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It has been a while since pocket Fritz was released by Chessbase. But it was only until a short while ago that purchased a PocketPC. So now I can finally give my impressions of this program. By the way, if anyone has come up with a good rationalization for why one needs yet another computer to play chess on, then please let me know (so that I can tell my wife).

Like its big brother on the PC, pocket Fritz does a bit of everything. For instance, in addition to playing games against the computer, there is also an infinite analysis mode, a rudimentary database, and a training function. But do not expect these capabilities to be as complete as they are on the PC, since the PocketPC is restricted in terms of size, speed, display and memory. Ok, that being said, I will now discuss each of these modes of operation in a bit more detail.

Playing

Pocket Fritz’s name can be a little deceiving. The chess engine employed by the program is actually Shredder, a very strong engine that has won the World Microcomputer Championship a number of times. This engine’s style tends to be very positional, and in my opinion, tends to be very human-like. It is also extremely strong. I think that even on the slowest PocketPC platform, Pocket Fritz is stronger than any program running on the fastest Palm unit.

Since the engine is so strong, handicapping options are important. Pocket Fritz offers the ability to turn permanent brain on and off, and offers six “easy” levels (which are untimed). Note however, that the program does not contain sparring, ELO handicapping, or friend modes, like Fritz on the PC. However, there is a coach function, similar to Fritz, which warms you when you make a blunder (usually by the time you are warned, it is a bit too late).

The user has a choice of game in X (with and without time increment), and average time per move. The program has hash tables, which give it a decent endgame. I found the opening book to have just enough depth to make the program fun to play against. The book itself is deeper and broader than any other program on the Palm platform (although I am not sure about Pocket PC programs).

From the standpoint of look and feel, Pocket Fritz does very well. The user has a choice of three boards, and three piece sets, which can be used in any combination.

Database

The database module allows you to do some simple header searches, which I feel are more than adequate for Pocket PC technology, such as it is. The program uses PGN, which is the universal standard for chess data exchange. Games can be annotated by adding variations, which can be simple or nested. While entering and playing back games, you can enable the program’s infinite analysis function, which will show engine calculations below the board. The only thing missing here is the ability to add evaluations and text annotations to moves. Other than that, the database module delivers what most people expect on a handheld.

I almost forgot to mention that you can search the online Chessbase game database. This function requires a mobile phone with IR capabilities (I did not test this).

Training

I found this simple little feature to be quite interesting and maybe under-appreciated. Essentially, it presents training exercises in random order for your solution. It uses a PGN database called Tactics.pgn, which is located in the Pocket Fritz program directory. It is the intent of Chessbase to make periodic downloads of this file available on the internet.

Many of the exercises in Tactics.pgn are on the easy side. However, it is a simple matter to create your own database of tactical exercises, and replace the Tactics.pgn file with your own. I did just that with a set of 6000 tactical test positions from Guenther Ossimitz’s site.

This function also has a small clock to keep track of your solution time. Overall, this is a nice little addition to the program.

Conclusion

You may have noticed that I have been comparing Pocket Fritz to Fritz on the PC, which is not entirely fair. I have done this for a couple of reasons, the principal of which is to make sure that people realize that are not getting everything that comes with Fritz on the PC, which may be one’s conclusion based on the name of the product.

Although, when compared to other chess programs on Palm or Pocket PC, I think that Pocket Fritz stands up extremely well. For instance, there is the database module (which few playing programs have), and the handy training feature. I think because of these two features (and the strong chess engine), this program makes a good choice for warming up before a tournament.

If you want more information on Pocket Fritz, then I would also suggest that you check out Steve Lopez’s t-notes at Chessbase and Chessbase USA.

Copy Protection

A few words about Pocket PC speed

For those that are interested, I have put together a little information on how you can compare the potential chess performance of the various processors available in the Pocket PC. The following table shows the relative performance of each processor type.

	150MHz MIPS (Casio, clock speed varies slightly)	206MHz ARM (Compaq, and newer HP)	133MHz Hitachi SH3 (older HP)
Approximate Integer Performance	11.54	15.55	3.53
APPROXIMATE ELO	2385	2407	2300

So, if you are going to get a PocketPC expressly for playing chess and you want the absolute strongest play, then your best bet is to get a StrongArm based machine – this would include all the current Compaq IPAQ units, along with the newer HPs. Note too that future versions of the PocketPC operating system will only run on ARM based units.

You’ll also note from the chart that the slowest machine (which is the one I bought) is based on the SH3. My opinion is that even with the slowest processor available, this program is probably of at least master strength.

The general rule is that you get about a 50 ELO point gain for each doubling of the performance of the processor. Let’s shoot from the hip, and say that at the ELO of my Jornada is about 2300. This means that the resulting ELOs for the other platforms are as shown on the table. These are only really rough guesses. I haven’t done any testing – so you should treat these numbers with skepticism. What it does do though, is show you the relative performance difference among the various platforms.

For example – if the ELO of Pocket Fritz on my Jornada is really 2200, then you would just subtract 100 ELO points from the other ELO numbers in the table.