When a site has a name like “Computer Chess Online” it seems only fair that it should offer the chance to play chess against a computer online! To do less would seem to be to let the visitors down…
Free Computer Chess Game for Visitors
We live in the computer age yet many people have never played chess against a computer. I guess there are as many reasons for this as there are people in this situation. As I enjoy computer chess I thought it was only fair to offer other people the chance to indulge themselves in a game I enjoy.
Although a number of sites like The Spectator offer chess puzzles online they do not offer the chance to play a full game. Here is my small effort toward improving the situation.
Installing Flash CHESS 3
Now don’t laugh, but it took me a few days just to get the page working. The people from flashchess made a great program. However, my complete ignorance about how to install it on a website stood in my path quite some time. Eventually, I found a way to install chess program and get it to work within WordPress. Overall I am happy with the results. The sole niggle is page load time. This is unavoidable as the computer engine has to load the game to work (about 2megs total).
It was my original goal to make a variety of chess computers available. Unfortunately, there was little interest from programmers in showcasing their work. This left me with an unusual chess problem to solve. The only chess engine I could hope to put on the page was one that was freely distributed. Flash chess 3 is thankfully a pretty advanced program considering its size. It looks good and plays reasonably well. And all this considering that it was written in Flash rather than a more conventional programming language.
If there are any computer chess programmers out there reading this with a non-experimental chess engine that can run within a web page please contact me. It would be really great to offer people a greater variety of chess software and let them see what is available.
Installing Chess Programs is Fun! (Honest)
Anyone that is familiar with my other websites will know already that I am a big fan of computers and technology, science fiction, chess and online games in general. Writing this website is a labour of love. Yes, even when I can’t get annoying flash chess programs to install and run properly on it!
I hope over the coming months to show people some of the things that are really great about the game of chess in general, and computer chess in particular. For now, though, I hope you enjoy your time here and this opportunity to play free online chess against a computer.