“Creeping” chess analysis in Fritz/Rybka

In the previous blog post we examined a basic use for the “Infinite analysis” feature in the Fritz “family” of chess playing programs (Fritz, Rybka, Hiarcs, Shredder, and Junior). This time around we’re going to learn another way to use this feature, a method which is a bit more time-intensive but which yields interesting results.

Infinite chess analysis mode in Fritz/Rybka

I’ve had a couple of interesting conversations lately with users of the Fritz “family” of playing programs (Fritz, Rybka, Hiarcs, Junior, and Shredder) who weren’t quite sure what “Infinite analysis” does, or, in one case, what it can do for them. “Infinite analysis” has a lot of uses, all based on the idea that you feed a position to the chess engine and let it chew on the position to find the best sequence of play. It’s not terribly different from the way we human analyze when we’re playing a face-to-face game: we try to figure out the best move, followed by our opponents’ best reply, followed by what we’d do next, etc. – it’s the old “If I do this, he’ll do this, then I’ll do this…” thing. The difference is that a chess engine will look much farther ahead (“deeper”) than any human could do, as well as pick better moves than we average players would normally choose.

The Fritz/Rybka/etc. chess program’s shared user interface

I’ve recently received a few panicked phone calls and e-mails from new users of two or more of the Fritz family of playing programs (Fritz, Hiarcs, Rybka, Junior, and Shredder). “I just double-clicked on the Fritz12 icon and it launched Rybka4! How do I get my Fritz back???”

The fact of the matter is, your Fritz didn’t “go” anywhere. Both chessplaying engines share the same user interface – the “wrapper” containing the on-screen chessboard and all of the program’s various user commands.

Automatic multi-game replay in Fritz/Rybka

One of the first features of the Fritz family of chess playing programs (Fritz, Rybka, Hiarcs, Junior, Shredder) learned by new users is how to manually replay database games by using the keyboard cursor keys or the on-screen VCR buttons. But more than a few folks don’t realize that they can load a database and have Fritz, etc. replay the games automatically, one game after the other, while they sit back and watch.

Post-game chess engine analysis: zeroing in

Although I’ve stressed in prior posts that a chess engine, such as one of the Fritz family of playing programs (e.g. Fritz, Rybka, Junior, Hiarcs, and Shredder) can best be used to point out chronic recurring problems in one’s chess play over the course of many games, you can also use a chess engine to zero in on a particular problem point in one of your recent games.

Fritz/Rybka’s post-game chess analysis: the small picture and the big picture

In continuing our examination of the post game chess analysis provided by the Fritz family of playing programs (Fritz, Rybka, Hiarcs, Junior, and Shredder), I’m going to use an example from one of my own recent games to illustrate how these chess engines can simultaneously provide you with both specific and general information.

Interpreting Fritz/Rybka’s game analysis

We’ve been examining the process of post-game chess analysis using the Fritz “family” of playing programs (Fritz, Rybka, Junior, Hiarcs, and Shredder). As we’ve discussed previously, you can have a chess engine analyze every game you’ve ever played but unless you take a close look at that analysis and, most important of all, understand what that analysis is showing you, it’s just a waste of electricity. A chess engine can be a valuable tool for guiding your chess study, but only if you take the time to carefully look at its analysis of your games.

After Fritz analyzes your chess games, it’s your turn

After you’ve input your latest games and had one or more of the Fritz “family” of playing programs/chess engines (Fritz, Hiarcs, Junior, Shredder, Rybka) analyze them, what’s next?

The learning process in chess

When I first started in the chess software business a couple of decades ago, I was tasked with teaching people how to use chess engines and databases to help them realize their goal of chess success. I remember how, at that time, I was hit with a sudden realization – in order to fulfill that task, I had to myself learn about how people learn.

“Threshold” settings in Fritz/Rybka game analysis

A couple of blog posts back we looked at two separate game analysis forms in the Fritz “family” of chess playing programs (Fritz, Rybka, Hiarcs, Junior, and Shredder), and we learned some important points about the analysis time settings as well. Today we’re going to examine the “Threshold” setting, and learn how to get Fritz, etc., to analyze more than one game in a session.

Comparing analysis modes in Fritz/Rybka chess software

In the previous blog post we mentioned the question, “What are the best analysis settings for the Fritz family of chess playing programs?” (said programs being Fritz, Hiarcs, Junior, Rybka, and Shredder). Today we’ll consider the answer to that question.

Some interesting analysis output from Fritz/Rybka chess software

We’ve looked at a lot of information over the last few posts to this blog, so we’re going to take a short pause today and catch our collective breath a little bit before proceeding. Admittedly I did cover things a little backward in those past posts, as I’d first received numerous requests for information on the analysis features of the Fritz “family” of chess playing programs (Fritz, Rybka, Junior, Hiarcs, and Shredder). Partway through that short series of blog posts, I began to receive requests on game input (how to add your personal games to a database). So that’s why we discussed analysis first and game input second.

“Cutting and pasting” games into Fritz/Rybka

In the last few posts to this blog we’ve considered several ways to get games into a “Fritz family” (Fritz, Shredder, Hiarcs, Junior, Rybka) database, but there’s a major source of games we’ve not yet discussed.

Manual input of games into Fritz/Rybka

If you’ve been playing chess any length of time, you have gobs of old scoresheets lying around, maybe whole books of them. You’d love to be able to input these games into the Fritz family of playing programs (Fritz, Hiarcs, Junior, Shredder, and Rybka) to have a chess engine analyze them, but you don’t know how to do it.

Guess what today’s topic is going to be?

Importing PGN games into the Fritz/Rybka interface

There’s one more topic we need to cover before we discuss how to use the analysis features in the Fritz family of playing programs (Fritz, Rybka, Hiarcs, Shredder, and Junior) to actually improve our play: how do we get games other than ones we’ve played against the computer into a database for analysis?