The All Around Hobby Player

    The past week was spent spectating in person and watching on television college basketball (the Akron Zips and the West Virginia Mountaineers), but now that the Mountaineers’ season is over and the Zips don’t play again until Friday it’s time to resume chess activities. 

    Back in December I reviewed the Fritz 19’s personalities that you can play against. The available opponents are: Beginner, Hobby Player, Club Player, Strong Club Player, Master Candidate and Grandmaster. 

    For another test game today I chose Hobby Player. For each opponent you can choose a style: All Around, Aggressive, Swindler, Positional, Timid and Endgame Specialists. I selected All Around. I am guessing the selection I chose plays at the 1400-1500 level. 

    My recent games against the machine seem to confirm the opinion that I reached back in December...the games could very well have been played by a couple of non-Masters. 

    The All Around Hobby Player caught me off guard with the ancient Philidor Defense and although the opening was not one of the main line variations, they were plausible until black’s 6...d5 which did not work out too well, but it’s pointless 7th move was already a losing one. The bot seems to like the Philidor Defense which is known as a solid but passive choice for Black and is probably as good as anything else in amateur play. 

     Once again I must conclude that the Fritz 19 program is a good choice for anyone who wants to play against a computer opponent, wants to play online at Playchess,com, study all phases of the game, annotate games or publish games. It packs a lot of gear for about $100. 

[Event "Test Game"] [Site "?"] [Date "2025.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Tartajubow"] [Black "All Around Hobby Player"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C41"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17"] [PlyCount "77"] [EventDate "2025.03.17"] {C41: Philidor Defence} 1. e4 d6 2. d4 e5 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. dxe5 Nxe4 5. Bc4 c6 6. Nbd2 d5 {Feeble.} (6... Nxd2 7. Bxd2 d5 8. Bd3 Nd7 {White has played 9.b4, 9. e6 and 9.c3, all reasonable moves.}) 7. Nxe4 a5 {Pointless.} (7... dxc4 8. Qe2 Be7 9. O-O O-O 10. Rd1 Qc7 11. Qxc4 {White is better developed and has more space, but black's position is tenable.}) 8. Bg5 Qb6 (8... Be7 9. Nd6+ Kf8 10. Bxe7+ Kxe7 11. Bxd5 cxd5 12. Qxd5 {Stockfish gives white a large advantage and Fritz comments the he is clearing winning. In the case of the amateurs involed let's just sat white should win.}) 9. Bxd5 {Because black is going to win back the piece, I decided on this simply because it picks up a P. Stockfiah says this is not bad, but much less strong than castling.} (9. O-O h6 10. Bh4 dxe4 11. e6 {A nice little tactical shot.} Bxe6 12. Ne5 {Even better than the obvious 12.Bxe6} Bxc4 13. Nxc4 Qc7 {Here, too, the engine says white is clear. y winning.} 14. Qg4) 9... cxd5 10. Qxd5 Be6 (10... Qxb2 11. Qd8#) 11. Qd3 Nd7 ( 11... Qxb2 12. Qd8#) 12. O-O {Played without hesitation because it's too dangerous to take the P.} {Actually, the P might as well be captured because 12...h6 13.Be3 isn't a whole lot better.} Qxb2 13. Rfb1 Qa3 {Now what? White has a winning position, but to be honest at this point I was stumped and couldn't think of any clear way to concinut so just made what seemed to be a neutral move.} 14. Qb5 (14. Nd6+ {I considered this, but black can exchange Qs and it didn't seem like a good idea to allow him to do so because his Q is in a bad location on a3} Bxd6 15. exd6 Qxd3 16. cxd3 h6 17. Be7 Rb8 18. Nd4 Ne5 19. Rc1 Nxd3 20. Rc7 {Still, white has a decisive advantage.}) 14... Be7 { I came within a whisker of grabbing the b-Pawn, but at the last second noticed the Q is trapped/} 15. Bc1 (15. Qxb7 {is not a disaster though...} O-O 16. Nd4 Bxg5 17. Nxe6 fxe6 18. Qxd7 Qe7 19. Qxe7 Bxe7 20. Rb7 {and wgite should win the ending.}) 15... Qxf3 ({seems better.} 15... Qb4 16. Rxb4 Bxb4 17. Be3 O-O { White has a Q+P vs. R material advantage.}) 16. gxf3 O-O 17. Qxb7 {Here white has a Q+P vs. B mterial advantage.} Rab8 18. Qa7 Ra8 19. Qe3 Bh3 {Black has some piece activity, but is down too much material to claim any compensation. But...this move was seanky; I didn;t suspect anything. My problem now is to activate my pieces.} 20. Bd2 Ra6 21. Rb7 {Safer was 21.Kh1} h5 {Pointless. It takes black a couple of move to play the R to g6/} 22. Rab1 Rfa8 23. f4 Rg6+ 24. Ng5 (24. Kh1 {This hasty move would not be a tital disaster thanks to white's big material advantahe.} Bg2+ 25. Kg1 Bxe4+ 26. Kf1 Bxc2 27. Rxd7 Bxb1 28. Qb3 Bf5 29. Rxe7 Rf8 30. Bxa5) 24... Bf5 25. Kh1 a4 26. Qf3 (26. e6 { was even stronger.} Bxe6 27. Nxe6 Rxe6 28. Qf3) 26... Bg4 27. Qd5 Rf8 28. e6 ( 28. Rxd7 {was even stronger.} Bxg5 29. fxg5 Bxd7 30. Qxd7 Re6 31. Rb7 {Black is out of useful moves.}) 28... Nf6 29. exf7+ {Here I decided to retun the Q just to simplify matters.} Kh8 30. Rxe7 (30. Qd3 Rh6 31. Rxe7 h4 32. Bc3 Rh5 33. Bxf6 Rxg5 34. fxg5 Bh5 35. Qf5 Bxf7 36. Rxf7 Re8 37. Qg6 Re1+ 38. Rxe1 gxf6 39. Qh7#) 30... Nxd5 31. Re8 (31. Rb8 {mates in 11} Bf3+ 32. Kg1 Rxg5+ 33. fxg5 Rxb8 34. Re8+ Kh7 (34... Rxe8 35. fxe8=Q+ Kh7 36. g6#) 35. Rxb8 Kg6 36. f8=Q Nf6 37. gxf6 Bd5 38. fxg7 Bf7 39. Rb6+ Kf5 40. Qxf7+ Ke4 41. Rb4+ Ke5 42. Bf4#) 31... Rxg5 32. Rxf8+ Kh7 {Why not 33.fxg5 woulf be a good question and I can't answer it!} 33. h4 {Rh8+! would kill now.} Bf3+ 34. Kh2 Rf5 35. Rbb8 Kg6 { Now I realized the P won;t Q and so had to come up woth a different plan.} 36. Rb5 Rxf7 37. f5+ Rxf5 38. Rxf5 Kxf5 39. c4 {And here I did something we are unable to do in games agasinst live opponents...I resigned for black.} 1-0