#BEST CHESS MOVES PRO#
#BEST CHESS MOVES PC#

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.

#BEST CHESS MOVES PC#

If you like the SCID interface, you can also try SCID vs PC (opens in new tab) 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 (opens in new tab)) or other chess game databases. SCID (opens in new tab): 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 (opens in new tab): 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 (opens in new tab): Arena Chess is more daunting for newcomers than Lucas Chess, but it includes a great deal of features (opens in new tab), as well as support for 19 languages and a Linux verison. Lucas Chess (opens in new tab): 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 (opens in new tab).)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 (opens in new tab) is also highly ranked, though you'll have to pay a subscription for the latest version (Komodo 9 is free), and Houdini (opens in new tab) costs €40 for the standard edition. I recommend the free and open source Stockfish engine (opens in new tab) 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 (opens in new tab).

Best chess moves