Although computer games have become increasingly more realistic, there are people who prefer traditional board games. In this post we will see some applications to play chess.
Although we're all familiar with it, it's always good to clarify that chess is a strategy board game played by two players on a 64-square board divided into an eight-by-eight grid. Each player has 16 pieces, including a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. The goal of each player is to checkmate the opposing king. This means placing it in a position where it cannot avoid capture.
Apps for playing chess
The origin of this game dates back to the 6th century AD in India. A predecessor called chaturanga was played there. Over time, it quickly spread to Persia, where it was renamed shatranj. It reached the West thanks to the expansion of the Arab world into Europe.
Regarding computer programs for playing chess, important theorists such as Claude Shannon and Alan Turing addressed the theoretical aspects. Shannon wrote a paper, and Turing developed an algorithm. In that same decade, some universities developed rudimentary software capable of making some moves.
It was not until the 70s that programs for amateur players appeared, and until the 90s that they could compete with professional players.
Basic concepts
Before analyzing the different applications we must define some terms.
Chess engine
The engine is a computer program designed to calculate moves and evaluate positions of pieces on the board.. It typically doesn't have a graphical interface that displays the board, pieces, or buttons, but instead specializes exclusively in analyzing and deciding which move is best.
To achieve this:
- Analyzes millions of possible positions per second.
- Uses search algorithms and heuristics,
- Respond with a play or numerical evaluation of the position
FICS Server
FICS stands for Free Internet Chess Server. It's one of the oldest online servers and allows real-time matches between players from all over the world. Both titles discussed in this article connect to this type of server.
In addition to individual matches, this server offers tournament participation, game analysis, and messaging between players.
Lucas chess
Lucas Chess is A program open source that It's not only for recreational purposes but also for training. It includes a wealth of educational tools.
In addition to playing against the computer, users can improve by completing exercises, training sessions, and analyzing games. It can be installed on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Some of the features of this program are:
- You can play against the computer by choosing between several game engines and levels.
- 50 Custom Training Modes including tactics, openings and play calculations
- Kids or beginners mode with increasing levels of difficulty
- Allows you to analyze games that can be loaded in PGN format using different engines
- Multilanguage
Knights
It is a program to play chess against another player, the computer or a FICS server.. Integrates with the KDE desktop environment.
Some of its characteristics
- Compatible with XBoard and UCI protocols with crafty, Stockfish, GNU chess game engines.
- Configurable animation speed.
- Allows you to rotate the board.
- Accessibility options that allow the program to speak the moves or for other programs to move some pieces.
- Various color themes
- Current move marker, other player's previous move, and position of the king in check.
- Search for online game requests
- Console to exchange text messages with other players
This program can be installed from the FlatHub and Snap stores.
The usual clarification. These are just some of the open source applications we can install on Linux. In the repositories and stores on FlatHub and Snap, you'll be able to find others more suited to each player's level.