Software

A selection of our most popular software is presented below.

How to Play Chess

Learn to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster 1 & 2

Fritz 12

Searching for Bobby Fischer

 

How to Play Chess DVD by Derek Jeffries - $30

This is ideal for beginners, young and old. It takes you through all the basics, including notation, value of the pieces, etc. Supported by a good instructional booklet.

Learn to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster
parts 1 and 2, $75 and $80 respectively
  Fritz and Chesster - Part 1

This programme does not teach chess in the usual way. It does not set up a board and explain how each of the pieces move. Instead it targets children who have never played chess before in their lives and teaches them the basic rules in a Sesame Street like environment. There are cartoons and stories for the children to follow, and then there are tasks for them to solve interactively.

Fritz and Chesster - Part 2

Jump into chess action, move by move, to rescue Chesster from deep within King Black’s castle. Join Fritz and Bianca in a thrilling chess adventure as they enter rooms of the castle, where each challenge will help you sharpen skills and prepare for the ultimate showdown.

* Powered by Fritz, the world’s leading chess software
* Learn about tactics and strategy, the opening and endgame
* Developed together with experienced children’s chess coaches

For ages 8 and up System requirements: Multimedia PC: Pentium II 233 processor, 32 mb ram (16 mb free momory), 16 bit soundblaster compatible sound card, 16x speed CD-Rom Drive, Graphics card 800 x 600 (16 bit color), Win 98/ME/XP

Fritz 12 - $99

Fritz is the world’s most popular chess program, developed by ChessBase, “the world's leading chess software company” (Washington Post). Whether you are a beginner, club player or professional – Fritz has everything that chess players could want: automatically adjusting playing strength, handicap and coaching functions, explanation of positions, coloured danger warnings, openings statistics, automatic game analysis, trainings modules for openings, tactics, endgames, and a database of one million games. Fritz continues to fascinate the chess world. It has beaten a reigning World Champion in the battle of man vs machine, and it has worked with World Champions as a clever training partner (Garry Kasparov: “I regularly analyse with Fritz”) which will entertain you with fresh and humorous verbal comments.

Searching for Bobby Fischer - $39

Searching for Bobby Fischer is an acclaimed 1993 film based on the life of prodigy chess player Joshua Waitzkin, played by Max Pomeranc. Adapted from the book of the same name by Joshua's father Fred, the film was written and directed by Steven Zaillian. In the United Kingdom the film was released under the title Innocent Moves.

In this film, Josh Waitzkin's family discovers that he possesses a gift for chess and they seek to nurture it. They hire a strict instructor, Bruce Pandolfini (played by Ben Kingsley) who aims to teach the boy to be as aggressive as Bobby Fischer. The title of the film is a metaphor about the character's quest to adopt the ideal of Fischer and his determination to win at any price. The main conflict in the film arises when Josh refuses to adopt Fischer's misanthropic frame of reference. Josh then goes on to win on his own terms with the kind of gracious sportsmanship that Fischer rejects.