How to play against the engine on Chessbase

Does anybody know how to play against the engine on Chessbase? Despite reading 'How to Set up a position on Komodo 10' in Esben Lund's 'Sharp Endgames', I haven't managed to figure out how to do it (and I've been trying for at least 45 minutes to 1 hour). It seems like Chessbase has changed since the book was written. I have Chessbase 15 and Fritz 17, for reference. The purpose of this is to play out exercise positions against the engine with a limited amount of time to improve my calculation.

Please post if you know how to do this.

Sorry, no idea. I only use the Komodo Program when doing this.

Don't know the answer to your question but this looks like a stellar book to me and it's next on my list when I'm done with Naroditsky's book on complex endgames. Have fun with it!

My current impression is that it's at least as hard (probably significantly harder) than any of the books in Aagaard's 'Grandmaster Preparation' series.

Why does it matter which engine you use? Does the Chessbase function work like this for other engines, or does Komodo have extra options?

That was my initial impression too when I browsed the book before putting it back on my shelf. So I'll finish my current regiment of Aagaard's Calculation, "Imagination in Chess", some endgame studies, and Naroditsky and also finish some basic stuff (100 endgames you must know + its workbook) before I venture into Lund's book. 

Off topic, but congrats on the title...must be recent I don't recall seeing it...

How? I have Fritz 17 and haven't been able to figure it out.

I believe Houdini has a GUI for such purposes but I'd also like to play against the engine or pit them against other engines.

I'm pretty sure that a chess.com staff member will chime in soon to assist you mister czar. Good luck with that.

Why not click "play out against Fritz" here?

It redirects me to the chessbase website and has me play Fritz on 'club player' skill level. I don't know how to change the skill level and it is not a smooth transition.

Dude it says level in the upper right hand corner... (-_______________-)

Chessbase is a database tool and not designed to play against the engine directly. You can use Fritz 17 and click easy game:

I have Fritz 15, but it should be around the same. 

First head to Training -> Rated Game

Upon clicking it a popup should appear that lets you choose your settings.

Click OK and begin your game. Obviously you have not set up your position and it will force you to the beginning position, and your window will look something like this.

Click cancel, and then go to Insert -> Position Setup

From there setup your position, click OK, and make your move. Fritz will automatically begin to play you according to the settings of the rated game!

@Hachi888 Thanks. Do you know how I can change the main engine? I want to play against Stockfish at maximum strength, not Fritz at 2530.

I bet that Fritz is strong enough to beat every living player. No need for Stockfish. Still, if you want to configure the engine, you can do so here:

Add the downloaded engine .exe file here and it should be added to the list of available engines.

I've figured out how to set up the position + play against the engine but I haven't figured out how to start the game without restarting the clock. My book says 'Home --> stop clocks' but I haven't found out where that is, it doesn't show up on the home area in Fritz 17.

These menus are awful.

I wasn't aware that you could play against the engine in chessbase 15. I thought you could just use the engine for analysis. But in Fritz, it should be pretty easy. Just set up the position and click on "Blitz Game" and set the time limit you want