Free Chess Engine recommendation?

Hey, everyone. I've recently become aware of how using a Chess Engine can help you improve at chess. I've been watching a lot of videos on youtube and the commentators always mention how they are using a Chess Engine to analyze the games or positions on the chess board.

I was wondering if there are any completely free Chess Engines I can download that can help me analyze positions? I currently have Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition, but the Chess Engine that comes with it isn't very intuitive or designed well. It takes awhile to set up and I can tell it definitely isn't the best tool for what I'm looking for. Perhaps there's a Chess Engine designed for this purpose? Maybe something that explains the reasons why the move the engine recommends is optimal?

Does anyone know of any free Chess Engines that are very good at helping you analyze chess positions and finding the next best move?

As a side note, I will not use the Chess Engine to cheat. I strictly want to use this as a tool to improve my own skill. It's something I've come to realize that will help me progress in skill. Often in my games I come to a moment where I can't figure out the best move. I then make a move never knowing whether it was right or wrong, and because of this I don't learn from possible mistakes.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

I suggest the use of Computer Analysis feature that offers chess.com at the end of your games! You have one a week if you don't have a premium membership.. If you have the Gold membership, you have 2 a week and unlimited if you have the Platinum or Diamond..

I use it for the matches I think I will get the most and it is really useful.

I use several, the top two being Fruit and Stockfish.  I use them along with SCID, a free chess database.

http://scid.sourceforge.net/

http://www.stockfishchess.com/

Thank you for the recommendations; it really helped answer my question.

If you want an engine, either Rybka, Houdini, Stockfish, or Critter (or all four!) will be fine:

Rybka2.3.2a:   http://www.rybkachess.com/index.php?auswahl=Rybka+engine
Houdini 1.5:  http://www.cruxis.com/chess/houdini.htm
Stockfish:  link given above
Critter1.4:   http://www.vlasak.biz/critter/

If you want more choices than this, there are a few hundred other free engines to choose from, but most won't be as strong.

For a user interface there is WinBoard (my choice), Arena, or Tarrach, ChessDB, and Scid, among others.

I forget to mention the Komodo engine is also worth downloading:  http://komodochess.com/

I think you did not use chess chess.com computer analysis very often. I once got a premium membership to analyze all my games and its just crap. The only thing its good for is showing blunders. This computer analysis didn't see mate in 1 with a rook in 1 of my games. It once showed that the best move is to put my queen in front of opponents pawns where he/she can take it. If you really want to analyze your game go to analyze forum there people with high rating will analyze your game

also , most commerical engines are really cheap these days, you can find them in the 40-50$ range, and they all are loaded with extra features

Comodo is now more powerful than Rybka ,Houdini and stockfish ,Iwould dare to say.

Definitely not...the "computer analysis" on this site is horrible.  

i would disagree...even though it did win the computer match. all of these recamendations are good.

any chess engine is decently difficult to set up.

Houdini Komodo and stockfish are the three strongest.

i agree olichris

Gull and Bouquet are free and made the final six in the TCEC tournament.