Released back in the 2000s, Fritz 6 revolutionized computer chess at the time by offering a very robust GUI and a top notch playing strength. We all know this.
...but did you know that Fritz 6 is also the Fritz engine that received the most updates? All of them are mostly undocumented
so we will never know what kind of changes were made between the different versions. Even if you consider yourself a Computer Chess historian, you will have an extremely hard time trying to figure out and record what all of the different Fritz 6 versions are. I tried to embark into these gnarly seas without much success, but let's change that today!
First, a bit of history. I asked this same question back in 2004 in the CCC forums. Fortunately, I received a quite detailed response:
https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=395058
According to Mr. Kostick, these are the Fritz 6 versions released:
Bytes: Date: NAME: Found in:
275,968 28 Nov. 1999 "Fritz 6 Light" Demo
288,256 05 Jan. 2000 Original CD Install
291,328 17 Jan. 2000 "Fritz 6 Old" Service Pack 1
289,280 23 Jan. 2000 "a" Service Pack 1
290,816 04 Sep. 2000 "b" ChessBase Magazine
293,376 16 Dec. 2000 "c" sometimes called "e" 09 and 23 Jan 2001 Updates
311,296 20 Apr. 2001 "d" sometimes called "m" 12 May 2001 Update
However, the story does not end there. I can guarantee you that there are more, much more
, especially because some of them were officially released after that post. Sound hard to believe, but it's true: Fritz 6 continued to be updated even after 2004.Don't believe me? Grab a copy of Chessbase Light 2009 and see the engines that it includes. You'll see that a very peculiar, heavier Fritz 6 engine is included. Is it perhaps stronger than it's predecessors? I'll leave it up to the testers to find that out!
Without further ado, as a group, let's try to complete the documentation of every released Fritz 6 version in existence. Here's what I got so far, based on Mr. Kostick's notes and my Fritz files lying around:
Version 01 - 275,968 28 - 28 Nov. 1999 - "Fritz 6 Light" Demo. (Verified)
This might be the very first released version of Fritz 6, which came in the free demo available in Chessbase.com.
MD5: e2f3aa69b2783b29c2c154e7fb233848
Version 02 - 288,256 - 05 Jan. 2000 - Original CD Install
There were many different Fritz 6 CDs released, this is supposedly the first official release.
MD5: 8ef82d113a186db997479debc1c07bc6 - Matches: Date, weight.
Version 03 - 291,328 - 17 Jan. 2000 - "Fritz 6 Old" Service Pack 1
MD5: a03d7253f0c70a3299b5adafccf4458a - Matches: Date, weight.
Version 04 - 289,280 - 23 Jan. 2000 "a" Service Pack 1
MD5: c4a3f930b11ab6e4b977f09d88ad9239 - Matches: Date, weight
Version 05 - 290,816 - 04 Sep. 2000 "b" ChessBase Magazine
I have a version that has the exact same weight, but the date doesn't match (it says April 10, 2000, perhaps it might be a different, not documented version?). Anyways, I'll leave the MD5.
MD5: 7959a43ca9ca8b1dd77739b30ea9a854 - Matches: weight.
Version 06 - 293,376 - 16 Dec. 2000 "c" sometimes called "e" 09 and 23 Jan 2001 Updates
MD5: 2c9f1d4484047cc91eefd49cca26ba37 - Matches: Date, weight
Version 07 - 311,296 - 20 Apr. 2001 "d" sometimes called "m" 12 May 2001 Update
This is probably the most known and played version of Fritz 6, also available in many CDs.
MD5: b140476a6b5b834edf10d1625e6cc8e3
These are the documented versions of Mr. Kostick, with all matching except for the version 05. Here are other ones that I've found myself:
Possibly version 0.5 - 291,328 - 10 Nov. 1999 - Fritz 6 Light beta(?
This is probably an early version of Fritz 6 Light, since the file name is called like that and it has a date before the official one. Unlike the official Fritz 6 Light file, this one doesn't have the "Light" part of the name in the engine when you load it.
MD5: 04f6ff21dfc57bcfbdf71768dc0b13f5
Possibly version 08 - 364,544 bytes - 7 Nov. 2002 - Fritz 8 (No MMX)
MMX are CPU instructions. Both Fritz 7 and Fritz 8 included versions that don't have these instructions, albeit for better compatibility. These versions of Fritz can only run in the Fritz 6 GUI or older. Oddly enough and unlike the Fritz 7 version, the No MMX version of Fritz version actually says ("Fritz 6 Engine, file version: 6.0.0.77"), so that's why I'm including it in this list. Perhaps this version of "Fritz 8" is just a newer (or older, according to the version) version of Fritz 6
MD5: 798467f2df07820e6088e606cc41c756
Possibly version 09 - 348,160 bytes - 18 Jun. 2003 - Fritz For Fun 3
This version of Fritz For Fun is based on Fritz 6, according to the file properties. File version is: 6.0.0.78, which is the standard for most versions of Fritz 6.
MD5: d47209fa8bd75055d35dcad5a273aecf
Possibly version 10 - 311,296 bytes - 19 Jan. 2004 - Fritz 6 CD (Verified)
This one came in my Fritz 6 CD. It's an original CD I bought years ago in a physical chain-store, so there's no way it can be fake
. Oddly enough, this version comes with the Fritz 7 GUI instead of the classic Fritz 6 GUI. The distributor is called K.B. Oil and apparently it partnered with Chessbase to sell the CD (or so it seems!).MD5: 235966857b0ed9ff96e79ad9719f81ca
Possibly version 11 - 487,424 bytes - 19 Feb. 2010 - Chessbase Light 2009 (Verified)
This is the Fritz version that comes with the installation of Chessbase Light 2009.
MD5: 00b3cae86a48cf0fd1db42d0dd9f8c98
Mysterious version - 458,752 bytes - No real date
Out of all, it is the most sketcky/unknown version. I remember downloading the .eng file from a strange website. As it is a downloaded file, the file's date is modified to the date that you downloaded it so we can't know the date for sure. I tested it and it works fine though, so I'm leaving it here in case we can figure it out.
MD5: b7a25a1cf3d27dc64dcb693f4988bff3
So there you have it! There are possibly even more, since Chessbase allied with many different distributors at the time. Will you join my quest to properly document all the Fritz 6 versions?
If you still have a Fritz 6 engine file, or a CD (even better), please let us know which of these versions you have so that we can verify it!
I used WinMD5 for the hash signatures: https://www.winmd5.com/.
