What's The Story Behind The Chess Software Packages Shredder, Fritz And Deep Junior?

Among those claiming to be the strongest chess package, Shredder - developed by German, Stefan Meyer-Kahlen - has the best case. For Shredder had an unprecedented string of five world championship titles to its credit beween 1996 and 2004.

Meanwhile, Fritz and its multiprocessor variant, Deep Fritz have similarly enjoyed success on the world stage, with Grandmasters, Gary Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, both drawing tournament matches against the software.

Deep Fritz, developed by Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist's from their Fritz chess engine, beat rival chess program Deep Junior before holding Vladimir Kramnik to a 4-4 draw in the Brains in Bahrain tournament. A 3D graphic version, X3DFritz later held the world number one ranked player, Gary Kasparov to a 2-2 draw.

Deep Junior, meanwhile, was authored by Israeli programmers, Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky with the assistance of Grandmaster Boris Alterman. Like its rivals, Deep Junior has been successful at world championship level, winning two titles and drawing 3-3 with Gary Kasparov.