Computer-Chess Wiki

This is a list of Chess GUIs that support at least one major chess communication protocol (Winboard, UCI or Chessbase).

• Chathurangam - GUI by Kannan Ramanathan for WB compatible engines; will have normal PGN viewer, analysis of any functions and optionally support for creating/maintaining a repertoire & SCID like database-support; only source code - no activity since 2004

• Chess Commander - WB protocol only; uses Chess Planet for ICS; limited shareware for 20 days does not have WinBoard-support; contains GnuChess v5; native engines are Delfi and Simontacchi; computer opponents; network-/email chess; chat built-in Instant Messaging; possibility to create own databases; former homepage can be found with the link http://web.archive.org/web/20080131094038/www.chesscommander.com- the actual website www.chesscommander.com has now other contents (= news about the world of chess), but Will McGugan can be contacted directly via his blog “Where there is a Will” - see the URL www.willmcgugan.com/projects from April 2009: ”(recently retired) software has not been updated in more than 2 years”

• ChessX - project written in C++ for Windows / Linux / Mac OS X by the active developers Michal Rudolf and Heinz Hopfgartner (Mac binaries); supports WB and UCI protocol; Qt Library (at least version 4.4.0) is required; FEN (copy / paste) ; load / save PGN files; browse and navigate through games - you cannot play against chess engines, but use them for analysis; Dann Corbit reported that this database cannot handle a large PGN-structure http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_view=threads&p=285066&t=29282

• Chester Chess Client - written in Java by J. Knight; connection to UCI engines; save and load of PGN format games; contains screenshot, but “download function” is not available; only source code - no activity since 2006

• CLIM-Chess - made by Stas Boukarev and only tested with GNU Chess (WinBoard protocol 2), but very simplistic; should run on any OSes with Clozure CL (as known as “CCL”) http://www.clozure.com/clozurecl.html and X server http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System from the X.Org project http://www.x.org/wiki; interface is not ready for prime time

• Decaf - made by Carson Day, Sergei Kozyrenko, Ludens and John Nahlen; Java chess client for Windows / Linux / Mac OS X; WinBoard set is implemented into chess gui, but analysis with Crafty during observing games is on the wishing list; FICS and Bughouse are supported

• Glaurung 2.1 for Mac OS X - an application (freeware) with UCI-protocol for Mac OS X by Tord Romstad; predecessor of “Stockfish-GUI”

• Infinity Chess - a free chess gui (UCI-compatible) for online play e.g. human versus program or engine-match; for Windows only; components .NET framework and VC++ are required

• Knights - GUI designed by Troy Corbin Jr. and Alexander Wels to work with KDE (> discussion forum); supports XBoard and UCI protocol; written in C++; dependencies are: Qt 3.x, KDE 3.x, Auto conf 2.5, Auto make 1.6 and a correctly set of the $KDEDIR environment variable; installation from Tarball Distribution / CVS is described; creating themes (anatomy, informations about Tarball / theme.conf / Pixmap / Audio / Copyright); see Linux - software Knights 0.6.4 beta and Handbook for Knights 0.6

• MChess Professional - supports Chess(Board) 232 and Autoplayer 232; is started with DOS-prompt e.g. “cd\MCP7”; copy protected with “recharge” (CD-query of the original all 14 days and then confirmation of this procedure with “enter”); no further developed by Marty Hirsch

• Proteus Chess - WinBoard-compatible GUI for engines like Crafty, Faile or LarsenVB (Italian language) - a click on the link “Scacchi E Informatica” under the shreenshot of this interface leads to a yahoo-group with identical URL

• Tagua (formerly KBoard)- generic boardgame application for chess, shogi, xiangqi etc. by Paolo Capriotti, Maurizio Monge and Yann Dirson; supports the XBoard protocol and is suitable to online play like FICS / ICC; requires KDE 4.x / Qt4 / boost 1.33; see http://news.softpedia.com/news/Tagua-A-New-Chess-Game-for-KDE-65121.shtml and http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=tagua; source code = http://freshmeat.net/projects/tagua/?branch_id=71334&release_id=275681; bugtracking = https://bugs.launchpad.net/tagua; project seems to be dead

• xChess- multiplatform GUI by MD Z. Hossain; front end for many chess engines (XBoard and UCI protocol); works as client for ICS; written in Java that requires Java Runtime Environment 5.0 or higher including GnuChess 5.07; operating systems are all BSD versions (Free / Net / Open / Apple MacOS X), Windows NT / 2000 / XP (32-bit) and Linux

• YChess - WB (with adapter) and UCI protocol; interface for own chess engine, shareware; trial version for 30 days; supports Autoplayer 232, commenting and annotation of moves; no direct support from Roman Antonczyk available, but former homepage can be reached with the link http://web.archive.org/web/20070612145544/www.ychess.com/index.html - this website was last modified in the year 2004

• Zugzwang- GUI for Crafty or other XBoard-compatible chess engines by Ralf Smikalla; chess client - suitable for browse PGN files; written in C++; for installing the components Qt toolkit 3.x (3.1.2) / GNU flex 2.x (2.5.4) / C++ compiler GNU g++ 3.3.2 are required; optional are Zugzwang BIN PATH / LIB PATH / ROOT PATH / DOC PATH; operating systems are POSIX (Linux / BSD / Unix like OSes)

The following adapters will make many of the Chess GUIs above compatible with Winboard or UCI engines, but there is the possibility of introducing weird bugs, ie: well-behaved engines inexplicably may lose on time. It is recommended that you test thoroughly before using these adapters in 'official tournaments'.

Primary tools:

• InBetween - A tool by Odd Gunnar Malin that can help debug a communication problem between an adapter and a GUI.
• Polyglot - A tool by Fabien Letouzey that lets a UCI engine operate as if it were a WB engine. The link is to Fonzy Bluemers' modified version which does not require cygwin.dll file. It incorporates many (all?) Michel Van den Bergh contributions.
• Polyglot - This version is based on Fonzy's and modified by Michel Van den Bergh.
• UCI2WB - A tool by Roland Pfister that lets a UCI engine operate as if it were a WB engine.
• WB2UCI - A tool by Odd Gunnar Malin that lets a WB engine operate as if it were a UCI engine. See further informations and examples [Le Système du Suisse] here: www.superchessengine.com/wb_engine.htm

Secondary tools:

• a232eng - A tool by Rémi Coulom. Connect an auto232 engine to WinBoard.
• dgtdrv - A tool by Alexander Wagner for non Windows-users with the DGT Electronic Chess Board ([Linux] dgtdrv version 1, based on Crafty > serial port - [POSIX] dgtdrv version 2, including a library > USB); requires any interface that offers the function “engine tournament mode”; supports XBoard and UCI protocol; dgtdrv is limited to send moves (“one way-communication”), but no code is necessary on the side of the GUI.
• Net Chess - A tool by NetIntellGames; for exact description take a look at the mentioned-above “GUI Protocol List”
• netChess - Utility program by Bernhard Wallner; facilitates the communication between an interface and a chess engine on remote computer systems that are connected over TCP/IP
• WBAuto232 - A tool by Eberhard Boerger. Driver for games on chess server.
• Winboard adapter - This adapter works with Chronos only

Adapters by external parties do not make an interface compatible to a given protocol!

• CoffeeHouse

• Easy Chess

• Jin Applet

• DLL-City

• DLL-Files

• FileWatcher

• FTP Search Engine

• The Sunet Archive

Thanks to Norbert Raimund Leisner for help in correcting this information and in finding many new GUIs for this page!