[Fritz Fax Software 3.07.61 Downloadl
Saija Grzegorek
I wonder if anyone else has crashing problems with Fritz17. I was in two minds about upgrading from F16 but I went for it. 50. It worked OK for a while, maybe 6 weeks. Then after an upgrade it will not run for more than a few minutes, anywhere from 20 seconds to about 7 minutes in fact, then it hangs and I need to kill the task. I have reported to Chessbase and they tried some very basic suggestions, but I'd tried these. After that they seem to have given up trying to assist me.
As background info, I long ago left the Fritz world (last one was Fritz 8), mostly due to the fact that ChessBase seemed very slow about fixing bugs. They seemed more concerned about putting out a new version of Fritz every year than fixing bugs in previous versions. So I left them. Now, I've also left the Windows world, due to the fact that Microsoft no longer puts any significant effort into Windows (except for telemetry!), and Windows is now a dumpster fire.
First, let me say that I don't know the exact cause of your problem, but I can make an educated guess. Because Fritz 17 has now caused your Fritz 16 to start crashing, I suspect that there may be some common Fritz configuration file that either got corrupted or was bad in the latest Fritz update. I further suspect that when you uninstall Fritz, this config file isn't getting deleted, and it continues to be used when you try reinstalling Fritz (either version).
So, if I were in your shoes, I'd try uninstalling all versions of Fritz (and ChessBase, if any). Then I'd start searching for all configuration files related to the Fritz programs and deleting them before reinstalling either version of Fritz. These config files could be in folders with either "Fritz" or "Chessbase" in the folder name. I suspect they might be somewhere in your AppsData or Roaming folders. Hopefully they're not also in your volume shadow folders or your registry.
Just search your entire hard drive for the words "fritz" and "chessbase" (separately), and start deleting any folder that looks like it contains Fritz or Chessbase config files. Likely, they'll be in some user folder, but who knows? (If you bought the software via download, just don't delete the actual Fritz download files; and hopefully you also have backups of them.) Then try installing either Fritz 16 or Fritz 17, and cross your fingers. Good luck.
I recently purchased Fritz17 (prior to this i had Komodo 14 installed). I dont like Fritz GUI. I just care for Komodo engine, but I happened to purchase Fritz17 getting seduced by their claim of being inspired from LC0. Initially, things were working good. Then came an upgrade to GUI. Like a regular user, I clicked on upgrade and now neither Komodo14 nor Fritz17 start. The program craps out saying there is a configuration mismatch and that i should check the logs. Yeah right... ... as if I could make sense out of it. Further they dont even specify the location of the so called log file. Finally, I uninstalled both Komodo14 and Fritz17. Installed Komodo and DID NOT upgrade ... so much for spending bucks on a stupid program. Lichess has Stockfish12 server which is THE most powerful engine so far and chess.com is great too...
That is true @drmrboss. However, my observation is stockfish "feels" too much of a machine for me... in the sense, there is no doubt it gives the perfect move for a given position, but a lot many times, those moves dont "feel" human. I dont see myself making those moves (of course I am no where close to being an expert, (let alone NM, FM, IM, GM) so may be Stockfish's moves seem natural for GM/Super GM category people. However the fun of playing with an engine is it needs to just be good enough for you which means it has to make more "human-like" moves rather than being positionally correct all the friggin time. Of all the engines I have seen so far, Houdini 6 comes very very close to a human-like playing and then comes Komodo. Note that for being more human, the engine does NOT necessarily have to blunder pieces, but it should be able to select an inferior move so as to pose enough challenge for us to grow in our chess skills and understanding. It is for this reason, that I personally go for these paid engines. Needless to say, stockfish12 today beats every engine out there and its free so there is no real need for a better engine.
Fritz GUI code is outdated. Full of bugs and inefficiencies. They clearly are stuck in the 90's and have a problem finding a business-model to improve their client. Just like their Chessbase GUI which needs an overhaul badly as well. They're just milking it. Not even their engine is theirs; They buy it and rename it.
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