Best Free Computer Chess

The art of chess has fascinated down the ages, through Alice and beyond.

PCs provide countless opportunities for learning, playing, practicing, studying, and even watching both online and offline. Convenient freeware chess programs are available that give you all you need to do these things straight out of a single box at any level. Great for beginners and experts alike. If you or your children are just learning chess... Don't panic! There is plenty of friendly introductory material online (such as here or here), including ^->free tutorials.

So where to start? Or where to move next? There's a staggering quantity of recommendable chess freeware out there to play with, and experienced pundits may already have their own prized collections. This review page of free chess software and computer-related resources on the internet will aim to address the varying needs of players, ranging from the casual to the keen. To do this, main recommendations will be given for different kinds of free software/resource, sometimes followed by a list of available alternatives which could be worth exploring. Thus, this page may also be used as a portal or selective link collection.

• The standalone software section of the review will cover some of the top freeware chess programs for computer play on Windows and ^->Linux, as well as briefly discussing ^->free chess software for Mac users (including iPad/iPhone), ^->Android app recommendations, a top pick ^->free standalone internet client, ^->freeware for learning, and ^->freeware for match database study. (Note that since it would be a hard task to provide a separate section that could attempt to do justice to the wealth of freely available chess engines, links are given to help select and locate any you'd like to try.)
• The internet section of the review recommends a selection of the best free browser-based chess resources, such as online ^->java applets, ^->chess internet servers, ^->online chess databases/e-books, ^->chess tutorials, ^->chess puzzles, and selected sites for more free software ^->reviews and ^->chess-related news to help keep up to date. 

To play against a computer you'll generally need at least one chess engine to handle the all important computing side, hooked up to a convenient graphical user interface (GUI) to provide the visual chessboard display. A good package to start with is the Crafty Chess Interface, which provides an attractive GUI coupled to the powerful Crafty engine—an open-source program developed by Dr. Robert M. Hyatt. Weighing in at just 1.34 MB, the Crafty Chess Interface makes an excellent lightweight portable option which may itself completely satisfy the needs of many casual chess players.

The intuitive interface provides ready access to useful features, including a slider (in the Control Panel) to adjust Crafty's engine strength, which many may find particularly convenient. Although there's only the one engine, you can easily instruct Crafty to play either or both colors whenever you want (as with the other free chess software recommendations listed below, if you're feeling lazy you can just sit back and watch a couple of engines battle it out - in this case, Crafty vs Crafty). Like all the main standalone programs in this review, Crafty Chess supports both PGN and FEN (two commonly used formats—the Portable Game Notation allows you to load, play through and analyze recorded games while the Forsyth-Edwards Notation records board positions, as briefly explained here). If you want Crafty to use established opening lines, you can download opening books from the Crafty Chess page to preload into the program.

There's no user manual as such, but If you have any problems getting started there is a reasonable set of FAQ for troubleshooting (and there also seems to be some support for Linux and Mac users using Windows-compatible layer/emulator software like Wine etc).

Many players will also want a more versatile program that encompasses different computer playing styles and allows more user options for analysis. Arena is an excellent freeware choice which appeals to many chess enthusiasts. The attractive GUI is worth exploring with the aid of the excellent Help files, since it offers many useful features, including the ability to handle Shuffle Chess or Fischer Random Chess.

The 3.0 version of Arena is available either as a portable or for full installation, which is quite straightforward.  Either way, you're provided with a good selection of preinstalled engines to choose from: the installer just provides a couple more. And you can easily add any other Winboard and UCI engines you wish (including the ultra strong Houdini, open source Stockfish and any of the other freeware engines reviewed here or listed in Wikipedia). Engines can be configured individually: Arena's Help files provide details on ways to adjust their behaviour/strength. Linux users should also be able to get Arena up and running on Wine.

Also recommended:

• Portable WinboardX + Deep Rybka 2.2 gives you a handy free portable software package containing Winboard (a well known  chessboard GUI for Windows) coupled with three different chess engines of different levels. Rybka 2.2 remains one of the strongest available free chess engines, and it can be used for game analysis. You can also play against two lesser engines (Delfi 4.5 and Phalanx). Portable WinboardX + Deep Rybka 2.2 used to be one of Gizmo's main recommendations, but this free software package does not seem amenable to development. Still plenty to enjoy. [Portable, Windows only - apparently also works on Windows7; download size, 3.3 MB]
• Haundrix - a fun program with a nice assortment of engines (Crafty 23.0, GNU Chess 5.07.9b and Sjeng 11.2). Its sound effects may well appeal to children, for whom the lack of an undo button could—in some circumstances—be an advantage during actual play. Program development seems to have stopped at version 0.1.0... But Haundrix seems to work fine even on Windows 7. [Windows, Linux, including 64-bit]
• Fritz 5.32 is the free version of the commercial Fritz software and is considered a must play for chess lovers, because it allows you to sample one of the notoriously powerful Fritz engines, with its characteristically quirky tactical play (and you can also grab slightly more recent Fritz 6 engine). Unfortunately, Fritz 5.32 refuses to install on my Vista set up, maybe due to multicore processor issues. [Windows]

While several of the reviewed programs may work on Wine, PyChess provides an advanced chess client specifically coded for Linux, following the Gnome Human Interface Guidelines.

You can play against the GNU Chess engine or lots of other chess engines, such as the Crafty engine, which can be downloaded from here. You can also play Internet chess by connecting to the FICS servers.

With this program, games can be saved in the PGN, EPD and FEN chess file formats so that you can always return to continue with the games or analyze them.

PyChess also offers opening books and other useful features including undo moves, hint and spy modes, sound and animation effects.

• Sigma has an excellent reputation with Mac users and the full version is now freeware. Sigma 6.2 comes with its own built-in engine which can be adjusted for strength. Alternatively, you can download (from here) Sigma 6.2 bundled with the free Lite version of the powerful HIARCS engine for Mac. You can also add in various Mac-compatible UCI Engines, including Fruit. Sigma accepts PGN/EPD databases and is compatible with the free ExaChess Lite database program for Macintosh. Appearance can be customized within the program and by adding 3rd party plug-ins; there's also an option for a "true perspective 3D board" (see the online manual). [Mac OS X 10.3 or later]

• For the iPad or iPhone, try the free Stockfish app, which seems to play well in more ways than one.

• Gizmo's top pick free Android app is Chess (by jwtc)—reviewed here. This ad free app accepts .pgn files and now supports some UCI engines including Robbolito, Stockfish and Bikjump.  For a dedicated Android chess database app, try Scid on the go.

• BabasChessClient provides an attractive interface to play or watch human games on the FICS (Free Internet Chess Player) network. An interesting feature is the ability to go over a game you've just watched or played with some analysis from Crafty. [Windows  95 to Vista; Linux with Wine]
• If you enjoy modern chess variants like Bughouse, Crazyhouse, Losers, Suicide, Kriegspiel etc., try open source internet client Thief [Windows 95 to Vista; Linux Wine]

• Pawn - Author's description: "Pawn is a freeware chess program with an easy to use interface especially for beginners and intermediate players. Playing strength reaches up to club level but can be adjusted in several options. A special beginner's mode lets the program make mistakes [there's an adjustable slider for frequency]." You can decide whether or not to let the program use its preinstalled opening book. Version 3 has a clean 2D interface (download from here). Like other versions, it's portable; just copy the program folder after running the installer.
• Lucas Chess (lucaschess[dot]host22[dot]com - NOTE: replace [dot] with actual dots, or go to http://lucaschess.blogspot.com/ and click the 'WEB of Lucas Chess' link in the banner). Lucas Chess is an interesting freeware chess tutor which challenges you to play and beat increasingly strong engines/levels of play from beginner up to expert (think Rybka!). As in some video games, the program expects you to win twice at any given level before moving on to the next one. In tutor mode, Lucas Chess will flag a stronger move found by the engine and give you gameplay hints on lines of play. Your reaction to Lucas Chess will probably depend on individual learning style and personal taste. Well worth exploring. Portable version available. [Windows and Linux]

• Serious  players will want a chess database program for study. Two excellent recommendations are SCID (Shane's Chess Information Database) and Chessbase Light (download from here - scroll down and look for ChessbaseLight 2009 in the dropdown menu; tutorials here), a slightly cut down freeware edition of Chessbase, restricted to 8,000 games.  The two programs have rather different characteristics and enthusiasts  will probably want to try both. It's worth bearing in mind that whereas Chessbase is an extremely powerful read-only database program which allows you to use the challenging Fritz 6 and Stockfish 6 engines for analysis only, SCID also gives you options for active play. Zarkon Fischer (see below) provides succinct introductions to both SCID (here) and Chessbase Light (here).  
• If you'd like to explore other free chess database software, Zarkon also hosts brief reviews (here) of PGN viewers/editors Compochess, Kvetka, ChessX and Penguin. Other currently available options include open source ChessDB (an offshoot of SCID) and ChessAssistant Light. 

• For a great blend of frivolity and ability on a lively 3D interface, don't miss WJChess 3D—an ultra cool program for all weathers! [Windows 9x/Me to XP; works fine for me on Vista]

• Best Free Chinese Chess - The ancient game of Xiangqi  (Elephant Chess) is an exciting, living challenge. A river runs through it. But the elephants can't cross.
• Best Free Computer Shogi - Japanese Chess - Shoji (the Japanese regional variant of chess) is played on 81 squares with a rather distinctive twist: when you capture a piece, the prisoner comes into play on your side (or vice versa). 
• Best Free Computer Go  - Nowadays the most powerful chess programs can sometimes beat even the strongest Grand Masters. If you feel like a quite different form of boardgame challenge, why not try the classic Far Eastern game of Go? Quite different from chess, Go is based on just a handful of simple rules. But its depth of play and subtlety make it a strong rival. Besides, Chess and Go seem to activate the brain somewhat differently. 

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