What also might not be commonly known is that whenever the code for these free chess engines is publicly available Jim will also recompile the code to run more efficiently. Jim’s recompiles of well-known chess engines often run better than the original chess program did!

Have a look at Jim’s work at: http://jimablett.hostwebs.com/ (no longer valid)

Edit: Jim’s site moved again and he has retired from his compilation work – a sad loss.

The final repository of Jim’s work is at: http://jimablett.net63.net/ (Edit: Sorry this link was later found to have 4(!) trojans in the download. I have removed the active link, but leave the location as anyone with an up to date virus scanner may still wish to visit).

(The old site at: http://homepages.tesco.net/henry.ablett/jims.html is no longer maintained.)

It is a testament to the quality of the work that Jim does in his recompiles that many of the authors of many free chess engines are now going to him to have their code “tweaked”.

So, if you are looking for free chess software in the form of winboard or UCI chess engines then Jim’s page is a good place to start.

Some of the files he hosts include (no particular order):

• Rival Chess
• Red Queen Chess
• Protector
• GNU Chess
• Simplex
• Greko
• Komodo
• Gez
• Mizar
• Sjeng
• Scorpio
• Chess One
• Crafty
• Beaches
• Fimbulwinter
• Sungorous
• Alibaba

And many, many more.

Stockfish – Free Chess Engine

As a separate word of note.  Jim also compiled the latest version of Stockfish.  Stockfish is a free chess engine that is now within a few Elo points of Rybka 4 (currently the world’s strongest chess engine).  This is a great achievement by the team behind Stockfish and it must be mentioned that they deserve full credit and the thanks of the community at large for making a chess engine of this quality freely available.

If for some reason the download is offline you can get the Stockfish chess engine from: https://stockfishchess.org

Also, take a look at the custom made opening book to suit the engine’s particular style of play.

About UCI and Winboard Chess Engines

Winboard and UCI compatible chess programs do not run on their own.  You need a GUI to operate them.  Thankfully there are a number of free chess interfaces available.

My personal recommendation is Arena – which is hosted at: http://www.playwitharena.com/

Full explanation of the various parts of the install is dealt with on the site and Arena even comes with an early (and free) version of Rybka.

Of course if installing all these bits of software is not your thing then feel free to try out our free online chess game here at computer chess online.

Happy playing!

Computer Chess Online - Jim Abletts Free Chess Engine Site has Moved

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.

Computer Chess Online - Play Free Online Chess Against a Computer