shotokun16 said: I would say Fritz 12 is for anyone from 1200+.  ...  But what i find extremely helpful is the data base. "Updated database of 1.5 million games from 1625 to 2009"...

Agreed, just the Fritz database you get is well worth the price. I play against Chessmaster (10th ed.) --- bigger variety of difficulty levels ("personalities") --- but I use Fritz 10 for post-mortem analysis (my games against Chessmaster, tournament games, club games) and for the "training" modes (attack, check, defense, and endgames). Never got the hang of handicapping Fritz, and full-strength Fritz or Rybka would grind me into a fine powder, so there's no point (literally!) in playing against such a beast.

Joshua said: I have Fritz 10. It's great for playing, but for beginner learning, I prefer Chessmaster, especially the Josh Waitzkin games/lectures.... 

Exactly. I don't think Fritz is really meant for beginner instruction, but Chessmaster excels at it. Chessmaster's tutorials for beginners and improvers are awesome.

This product is a complete rip-off.  DO NOT PURCHASE.  It advertises 12+ hours of video tutorials.  However, it is all beginner crap. 

Buy Chessmaster.  Waitzking will teach you more in 1 hour than this video in 12.

i see. well thanks for clearing that up. i really think this is a misleading advertisement by the fritz company. but yeah guess it was too good to be true, to get a year membership, 12 hours of video and whatnot.

oh well.

@ chumpy

yup i looked it over a gain.  There is a section for COMPLETE BEGINNERS (i.e. what does the king do, notations, how to mate) and its full length but i find the system for 900+ FIDE.  LIke how to imprsion the king, discover attack, mating staircase, etc are all general stuff.  HMmmmm ya... they really didnt elaborate what was a 12-hour video series.  Trust me all the good videos like , kasparov teaching, and Grandmaster Alexei Shirov: The Sicilian with 3.Bb5 is one of the longest.  which is about 26 minutes long. But when you read carefully the video is actually 5-hours long but only sampled at 26 minutes.  All of the videos are like that so ya

PS: just read books man i mean i dont think there is any playing engine that offers videos and sample videos and also a 1-year subscripiton to chessbase.com. i think getting a 1-year membership costs like 49 euros or 58 euros a year.  I didnt activate the online account because i already have a 1-year subscription to ICC, so when that ends ill activate chessbase.  Trust the players on Chessbase online and ICC are very strong players.  if your playing against a 1300 rated Chess.com member you are going against at least 950-1100 player on ICC or Chessbase.com.  The field is stronger!

can you run Fritz on a mac?

"Learning material the 12-hour video learning is crap.  They all are cut down to sample videos and you gotta purchase the full length video--basically a teaser."

What the CRAP!?!?!? are you serious!? what a hoax man! i have fritz 12 on the way to me and one of the main reasons i bought it is because of the "awesome 12 hour learning material".

man if this just 12 hours of samples someone outta sue those liars!

I would say Fritz 12 is for anyone from 1200+.  Learning material the 12-hour video learning is crap.  They all are cut down to sample videos and you gotta purchase the full length video--basically a teaser.  But what i find extremely helpful is the data base.  My favorite player is Magnus Carlsen and i filterd through the games.  There are at least 1000+ games.  I punched in any games from 1998-2009. The have games from 2002-2009 last recorded games is in Dortmund SuperGM 2009. AND the ease of filtering through the games is a lot better than fritz 10 and an eye candy for everyone

PS: "Updated database of 1.5 million games from 1625 to 2009" Too good to be true.  Why get Chessbase data base for $130 while you can get this that is almos equivalent.  AWESOME A+++++++

I have Fritz 10. It's great for playing, but for beginner learning, I prefer Chessmaster, especially the Josh Waitzkin games/lectures. Does Fritz 12 have anything useful for a more novice player as far as teaching and learning?

@Enormous_Gastropod

OH i got it so cheap because i was answering a surveys from whole sale chess store.com and recived $50! gift card ( http://www.wholesalechess.com/ )

Oh i never got that leaflet Play chess.com. Where did you get fritz 12? 

And have you acitvated your online subscription? If not does the subscription activate once you plug in your serial code enormous?

Are you running fritz 12 on 64-bit?

(sorry so many questions. BY THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!! the engine does seem a lot faster from fritz 10.  The platform is VERY easy! feels like im using Windows 2007 office but the consolidation of 30 tab windows into like 5-6 tabs that branch of to other trees almost feels like Windows 7.)

ANd for everyone praising Rybka which is rated 3000 ELO really does it matter? the top two players in the world  are rated 2800 why bother? any engine rated above 2300+ is worth it and fritz 12 is rated 2900+

I also recieved fritz 12 yesterday and installed it in my laptop (specs: 1.4 ghz Celeron 1gb ram No graphics card plays wonderfully like my fritz 10) and on my desktop (specs: Overclocked 3.4 ghz AMD phenom II x4, 8GB Ram DDr2, 1GB 4800 HD ATI).

BUT ive encountred a problem. Owning this program for at least 9-hours i've witnessed 3/10 crashes on both computers.  My laptop is Windows xp 32-bit and my desktop is windows 7 RC 64-bit.  I was wondering for fritz 12 owners do you ahve problems running it on 64 bit on windows rc 7. Respond ASAP because i do not want to activate my online subscripition because i already have a membership to ICC so patching up the crashes seems to be out of reach for me. Please HELP!!!!!!

PS: i got fritz 12 for $9!!!!!!!!!! because of whole sale chess store.com! WOOT! THANKYOU WHOLE SALE CHESS STORE!

Although I personally think Rybka is a bit better, Fritz 12 comes with much nicer software, but that is just my opinion. 

i haven't even figured out how to use my Fritz 11 yet.

It should be noted that I do not gain a commission from each unit sold due to this thread. However, if you want to donate to me I'll send you my paypal information. 

Im going to buy it !

SO I really am going to invest in this now.  The more poeple that talk about it the more I need to see for myself.

for the people who say- but rybka is 20elo stronger, or may as well stick with Fritz 11. You are missing the point! i am getting firtz 12 (when it is realised in the UK) for all the other things it has, such as the many hours of video, its opening book, its design and for the help it can offer me, because anything about 2000 is all the same to me anyway- a loss! lol

Fritz 11 was about 2850, so I assume that 12 will be at least as strong.

How does Fritz 12 rank against Rybka?  What is Fritz 12's ELO?

You've hit the snail on the head, of course...I don't know what the shell came over me! 

Enjoy!