12466 Players currently online!
Man vs. Machine - good luck!
Turn-based games at any time!
Vote for the best move to win!
Do you have what it takes?
Sharpen your tactical vision!
Get advice and game insights!
Learn from top players & pros!
View millions of master games!
Your virtual chess coach!
Perfect your opening moves!
Test your skills vs. computer!
Find the right private coach!
Can you solve it each day?
Bring it all together!
Beginners, start here!
Make friends & play team games!
News from the world of chess!
Search all Chess.com members!
Find local clubs & events!
Who's the best of your friends?
Read what members are saying!
salsagoth
I was looking for an engine to buy for analyzing etc. I have windows vista. I read fritz 10 is too powerful for novices but I didn't want it for playing against computer anyway. Any suggestions?
Squonky
I use Houdini (rated at 3000+ ELO) in combination with the "SCID vs PC" interface. Both are available freely online, just google it.
NaNdummy
I use Chessmaster, which is a powerful tool for players rated lower than 2000. It has also useful comments and many tips to learn. Oh, and its very cheap.
Fritz costs a bit more, but its worth it. Its a giant database of tips, puzzles and openings. You can even let personalized virtual characters analyse your game.
Houdini with more than 3000 rating isnt free. Only the old, lowrated version is free.
But you can buy Fritz and install other chess engines if you dont like the one built in. Suggestions:
Houdini (old version is free, new version world master)
Rybka (old version is free, got banned from contests because they copied some code from other engines)
Shredder (winner of 2011 software championsship, so my personal topsuggestion, also a blitz specialist)
HIARCS and JUNIOR (free version available, very fast on slow computers)
Stockfish (best free engine, open source)
In Chessmaster, you can build your own chess engines with no programming, but you may need to experiment a bit with them.
Oh, Chessmaster is very old. The engine has just rating ~2900 USCF.
JamesCoons
I would suggest just downloading stockfish for free. The difference between it and Houdini is negligable.
Of course, stockfish is great too.
Medusa Gambit Madness 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g5
by DarthMusashi a few minutes ago
Constant connection problems
by Tr3voir a few minutes ago
My first Legal's mate!
by Master_Valek 2 minutes ago
Concerned about trolling, again
by TheGrobe 3 minutes ago
We need more amateurs to post their annotated games.
by jaybir 3 minutes ago
Why do so few players play 30 min live chess?
by topJKMonkey 4 minutes ago
5/23/2013 - The Long Road Home
by arstar123 4 minutes ago
Post your best miniatures here
by Master_Valek 5 minutes ago
I began to loathe Chess 960 ...
by reflectivist 6 minutes ago
The power of two "offside" knights!
by chalaco 7 minutes ago