Fritz 10 Chess Software Review, Part 2

Here we'll cover Fritz 10's PlayChess.com interface and the Chess Instruction/Fritz Media System.

Click on PlayChess.com from the main Fritz menu. The first time you start it, you'll be asked to log in as a guest, or to create an account. I just created an account called "chesshouse", completed some personal information and arrived at the main playchess.com screen.

At the time this screen shot was taken, there were 2500 players in the "Main Playing Hall" plus hundreds of others in various other rooms.

The PlayChess.com Fritz 10 interface is very flexible, allowing you to view all the players online and all the games currently being played sorting them by any criteria shown in the list. Yes, you can actually watch multiple games being played!

Here's a list of the games in progress...

Simply double click on the games you want to watch and they will be placed in the game viewing window! Here, I have added two LIVE games...

I wanted to have Fritz analyze the games while watching. So I added the Fritz with the Menu option Engine / Add Kibitzer.

Now Fritz is showing it's analysis of the current position with full on board graphics!

As games finish, just press the Close Finished Boards button.

Check out this rather complicated presentation!!

Check out the server statistics with a click off a button. Over 171,000,000 games have been played on PlayChess.com!!!

Ok, let's explore the rating features. I will play a few games to get a performance rating. Usually the system will give you an estimated rating until you play enough games for the rating to stop making big fluctuations and match your real playing strength.

Players on PlayChess.com play at all levels so you will always find someone you can beat, or that can blow you away!

To start playing a game, you can click on one of the games shown in the Challenges window.

Or, if you want to create your own challenge with a time control YOU choose, start by clicking the Seek button shown here:

Ok. Let's play a game with 3 / 0 time control. That's three minutes per player... Here's what it will look like.

A game in progress on PlayChess.com