The Chess Exchange

I am unable to find the help for the Mate Search function in Fritz 9. Can anyone tell me what this function does? Let's say I have reached the end game and would like to know if I can mate in say 3 moves? Does 'Mate Search' help me out here?

Chess problems, mate search


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Menu: Tools – Analysis – Mate search (or Ctlr-M)

This allows you to solve chess problems (“White to play and mate in n moves”). There is a special mate solving engine which can also handle selfmates in which White must force Black to mate him, and helpmates, in which both sides co-operate to mate Black.



In the dialog box for the mate search, select an engine (only engines which are specialised for mate searches will be displayed) and specify the kind of problem you are solving.

“Parameters” allows you to set certain options, especially for very deep mate problems which would otherwise take too long.

“Heuristic search” allows you to specify the maximum number of flight squares the black king can have.

“Threat with check” specifies how deep a mate threat should be for it to be considered.

The program not only displays the key move of the problem, but also generates a complete solution, with all alternative defences by Black. If the problem has more than one solution (i.e., it is “cooked”), then alternate solutions will be given as lines to the first move of White. “Last move” specifies whether the last move of the problem, which is usually obvious, should be included or not.

In the dialog box for the mate search, select an engine (only engines which are specialised for mate searches will be displayed) and specify the kind of problem you are solving.

Hello Jeroen, Steve & al,

My F9 does not have any other choice than "Mate 2.14" engine. Is there an alternative? How do you add a solving engine in the Fritz 9.
Arguably the best (commercial) solving engine is "Alybadix", but I do not know any way to use it from F9 GUI.

The only mate searcher I know which is UCI compatible, is Chest from Heiner Marxen. The port for UCI compatibility was written by Frans Huber.
http://www.uciengines.de/UCI-Engines/Chest/chest.html

Jeroen, whom you can count on -at least once - wrote:


Well, I went forth and installed Chest (and Fruit 2.2.1) as new UCI engines to my F9. Everything went fine. Only the Chest do not appear as another selectable engine with Mate 2.14 on the solver selection menu.
(Both do appear on general engine menu and work from there)

So the question remains: How do you add a solver engine in the solver menu? Help file clearly indicates this should be possible.

So the question remains: How do you add a solver engine in the solver menu? Help file clearly indicates this should be possible.