getting satisfaction out of your (own) efforts - like going to a club and playing against someone roughly your own strength or an OTB tournament (like I played in last weekend)...GUI's like Fritz are far more useful than yet another iteration of Stockfish. Treat it as such.
The Evolving Genius feature is an example of this "Soft" AI (I would turn off the annoying 'chat' feature of course when using it...). I watched Sager Shah's video on their website and would love to see it in more games than the tactical opening viewers suggested moves to. I would be interested in knowing how they actually go about 'allowing you' certain ideas (an not outright blundering to you...) while still retaining good overall strength of play.
If they could make the engine play 'positionally' 2nd/3rd best moves a certain percentage of the time, which are not outright 'bad' (just something a sharp or improving player could spot and try to make use of...say it creating a 'hole' on b6 or playing ...h6 as black in a position which might allow you good play against the 'hook' with 0-0-0 followed by g4), and if you miss the possibility of exploiting it, point that out, that in conjunction with features like this would make for a truly well rounded sparring opponent in Fritz.
THAT...is the future of 'computer chess'...not another iteration or derivative of Stockfish or Komodo / Dragon. Mark my words. We already see small steps in that direction at various chess playing websites...glad to see Chessbase is heading more and more in that direction with their Fritz GUI.
Your post (and Chessbase's original article/Youtube video) isn't very clear. Is this soft AI/Evolving Genius part of the Fritz GUI or the Fritz/Gingko engine? Can one hook up Leela or Koivisto to the Fritz GUI and get those engines to work with Evolving Genius, or does Evolving Genius only work with the Fritz/Gingko engine?
Roland Chastain wrote: ↑Sun Nov 14, 2021 4:13 pm
Sad that Fritz be still Windows only.
Yes it‘s sad for ChessBase.
No macOS (M1 Max chip) version. No money.
BanksiaGUI is better and it will be much better. No money.
A commercial businesses follows the money...it's their reason for being. So, I would have to presume they have looked at it and decided it's not worth pursuing right now. I doubt they are 'sad'. In any case, I was listening to This Week In Tech last week and they all agreed that Mac OS really isn't for gaming.
Banksia and the Fritz GUI, cater to two totally different customers.
Cornfed wrote: ↑Sun Nov 14, 2021 5:42 pm
Think like a human player for one moment - interested in getting better or just playing a good game of chess against an engine in a GUI actually built for that. THIS is clearly what the Fritz GUI is all about. It is "soft" AI, If I may use the term, and aimed at the masses, not a narrow range of enthusiast who, perhaps, get their jollies off of pushing a super-strong engine thru it's paces and maybe picking between its offered move choices against someone else doing something similar with another engine. That's not even AI, it's...well, I decline to even describe it.
For those who still enjoy PLAYING a game of chess, creating on your own and getting satisfaction out of your (own) efforts - like going to a club and playing against someone roughly your own strength or an OTB tournament (like I played in last weekend)...GUI's like Fritz are far more useful than yet another iteration of Stockfish. Treat it as such.
The Evolving Genius feature is an example of this "Soft" AI (I would turn off the annoying 'chat' feature of course when using it...). I watched Sager Shah's video on their website and would love to see it in more games than the tactical opening viewers suggested moves to. I would be interested in knowing how they actually go about 'allowing you' certain ideas (an not outright blundering to you...) while still retaining good overall strength of play.
If they could make the engine play 'positionally' 2nd/3rd best moves a certain percentage of the time, which are not outright 'bad' (just something a sharp or improving player could spot and try to make use of...say it creating a 'hole' on b6 or playing ...h6 as black in a position which might allow you good play against the 'hook' with 0-0-0 followed by g4), and if you miss the possibility of exploiting it, point that out, that in conjunction with features like this would make for a truly well rounded sparring opponent in Fritz.
THAT...is the future of 'computer chess'...not another iteration or derivative of Stockfish or Komodo / Dragon. Mark my words. We already see small steps in that direction at various chess playing websites...glad to see Chessbase is heading more and more in that direction with their Fritz GUI.
Your post (and Chessbase's original article/Youtube video) isn't very clear. Is this soft AI/Evolving Genius part of the Fritz GUI or the Fritz/Gingko engine? Can one hook up Leela or Koivisto to the Fritz GUI and get those engines to work with Evolving Genius, or does Evolving Genius only work with the Fritz/Gingko engine?
I would not know...it hasn't been released yet. I would presume it is a function of the GUI. GUI's bring engines to life...
