Fritz Chess 17 Steam Edition

About

Fritz Chess 17 Steam Edition is a single player and multiplayer strategy game. It was developed by ChessBase GmbH and was released on July 29, 2020. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

This chess program offers you everything you will need as a dedicated chess enthusiast, with innovative training methods for amateurs and professionals alike using the neural chess engine "Fat Fritz".

Genres & Tags

Strategy

Play Modes

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67%

Audience ScoreBased on 30 reviews

graphics3 negative mentions

Fritz 17 features a powerful chess engine that adapts to player skill levels, making it suitable for both casual and serious players.
The program includes a large database of approximately 1.5 million games, providing ample resources for analysis and study.
The user-friendly interface and various training modes, such as blindfold mode and tactics training, enhance the learning experience for players of all levels.

The Steam version lacks several key features found in the full version, including online functionality and opening repertoire management tools, leading to disappointment among users.
The user interface is described as clunky and outdated, with some users experiencing bugs and confusion navigating the software.
Players cannot use the game offline, which is a significant drawback for those who prefer to play without an internet connection.

graphics
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14%
43%
43%
The graphics of Fat Fritz require a powerful NVIDIA graphics card to fully utilize its capabilities, with performance significantly enhanced on high-end models like the RTX 2080 Ti. While the engine can run on standard processors, it achieves optimal results through dedicated graphics processors, and there are hints that many AMD cards and Intel's integrated graphics support OpenCL, offering better performance than CPUs alone. Overall, the game showcases advanced graphical features thanks to its modified Leela Zero chess engine.
- “An RTX 2080 Ti graphics card achieves an NPS performance of 37,000.”
- “The developers named the result Fat Fritz, which, however, needs a very powerful NVIDIA graphics card to achieve the full game strength.”
- “The engine also works on a processor of a commercially available personal computer, delivering very interesting results thanks to the neural network, but is actually up to two thousand times faster on a fast graphics card.”
- “The latter two require an extra graphics processor in the computer, and only with one of these is the Fat Fritz engine interesting. A largely undocumented tip is that many AMD graphics cards and even the graphics cores built into modern Intel processors support 'OpenCL'; the performance of the integrated graphics cores is low but still much higher than that of the CPU.”
optimization
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
17%
50%
The optimization of the game is notably high, particularly with RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards, which achieve impressive performance metrics. However, to fully utilize the Fat Fritz engine, an additional graphics processor is necessary, and users are advised that many AMD graphics cards and modern Intel integrated graphics support "OpenCL," offering better performance than the CPU alone. Overall, Fritz 17 stands out as the first commercial program to incorporate a modified version of the Leela Zero chess engine.
- “An RTX 2080 Ti graphics card achieves an NPS performance of 37,000.”
- “Fritz 17 is the first commercial program to contain a modified version of the 'Leela Zero' chess engine.”
- “High performance is already achieved with an RTX 2080 GPU.”
- “An RTX 2080 Ti graphics card achieves an NPS performance of 37000.”
- “The latter two require an extra graphics processor in the computer, and only with one of these is the Fat Fritz engine interesting. A largely undocumented tip is that many AMD graphics cards and even the graphics cores built into modern Intel processors support 'OpenCL'. The performance of the integrated graphics cores is low but still much higher than that of the CPU. Fritz 17 is in any case the first commercial program to contain a modified version of the 'Leela Zero' chess engine.”
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Users have noted that while the interface can be unclear and buggy, their overall experience with stability has improved as they become more familiar with the content.
- “The game crashes frequently, making it nearly impossible to enjoy the experience.”
- “I encountered numerous bugs that disrupted gameplay and made it frustrating to progress.”
- “The interface is incredibly unclear and buggy, which detracts from the overall stability of the game.”
gameplay
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
300%
Players appreciate the gameplay for its allowance of thoughtful decision-making, particularly in human vs. human scenarios, where the pressure to act quickly is reduced, enhancing the overall experience.
- “Being able to take all the time in the world to make your next move is a luxury that is limited in human vs. human gameplay, and is perhaps a reason why I bought this software.”
- “The gameplay feels overly simplistic and lacks depth, making it quickly become repetitive.”
- “I found the controls to be unresponsive at times, which really detracted from the overall experience.”
- “The pacing of the game is frustratingly slow, making it hard to stay engaged.”