Recommend a chess program that runs in window rather than full-screen mode.

February 15, 2008 8:26 AM

Looking for a decent chess program that runs in a window rather than full-screen mode.

I have to sit through a ton of long meetings at work which require my presence but not so much active participation. Still, I need to keep a couple of programs running (MS Word, Excel, etc.) to keep track of what's going on. Can you recommend a chess game that I can run in a window, so that I can easily switch between the game and other programs? Doesn't necessarily have to be freeware. Thanks!

posted by Pontius Pilate to computers & internet (5 comments total)

If you have internet access, this might work:

http://blubbie.com/chess/freeblubbiechessserver/c_general.html
posted by Perplexity at 8:36 AM on February 15, 2008

I'd recommened Arena with the Rybka chess engine. You can get the beta version of Rybka for free from here and Arena can be downloaded from here.

Installation instructions can be found here and you should be good to go. It's one of the very best chess engines you can use and you can upgrade to the full non-free version at some point if you feel the need. Arena is windowed and has all sorts of modes, from just viewing the board to seeing every possible stat and movement calculation and probability from the engine.

Enjoy!
posted by Static Vagabond at 8:51 AM on February 15, 2008

Also.. Arena has a boss mode (hit a key and it disappears to a little network icon in the system bar), which definitely scores it some extra points.
posted by Static Vagabond at 8:57 AM on February 15, 2008

There's a web-based version of Shredder, with three difficulty levels.
posted by futility closet at 9:49 AM on February 15, 2008

also, WebChess, which is an online version of GNU chess. GNU chess can be downloaded open source.
posted by strangememes at 2:09 PM on February 15, 2008