Best free chess software

[Mike Davies]

Hi,
can someone please link me to some free chess software where you can play human v human? This is to demo games on an electronic whiteboard in school.

Thanks,
Mike

[Alex Holowczak]

Arena (2.0.1 Setup is the one you want) is available. It should come with engines for free. If not download Fruit. It's an Open Source engine. You can use Position -> Analyze Now! to play through a game. You can set up a position too.

Arena is just the interface for engines, if you get more (I think there's a free Rybka available somewhere), you can use that too, all within Arena. I think it looks a bit nicer than the interface you get with Fritz.

[Mike Davies]

Hi,
sorry if I'm being slow - have downloaded the top one from the list, but can't figure out how to play human v human?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

[Alex Holowczak]

Have you downloaded both Arena and Fruit?

If so, open Arena (there might well be a shortcut on your desktop). Then 'Position' -> 'Analyse Now!' at the top of the window. It'll analyse the position and show the best moves in certain lines. You can play the moves by dragging and dropping pieces. If you right click under the digital clocks on the right, you can change the Game Data for human players, e.g. name, rating, site etc.

[Mike Davies]

Thanks Alex.

[Neill Cooper]

And is there a fully internet equivalent?
(I can't easier load software onto my school computer.)

[Alex Holowczak]

And is there a fully internet equivalent?
(I can't easier load software onto my school computer.)

What do you mean by "a fully Internet equivalent"? A version of those you can run off the Internet? I don't think there is. Maybe you could install that software onto a memory stick and run it off that, rather than the school computer?

[Neill Cooper]

I was thinking of something like http://www.ccsinternet.org/games/chess.htm but looking nicer and with the ability to set up a position.
Oh, and the full rules of chess (e.g. en passant, castling).
http://www.eyeone.com/games/chess.jsp and http://www.maniacworld.com/flash-chess.htm have castling but not ep

[Alex Holowczak]

Afraid not, I don't know anything like that.

[Rob Thompson]

can you not just set them up with accounts on chesscube/equivalent and tell them to only challenge each other?