Fritz 19 has had the new function “Play against database book” since one of the first updates. This means that you can load any database or opening analysis directly as an opening book and play against it. Details can be found in the article by Matthias Wüllenweber on https://en.chessbase.com/post/mastering-openings-using-fritz19

One of our products that contains an extremely large number of opening articles is the Opening Encyclopaedia.

You might ask yourself: .... - and that's exactly what you can do.

Fritz not only displays the highly informative articles of the Encyclopaedia, it also allows you to explore the repertoire suggestions in a playful way!

You need four mouse clicks to get from the Fritz19 program icon on your desktop to the start screen of the Opening Encyclopaedia. (At the end of the article you will find a download link to a pdf with step-by-step instructions and additional tips).

With four more mouse clicks you are already in the middle of an article, here for example by Robert Ris on the Max Lange Attack in the Two Knights.

But you don't feel like reading too much first, you want to start playing straight away ... no problem.

Five mouse clicks further, and you are here:

On the left is your game board, next to it a narrow opening tree, created from five annotated games that accompany the Ris article. In the middle in the “Openings Book” tab is the notation with plenty of variations, and on the right another board - let's call it the exploration board.

You can adjust the size of the boards to your own needs (as well as the color and pieces of the left board). And the notation can also be “folded”, which makes things much clearer, especially at the beginning.

So, larger board, different color, fold the notation: it looks like this.

And because clicking on “New Game - White”, one of the Fritz 19 animal personalities is at the start, in this case the bull, club player level.

Without ever having played the opening, you can get started, just follow the green moves in the book. There is nothing but 1.e4, so let's go.

For the bull to respond, the move must be made on the left board.

There is a split in the eighth move. Should you play 8.Re1+ or perhaps capture on g7 straight away? Ok, you can try out a little where the variations lead without deciding on a move on the board - this is where our “exploration board” comes into play.

First, I quickly change the layout.
Enlarging the exploration board and clicking away the bull, so that there will be more space available for the notation.

Clicking on the notation in the “Openings Book” tab shows the position on the exploration board. The board on the left remains in the position in which we left it.

The 8.fxg7 variation ends with 12.Qc1 Qd5. Clicking on Qd5 shows the position.

That looks pretty wild. However, since the notation also contains evaluations and text, we discover that 9...f6? has been given a question mark.

Two other moves are mentioned: 9...Qd5? with the comment “loses to” and the apparently important variation 9...Be7.

So let's click on 9...Qd5. Can we find the next move for White? Hm, maybe Nc3?

A click on the plus symbol unfolds the variation and reveals the solution. Oops, Black loses the rook with double check in the variation - and pawn promotion is also threatened two moves later!

9...Be7 seems to be the main variation. So unfold the variation and follow the colored underlay, 12...Kxg7! is the final position.

Now explore 8.Re1+ as an alternative to 8.fxg7. I followed the 8.Re1+ Be6 variation (the main line) up to 15...d3. The notation contains annotations, which helps understanding the line. This is a huge difference to the old book format, which contains just statistical information.

Ok, back to our game against the bull on the left board. I have decided for 8.Re1 check. You can get the window with the bull back by ticking “View” - “Easy Game Output”. Simply make the board bigger again and play 8.Re1+ on the board.

I finally end up with 12.b4! The book ends there - but the game can be continued against Fritz.

If “Automatic Hints” is switched on, you will receive hints (“Recapture”). By clicking on “Next Hint”, you can get even more and increasingly clearer tips. You can also switch on “Click and Check”. If you hold down the left mouse button on a piece (in our case the pawn a2), the value of the possible moves is highlighted in color. Green is go!

With the help of “Click and Check”, the bull got a good beating. Of course, it is more difficult if you play without any help and select “Strong Club Player”, “Master Candidate” or “Grandmaster” as the game level. Try it out!

Step-by-step instructions
https://download.chessbase.com/download/pdf/Fritz19AndOE2024StepByStep.pdf