RobF
Group: Members
Posts: 22
Joined: July 2004 |
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Posted: July 23 2004,07:10 |
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There are droves of chess playing programs available for Windows, both free and commercial. The pickings are much slimmer for Linux. The catch here is that you want a program that a kid under the age of 8 can play against and possibly win. Most chess playing programs try to get the edge over others by having the more powerful chess engine. Even if you totally dumb down these high-powered engines (provided you can), they still play quite well, much better than an 8 year old beginner. After all, at full strength some of these engines can beat Kasparov!
The only program that I can think of that can cripple its engine so much (and cripple it somewhat intelligently) that an 8 year old can beat it is Chessmaster 9000 for Windows (or perhaps its up to 10000 by now, if so you may be able to get 9000 for very little or 8000 for even less, they'll do). The current version will cost you around $30-40, older ones less (but check for compatibility with your version of Windows OS). It's quite nice and full-featured and flexible, and it has a pretty nice looking interface that your kids would probably enjoy. It has dozens of different playing personalities, anything from matching a complete beginner to matching a grandmaster. You get a lot of bang for your buck with Chessmaster.
Otherwise, running under Windows, there are quite a few good free programs that can be dumbed down but perhaps not as much as would be needed for an 8-year old. Your kids may never beat them for a long time. Examples: Arasan, Arena, Bringer, Fritz (e.g. the old version 5.3 that comes with the free Chessbase Light), ChessGenius Classic, NetChess 5 ($15), RDChess, Scid. Of these, Chessbase Light with Fritz may be your best bet. You can find all of these by googling with their name plus chess, perhaps.
There is not nearly as much running under Linux. Examples: Xboard running the engines Gnuchess or Crafty (these come with many Linux distros), Eboard, Knights, Scid (Scid runs under both Windows and Linux). Eboard and Knights are quite allright.
Then there is the possibility of having your kids play against other kids or low-rated adults on the Internet through the Internet Chess Club (ICC) or the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS). You can download their clients (the programs that enable you to play on the net via their servers) for free. The ICC accepts guests who can play for free but to fully utilize their offerings you have to subscribe (around $50/year). The FICS is all free but it's not quite as sexy as the ICC.
My advice would be to get Chessmaster 9000 and also check out the ICC and FICS.
BTW, phalanx is just a chess engine, not a complete chess playing program. Phalanx is quite nice but at full strength is rated around ELO 2200 and probably around ELO 1500 when maximally crippled. You're a good to outstanding chess player when you get into that range.
Robert
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