Chess OK Aquarium (2014 and 2020) have a nice interface and Aquarium is, by and large, a good program, but I don't care for its auto-analysis.
ChessBase 16 is an outstanding program, but it's overkill for my purposes. That leaves Fritz 17. I have been using Fritz since the days of version 6.
I still have Fritz 12 on my laptop and it works fine with all the new engines.
Back in 2010 I was in the now defunct Office Max to buy some poster board and walking down the software aisle I happened to spot Fritz 12. I never would have expected to find such a specialized product in Office Max, especially at the low, low price of $19.95! At the time Deep Fritz 12 if purchased from the USCF sold for $119.95!
Fritz 17 has a number of features that I never use. One of them is the "Easy Game Mode" and that's because I do not like playing against computers.
When playing against the program you can select your level, the choices being Beginner, Hobby Player, Club Player, Strong Club Player, Master Candidate and Grandmaster.
This is a change from earlier versions of the program that offered friend and sparring settings that provided an opponent that could be beaten by a human. If I remember correctly, those modes played fairly strong, but made occasional blunders.
I was unable to determine which engine Fritz 17 uses in this mode, but I assume it is the Fritz 17 engine. By the way, on the CCLR 40/15 rating list
the Fritz 17 engine is rated in the 55th bracket with a rating of 3190 and it's been crushed by all the major engines. Fritz 18 is rated in the 54th bracket with a rating of 3191 and it has not played any of the leading engines.
According to the Fritz Help for most users the “Club Player” setting should be suitable, but nowhere could I locate any indication of what Elo rating this setting might be. At this level they say "the program generally plays strong and natural moves, but every so often blends in tactically weaker moves." After your first few games "it will quickly become evident what the correct setting should be."
There is no time limit so you can think as long as you want and according to the instructions "the program adapts within the framework of the chosen level of play and on occasion plays weaker moves."
Additionally, the program offers you opportunities for help like hints and take backs.
It also offers training by means of “Assisted Analysis” and calculation training.
According to the explanation in the Help, if in the Club Mode you are aiming for sharp tactical positions the program will "more and more frequently present you with the opportunity to exploit these to your advantage. As soon as a tactical opportunity is there for the human...the program announces this...and displays a hint...in the information window." Unlike the newer version mine does not estimate your Elo rating for the game.
The other night I couldn't sleep and was up at 3:00am and played a three games, all as white, in the Easy Game Mode.
The Club Player game was a Ruy Lopez Marshall Attack (!). A long time ago I played the Marshal as black and it's actually pretty easy to play against as white and the game followed book analysis for 17 (!) moves before the engine varied. In few more moves I was left with control of the e-file and black had a bad B. The result was a fairly easy positional win for me.
The Strong Club Player game was a Caro-Kann Panov-Botvinnik Attack. I left the book at move 9 and incurred a slight disadvantage, but the engine wasn't very aggressive and allowed me to equalize a few moves later. After a few more moves the engine got it's slight advantage back, but by the time we got to the R and P ending the game was a draw.
In the following game at the Master Candidate level I attempted to play a little bit more tactical, but no fireworks appeared. Instead, I was slowly outplayed.
The main thing I noticed was that it does not play like a GM then make a silly mistake then return to full strength. It's moves actually look reasonable!
In the final analysis I think Fritz would make a good sparring partner, but it might take some experimenting to find the best level.
[Event "Test"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2023.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Tartajubow"]
[Black "Fritz Master Candidate"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A00"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 15.1"]
[PlyCount "68"]
[EventDate "2023.??.??"]
{Urusov Gambit} 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nf3 {The Urusov Gambit. It
has been popular among attacking players for nearly 150 years and has been
adopted by players like Schlechter, Tartakower, Caro and Mieses,} Nc6 (4...
Nxe4 5. Qxd4 {Black's Knight is attacked and will eventually need to retreat.
The best move here is 5....Nf6, but many players think it is bad form to
retreat to the same square from whence it came and will therefore look for
alternatives. Black's other retreats are inferior because they interfere with
development and allow the white Q to apply pressure to the P on g7. An
interesting alternative, though, is 5....d5!?, where black tries to turn the
tables with a countergambit to speed his development. White probably does best
then to play 6.Bxd5 Nf6 7.Nc3!} Nf6 {For a long time 6.Bg5 was the standard
move. After 6....Nc6 7.Qh4, black normally transposed to the standard line
with 7....Be7 8.Nc3. But after 6.Bg5 it was discovered that black has several
ways to make white miserable. Best therefore is 6.Nc3!} 6. Nc3 {The importance
of developing the N before the B was discovered by Frank Marshall and Carlos
Torre back in 1924. At this point black has tried 6...Nc6, 6...Be7 (Best), 6...
c6 and 6...d5.}) 5. e5 {More popular is 5.O-O, but I prefer the text. In
correspondence play my record with this move is +2 -0 =3. My opponents have
tried both 5...Ng4 and 5..d5} Ne4 {But this is a move I have not faced before.}
6. O-O Be7 7. Re1 d5 8. exd6 Nxd6 {[%mdl 32]} 9. Bb3 Bg4 10. Bg5 {I get into
trouble after this and it's probably the losing move.} (10. h3 Bxf3 11. Qxf3
O-O 12. Bf4 {is equal.}) 10... O-O 11. Bxe7 {According to Stockfish this is
slightly better than 11.Bf4, but now I wish that's the move I had played!} Nxe7
12. Qxd4 Bxf3 13. gxf3 {It's a small thing, but the wrecked K-side Ps will
probably be a real liability at some point in the future. I was quite
surprised to discover that up to this point all this had been played before!}
Ndf5 (13... Nef5 14. Qg4 Qf6 15. Nc3 c6 16. Ne4 Nxe4 17. fxe4 Nh6 18. Qg2 Qxb2
{Here, after 19.Rad1 white would have been at only a slight disadvantage.
Boeykens,M (2245)-Klip,H (2295) BEL 1997}) 14. Qxd8 {The exchange of Qs only
accentuates white's weak Ps. Better would have been 14.Qe4} Rfxd8 15. Nc3 Ng6
16. Rad1 Kf8 17. Bd5 (17. Kf1 {was necessary.} Nfh4 18. Re4 Rxd1+ 19. Nxd1 Rd8
20. Ne3 (20. Ke2 f5 21. Ra4 b5 22. Rb4 c5 {and the R is trapped.}) 20... Nxf3
21. Rb4 {offers some play, but not much.}) 17... c6 18. Be4 Nfh4 {I must admit
that I failed to notice this resource. The threat is ...f4 and after the B
retreats to d3 black wins with ...Nxf3+} 19. Rxd8+ {Again, reducing the
material only accentuates white's dire predicament, but there was hardly
anything better.} Rxd8 20. Rd1 Rxd1+ 21. Nxd1 {[%mdl 4096] I was hoping that
the B vs the N would offset the P weakness, but the B has no scope and black's
position is without weakness. Also, his K is just a tad better placed. It all
adds up to, according to Stockfish, "Black is winning" ...by nearly 4 Ps I
might add.} Nf4 22. Ne3 g6 {Inhibits Nf5.} 23. Nc4 f5 24. Bd3 Nxf3+ 25. Kh1 Ne1
{Snagging another P. It's surprising how active the Ns are.} 26. Na5 (26. Bf1
Nxc2 27. Na5 Nb4 28. a3 Nbd3 {White just can't win back one of those Q-side Ps!
} 29. b4 (29. Nxb7 Nxb2 30. Na5 c5 {with a won ending.}) 29... c5 30. bxc5 Nxc5
) 26... Nfxd3 {Black is clearly winning.} 27. cxd3 Nxd3 28. Nxb7 Nxf2+ {
The N ending is lost for white.} 29. Kg2 Nd3 30. Nd8 Ne5 31. Ne6+ Ke7 32. Ng5
Nd3 33. b3 Nc1 34. Nxh7 a5 {White resigned. According to Stockfish black's
play was "flawless." Hardly the description of most games played by a "Master
Candidate."} 0-1
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