Chess is a recreational and competitive board game played between two players. It is a very popular game, played by millions across the world, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.
Chess has the virtue of being suitable for people of all ages. It has many positive attributes such as to help individuals develop their memory, improve and enhance their concentration, as well as logical thinking. It also promotes and improves imagination and creativity. Chess is one of those games that takes a few days to learn and the rest of your life to master, with the game being a never ending learning process, even for the top players.
The game is played on a square chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Each player controls 16 pieces, and the object of the game is to checkmate the opponent’s king.
Chess software generally is separated into a “front end” application and a “chess engine”. There is a wide range of chess-playing software for Windows, which can defeat most master players under tournament conditions. Computer chess has been a phenomenal success, aiding chess analysis, and allowing players to play when no human opponents are available. Other types of chess software include chess databases and tournament managers. Chess databases provide a convenient way to store your own games, a time-efficient method to study, and offers access to statistics about your own games and of titled chess players.
| Chess Games | |
| Lucas Chess | Chess program to train, play and compete. Great software to improve your chess playing |
| WinBoard | Graphical user interface for chess and variants. Excellent for online chess too |
| PyChess | Gnome inspired chess client written in Python |
| Scid | Shane's Chess Information Database |
| Stockfish | Strong open source chess engine |
| Crafty | Highly competent chess engine |
| Cute Chess | Chess graphical software, command-line interface and library |
| Raptor | Chess client for the Free Internet Chess Server |
| ChessDB | Based on Scid with some enhancements |
| Jose | Database with a graphical front-end for viewing and editing games |
| Jin | Graphical client for chess servers (FICS and ICC) |
| SOSS | Chess pairing software |
| Xiphos | UCI chess engine |
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Other open source chess software:
eboard – chess board interface (GNU GPL v2 license).
Sjeng – chess-and-variants playing program (GNU GPL v2 license).
Fruit 2.1 – chess engine (GNU GPL v2 license). Later versions were not released under an open source license.
Jerry Chess – another graphical chess game (GNU GPL v2 license).
Project Invincible – another graphical chess game (GNU GPL v2 license).
Great post. Chess and checkers improve human thinking. One advantage that computer chess offers is that it allows you to play when you are alone, and also to play against a friend across a network.