Much of what you're paying for is their completeness, and the quality of their training tools.įritz 15 ( $65 on Steam) is a storied piece of chess software, and its current engine is written by Rybka engine creator Vasik Rajlich (though you can use it with other commercial and free engines). You can play and learn a lot about chess without spending a dime, and that's where I recommend starting, but pro packages come with lots of bells and whistles if you have the cash. If you like the SCID interface, you can also try SCID vs PC as a GUI for playing chess. You'll want to pair it with MillionBase, a massive database of chess games in PGN format (scroll to 'Data Downlods' here) or other chess game databases.

SCID: Like the other GUIs on this list, SCID can be used to play against an engine, but it's most useful as a fast way to organize and analyze databases of chess games. WinBoard: It isn't the prettiest GUI, but WinBoard and Xboard are feature rich and include support for chess variants, too. It includes a bunch of engines and training tools, and the UI isn't too confusing, even if you're unfamiliar with the more complicated functions of chess engines.Īrena Chess GUI: Arena Chess is more daunting for newcomers than Lucas Chess, but it includes a great deal of features, as well as support for 19 languages and a Linux verison. Lucas Chess: Simple and easy to understand for beginners.

Most come with engines installed already, so you can get started with one download. To easily play against a chess engine or use it to analyze boards, you'll want to pair it with a chess GUI. (I consult the rankings from .)Īn engine alone won't do much for you, as they don't include any kind of graphical user interface, just a console. If you're not sure a chess engine is something you want to tinker with, don't buy anything-free engines are extremely powerful. These engines are primarily for training-you can play against them, analyze chess positions, and pit them against each other-so they're for people who seriously want to study the game. Komodo is also highly ranked, though you'll have to pay a subscription for the latest version (Komodo 9 is free), and Houdini costs €40 for the standard edition. I recommend the free and open source Stockfish engine or its derivatives. If you want to play against a powerful, customizable computer opponent for the purpose of studying chess, you'll want a chess engine. It supports online play with a separate account, and comes with a good computer opponent via the Stockfish engine (see the section below for an explanation on that). It's not nearly as slick as Chess Ultra, and it crashed on me pretty quickly, but hey, it's free. For a free-to-play alternative, try Simply Chess.

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