Fat Fritz 2 is a rip-off

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I have been using CB for many years but their recent greed is making me wonder if there are any good alternatives. Is Chess Assistant still around?

A couple of months ago there was "a bug" in CB 14 (i.e. update 41) , suddenly you couldn't auto analyse a game selection at all, before it used SF 12.

Today update 42 arrived and now you can again auto analyse a selection of games in a database - but only with the crappy fritz 16 engine which only points out the obvious. Apparently, they want to force me to buy FF2 to be able to use SF for auto analysis.

Don't think I will renew my subscription if they don't change this asap. Strange strategy from a chess company - upsetting your steady customers should be the last thing you would want to do, especially in times like the present.

I agree with you

'Albert Silver is a Scumbag' could have been the title of the post. I don't care for this kind of personal attack, even if deserved, and would prefer if the authors had stuck to criticizing the nature of Fat Fritz 2. Joost VandeVondele , the Stockfish maintainer, made a post on the Stockfish blog that does this.

Having said the above, I'm perplexed that Chessbase is ripping people off this way. I was thinking of buying their database program in the near future, but now I'm having second thoughts and considering alternatives.

From the (less and less unofficial) SF discord posted from the project maintainer of SF (the tldr is: SF13 is 10 +-1 elo stronger than FF2):

Setup and parameters
====================

Same setup as fishtest, using 8moves_v3.pgn book, run in 128 batches (command used for TC60+0.6):

../cutechess-cli -repeat -rounds 1 -games 512 -tournament round-robin -srand $RANDOM -resign movecount=3 score=400 -draw movenumber=34 movecount=8 score=20
-concurrency 64 -openings file=../8moves_v3.pgn format=pgn order=random plies=16
-each tc=60+0.6 option.hash=64 proto=uci -ratinginterval 128
-engine cmd=../stockfish.sf13 name=sf13
-engine cmd=../stockfish.ff2 name=ff2
-pgnout out-sf13-vs-ff2.pgn

Corresponding to SF13 and FF2 as available Feb 21st

../stockfish.ff2 bench 2>&1 | grep "Nodes searched"
Nodes searched : 4025201

../stockfish.sf13 bench 2>&1 | grep "Nodes searched"
Nodes searched : 3766422

Compiled using exactly the same compiler and same settings

on master at SF13 commit
make clean && make -j ARCH=x86-64-avx2 profile-build && mv ./stockfish ./stockfish.sf13

on ff2 branch with the CB/AS net added to the src directory
make clean && make -j ARCH=x86-64-avx2 profile-build && mv ./stockfish ./stockfish.ff2

Official test by SF team, at fishtest conditions, of Stockfish 13 vs
the sold version of CB/AS (ff2) net and the corresponding Stockfish player.
===========================================================================

TC 10+0.1
=========

games at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14TVxuyOGWAVc2kJyR6K7DEUOetZfWplm/view?usp=sharing

../ordo -a 0 -p out-sf13-vs-ff2-TC10+0.1.pgn -A sf13 -s 100 -q -J -D -W

# PLAYER : RATING ERROR POINTS PLAYED (%) CFS(%)
1 sf13 : 0.0 ---- 34445.5 65536 53 100
2 ff2 : -18.1 1.3 31090.5 65536 47 ---

White advantage = 29.29 +/- 0.67
Draw rate (equal opponents) = 77.35 % +/- 0.18

TC 60+0.6
=========

games at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10yOOoCqt12sssmKy3jSI7og-M-nNs_Xs/view?usp=sharing

../ordo -a 0 -p out-sf13-vs-ff2-TC60+0.6.pgn -A sf13 -s 100 -q -J -D -W

# PLAYER : RATING ERROR POINTS PLAYED (%) CFS(%)
1 sf13 : 0.0 ---- 33774.0 65536 52 100
2 ff2 : -10.8 1.0 31762.0 65536 48 ---

White advantage = 24.72 +/- 0.50
Draw rate (equal opponents) = 87.77 % +/- 0.14

Conclusion
==========

The ff2 net is weaker than SF13 in a proper testing setup.
Draw rates are comparable to fishtest results.

I upgraded from an older Fritz (14 I believe) to Fritz 17 because I like the Fritz interface and some of their features, just as I like many ChessBase features. I installed GPU so Fat Fritz would work, but I considered making the upgrade without preparing for/utilizing Fat Fritz.

So releasing another Fat Fritz 2, without an updated interface, and charging what seems to be more than the cost of Fritz 17, is kind of annoying. It looks like I would be paying $100 to "upgrade" from Fat Fritz 1 (1.2) to Fat Fritz 2, but still getting the same Fritz 17 interface.

Maybe they should make it a free update, or charge an "upgrade from Fat Fritz 1" price.

It doesn't really annoy me, since I don't feel like I'm missing out by not having Fat Fritz 2, but it makes it all a bit odd.

Having said all of this, I will continue to use ChessBase because I kind of have to.

Yes, chessbase was there for a decades.
This is what they use as a main tool of their scamming.
That they were there for decades, that fritz was top engine for decades...
This is why they by current day sell blatant weak stockfish clone called houdini (which also was a good chess engine for decades, btw) for serious money, this is why they NEVER cover any chess engine tournaments which are won not by engine that chessbase is selling (since recently sf and leela are clear number 1 and 2 they cover almost nothing obviously), this is why they repack open-source engines and claim number 1, innovations and stuff...
Because they were good. But they run out of will/ability/anything to stay relevant. Now they just scam you based on reputation they built in the past.
This is why if you want to not feel guilty I suggest you to never ever buy anything from them - this way you are sponsoring scammers, even if you buy fritz GUI you like w/o fat fritz engines. It's the same company anyway.

Thanks for the skinny on Fat Fritz!