I am an unrated player. I have Fritz 11 running the Rybka 2.2n2 engine.  I think my rating would be about 1800 if I played competitively (I just got Fritz and rybka, I've been playing on Chessmaster GM edition for a while, and I play between 1800 and 2100 rated personalities, and usually win) Now, my question is this:

Can I use Fritz with the Rybka engine to play games closer to my level than 3000, and get their annotation?  I don't like chessmaster because the players near my level make bizarre moves that don't make sense if you play them out longer than CM's engine calculates, and often my own lines are better than CM's.  This indicates to me that their annotations are garbage.  Does anyone know how to set up matches like chessmaster's in Fritz with the Rybka engine?  i.e separate time controls, controlling opponents' ratings, etc? I would like to get the best of both worlds if it's possible.

my machine is a dual core 64 bit vista XPS, 2x 3 GHz processors, 6 GB ram, 640  gb internal SATA drive, so pretty much anything is possible on my computer.

You can handicap Rybka in Aquarium (will probably work in the Fritz GUI also), to play lower than 3000 ELO, but for real playing fun use Chessmaster. Use Rybka for analysis only. There's no other engine then chessmaster that can be tuned in so many ways!

Hi Mendel,

see from Fritz11 help file:

"This program is a tough cookie, even for strong grandmasters. You will probably want to use some of the chess help available during the game. You should also try the special Friend mode, in which the program tries to play at exactly your level of skill. If you really want to destroy the program, you can use the Handicap levels. There it can play like a real moron."

If I remember correctly there is a mode where the program will adpat its strength to beat you roughly 2 out of 3.

Hope this helps.