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  • Wednesday, January 18, 2023

    Playing Around With Fritz' Easy Game Mode

     
         My laptop has several chess programs. My least favorite is Chess Assistant 18 (it's up to 23 now). I never really cared for the program. It's basically a database program and I find the interface unappealing and I think it's klutzy to use. 
         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. 

    A game that I liked (Fritz 17)

    TartajubowFritz Master Candidate0–1A00Test2023Stockfish 15.1
    Urusov Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.c4 f6 3.d4 exd4 4.f3 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, c6 4...xe4 5.xd4 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! f6 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.c3 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 e4 But this is a move I have not faced before. 6.0-0 e7 7.e1 d5 8.exd6 xd6 9.b3 g4 10.g5 I get into trouble after this and it's probably the losing move. 10.h3 xf3 11.xf3 0-0 12.f4 is equal. 10...0-0 11.xe7 According to Stockfish this is slightly better than 11.Bf4, but now I wish that's the move I had played! xe7 12.xd4 xf3 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! df5 13...ef5 14.g4 f6 15.c3 c6 16.e4 xe4 17.fxe4 h6 18.g2 xb2 Here, after 19.Rad1 white would have been at only a slight disadvantage. Boeykens,M (2245)-Klip,H (2295) BEL 1997 14.xd8 The exchange of Qs only accentuates white's weak Ps. Better would have been 14.Qe4 fxd8 15.c3 g6 16.ad1 f8 17.d5 17.f1 was necessary. fh4 18.e4 xd1+ 19.xd1 d8 20.e3 20.e2 f5 21.a4 b5 22.b4 c5 and the R is trapped. 20...xf3 21.b4 offers some play, but not much. 17...c6 18.e4 fh4 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.xd8+ Again, reducing the material only accentuates white's dire predicament, but there was hardly anything better. xd8 20.d1 xd1+ 21.xd1 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. f4 22.e3 g6 Inhibits Nf5. 23.c4 f5 24.d3 xf3+ 25.h1 e1 Snagging another P. It's surprising how active the Ns are. 26.a5 26.f1 xc2 27.a5 b4 28.a3 bd3 White just can't win back one of those Q-side Ps! 29.b4 29.xb7 xb2 30.a5 c5 with a won ending. 29...c5 30.bxc5 xc5 26...fxd3 Black is clearly winning. 27.cxd3 xd3 28.xb7 xf2+ The N ending is lost for white. 29.g2 d3 30.d8 e5 31.e6+ e7 32.g5 d3 33.b3 c1 34.xh7 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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