As long as you know the rules, Fritz interface and a decent engine will allow you to tune it to your needs:
- fully adjustable skill level (novice to master)
- automatically adapting playing level (play a humber of matches, and the computer will adjust it's level to your results, it will raise when you win, it will fall when oyu loose, after some time the adjustements are rathger small and you get an opponent that is challenging but not overwhelming to you)
- several tools to explain moves in words, values and graphics, illustrate them via colour codes and arrows on the board, mark threats, combinations, coverings
- vast database with chess martches (usuually 100.000 or more)
- functions that allow to explicitly train opening knowledge, midgame tactics, endgames
- print protocoals and diagrams easily
- auto-comment in words and auto-analyse a played match or a single move with trees
- tuning the engine (some of them) so that it accentuates or ignores tactic motives, and values of playing pieces, that way you can train certain things you want to study
- new software: 1-year abonement access to the chessclub server run by Chessbase, one of the greatest of its kind, using the Fritz interfce, playing online or kibitzing, finding partners and matches of sorted playing skills as you like. theyx also hold video coverings (life!) of tournaments on the real world. with comments by grandmasters and audience, and hold training courses via online classes.
I apologize for the size of the screeenshots, they are original sizes,but it is intentional to illustrate how it looks like on your monitor.
Hiarcs 10 3D board, actually fully usable: on my 19" monitor at 1280x1024, it looks like using a real board of 40x40 cm, it can be zoomed, rotated, repositiooned easily via mouse (click and hold):
Fritz interface (example), many mor windows possible, size, position etc can be freely adjusted:
Fritz 8 3D board:
Play versus the Chess Turk! 3D-ambient, clock and robot fully functional. Nevertheless, it's worth is cosmetic only.
