I play Fritz 10 rating games and set its level at 2000. Now, I'm not a great player - I was only 1650 over the board last time I played 20 years ago, and I would now estimate I would be around 1800 in the comfort of my own home and with long time controls.
Nowadays, Fritz 10 plays quickly and efficiently in the openings, but as soon as it leaves the openings, it plays more poorly than a 2000 level would suggest, and it plays slowly.
I recently re-installed, and must surely have failed to set it up properly, but I am at a loss to know what has happened and how to get it playing well again.
Is it normal for it to play slowly at a 2 hour time control, and if it isn't then is there a simple answer to my problem?
Brian (Bishop)

Well first thing is its a computer program they MAY SAY it is 2000 or better blah blah all that crap but in reality it is not. Computers always play a game according to points or something from what im told.

And as for playgin fast opening is because it has like the WHOLE ECO built into it so it should play fast after a certain moves it will slow down and play below average since obviously it don't think like us and well it is not very full proof something like that.

All in all ALL the computer engines are beatable by pretty much a above average player its not like they spent THAT much money and time into fritz 10 like they did with deep blue or something or fritz xd.

Well hope that helps because i have no idea what im talking about and if uve read this far well u just wasted 14 seconds of your life sorry!!!!

I bet if you played the same opening repeatedly it would gradually increase in playing strength.

Yes, when I first installed it a couple of years ago, it did increase its playing strength if you tried to go down the same opening line, but due to some problems with the computer, I lost everything and had to re-install Fritz 10 about March of this year. Since then, it has been very erratic. It sometimes plays the same moves as in a previous game, even though I know fine I will gain a plus if we go down that same line. I tried increasing the hash to 1,000, because I play Tournament, 2hour each games, but it didn't work. ...I may increase it to a 2,200 rating. It is a puzzle, because my rating is now well over 2,000 and this is rubbish - unless I've become a genius overnight...

What settings are you playing at with respect to time?

What are your computer's specs?

Care to post a game or two where you felt it was playing very poorly?

Regarding your suggestion.... Ideally, I would like to send you scores of a few games to show you what I mean, but I don't know how. I feel a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I'm quite new to computers, and at the age of 66, I find it difficult to understand all the jargon that all you young wizards use all the time. ...Fritz has played another two bad games out out of the last three. In one, I had the threat of playing a pawn to pin a rook against its king - but it allowed it!!!
If I find out how to send you a game I will do so. (I have made inquiries). It would be interesting if the same moves could be played on your, or someone elses, Fritz 10, just to see if it plays the same poor moves at the same rating that I used,
Brian, up in Glasgow, tearing my hair out
with Fritz problems.

Sending a game is fairly simple, provided you still have it of course. If I recall, edit > copy > copy game/movelist/whatever-fritz-calls-it is the routine, I'm pretty sure CTRL+C works too if you dislike all that clicking. You then paste the game into a forum post and you're done

[QUOTE=Brian Martin;27070]
Here is a game where Fritz 10 played poorly.
Brian Martin (2197)?? v Fritz 10 (2006 rating) 3 hour time control.
1 e4 c5
2 f4 Nc6
3 d3 d5
4Nf3 e6
5 c3 Be7
6Be2 Nh6
7 0-0N In analysis after the game, Fritz quotes Morozevitch - Grischuk, where white played 7 Ne5 but lost in 42 moves.
8 Qe1 Qb6
9 Na3 Rd8
10 Kh1 dxe4
11 dxe4 Here, its a small plus to white (Later analysis)
...Ng4
12 Qg3 Nf6
13 e5 Nd5
14 Nc4 Qc7
15 a4 Bd7
16 Bd2 Fritz in later analysis gives 16 Ng5 Bxg5 17 Qxg5 Nce7 +
18 Bd3 Nf5 19 Bxf5 exf5 20 Nd6, and white is .93 up. I
like the look of the line, and would play it next time.
...Na5
17 Nxa5 Qxa5
18 c4 Nb4
19 Bc3 At this point, I thought it was a tough game, but I didn't
expect the following blunder from Fritz at this level
....Bxa4?? Better was 19...Qc7 20 Ng5 h6 with a small plus to
white (Fritz)
20 b3! Fritz in analysis gives this exclamation mark, but the
is so obvious - and Fritz should never have missed it.
.... Qc7
21 Rxa4 Nd3 (20...Bxb3 21 Rxa5 pinning)Fritz
22 Rd1 Nb4 No need to give further after-game analysis.
23 Raa1 a5
24 Rxd8 Rxd8
25 Rd1 Rxd1 I like to exchange everything off if I'm ahead.
26 Bxd1 Qd8
27 Nd2 Bh4
28 Qe3 Be7
29 Be2 Nc2
30 Qd3 Nd4
31 Bf3 Qb6
32 Ba1 Nxf3
33Nxf3 Kf8
34 Qxh7
1-0
How can Fritz play a blunder like that? Any suggestions? I wonder if the same moves would be played on another computer. I

I haven't had time to look at the game yet, but I would check the following settings:

What strength the computer program is set to play at, how much time it's allowed to use, and what depth it's allowed to search to.

Perhaps you've given it a lot of time to think, but the search depth limited. Remove that limit and it should be very strong. Beyond that, I'm not so sure. Were you running other programs at the same time?

Hi, Your latest email gave me a few ideas, so I've been checking several "suspects." ....I am convinced it is just one rotten tick that is causing me problems. Could you look at this info below and see if you can spot anything....
Active Engines: Crafty, Fritz 10, Fritz 6 Light, Shredder 11, Tablebases 3.2
Parameters: Selectivity 2 Tablebase Depth 3 Aggressiveness 2 and hash I've put back down to 128 from about 500. Using tablebases ticked.
Nothing showing on Set Up UCI Engine.
Chess Benchmark ... 2 Processors.
Book Options Use Book ticked. Tournament book ticked. ...Optimize or Normal? A puzzle!? which to use.
Game - Levels - Fixed Depths : Fixed depth is ticked at 5. Fixed time shows 3 but not ticked.
File - Opening book shows : Books and underneath is Trees, Shredder 11 and Fritz 10 (blue)
Switch now to Database, the ordinary one by Fritz...
Options - there are three or four possibilities where there might be an error:
1 Tablebases is marked C/Users/Mr Martin/Desktop.
The Cache here is 7mb.
2 I have ticked Resign early and Draw early but it never does - Fritz often plays on a piece down and even more.
3 Version: Fritz 10 (blue) GUI version, nothing else ticked.
4 Engine ... show plans not ticked.
To an experienced player of chess computers, I just thought there might be something wrong here that was glaringly obvious, and that it could be easily sorted. If not, I musn't take up any more of your time. Brian