Fritz (chess)

Fritz is a German chess program developed by Gyula Horváth and published by ChessBase. Versions prior to 14 were written by Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist.

The latest version of the consumer product is Fritz 15. This version now supports 64-bit hardware and multiprocessing by default.

History

Morsch and his friend Ed Schröder produced a chess program in the early 1980s. In the early 1990s, the German company ChessBase asked Morsch to write the Fritz chess programs (called Knightstalker in the USA). In 1995, Fritz 3 won the World Computer Chess Championship in Hong Kong, surprisingly beating a prototype version of Deep Blue.

In 2002, Deep Fritz drew the Brains in Bahrain match against the classical World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik 4–4.

In November 2003, X3D Fritz, a version of Deep Fritz with a 3D interface, drew a four-game match against Garry Kasparov.

On June 23, 2005, in the ABC Times Square studios, the AI Accoona Toolbar, driven by a Fritz 9 prototype, drew against the then FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

Fritz Chess

Fritz Chess is a video game for the Wii developed by Deep Silver and published by Koch Media. It was released in North America on June 30, 2009. It includes single player and multiplayer modes (for up to two players) and allows user to partake in various chess games, including classic chess, chess 960 or giveaway.

Gameplay

The game is based upon the Fritz chess program and allows the user to establish and maintain an ELO score within the game when playing classic chess against a computer opponent.

Perceived rarity

The North American release of Fritz Chess was quite limited and has fueled speculation that it may be the rarest Wii release in the region. Copies on Amazon and other retailers often eclipse $100.

References


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