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Free Chess Programs»  Pick of the Best»  Fritz 5.32

Fritz 5.32

Fritz 5.32
Fritz 5.32 was the first chess program I bought for my first PC back in 1998, and it's now one of the best all-round free chess downloads on the net. Use it for playing, analysis, and managing databases.
http://www.top-5000.nl/dl.htm?file=dl/fritz532.zip
The program comes with the old, but strong, fritz 5.32 engine, and fritz 6 can be used from Chessbase light. There are also a few other free Chessbase engines for download. Aside from playing against fritz, you can use program to analyze your games, study opening statistics, and organize engine matches. One of its most useful abilities is to create and search large databases in either pgn or cbv format. You'll need an opening book such as the hand-tuned RybkaII.ctg.You could download a large database fromNorm Pollock's site, or view the latest games from The Week in Chess.

Useful Short Cuts

F11 (main window) to view the opening book.
F2 (while playing) for the coach's suggestion.
(database window) for the tournament table.
O (database window) for a game overview.
Ctrl Y to have Fritz analyze and comment a game.

Limitations

The only shortcoming of this program is that it doesn't handle UCI engines. Not bad for free!


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Free Chess Programs  Pick of the Best  Chessbase Light

Chessbase Light 2009

Chessbase Light 2007
The new version of Chessbase Light may have been a long time coming, but it was certainly worth waiting for! Essentially a read-only version of Chessbase 10, with some functions limited to 32,000 games, it is state of the art software for browsing chess databases, creating statistics, and replaying games. If that weren't enough, it also comes with the latest Playchess server interface and a top quality database of 12,000 games. An excellent companion for Fritz 5.32!
You can use this program for browsing and searching databases, small and large alike. The tournament tab gives quick access to a list of tournaments in the database: double click on a tournament for a tournament table. The player tab shows a player's tournament and game history: right-click on a name for player statistics or to create a dossier. You can also enter the database via one of the classification keys: openings, themes, tactics, strategy and endgames. If you set a large database as a reference database, you can view position statistics from it in the reference pane when you replay a game, or right-click on the board for an opening report or to provide a quick opening annotation. Games can be merged and viewed as an ECO table or as a tree: use the best book line pane to show frequent variations from the tree. Other functions include game statistics, piece probability, game overview and exporting to html. The Playchess server is a good place to play chess on the internet, and the best for watching live chess from top grandmaster tournaments.
Update: Chessbase light 2009 updates the 2007 version with a few new features from Chessbase 10: frequently played lines in the reference tab; show next move in the book pane; and the ability to search a subset of better quality games. Perhaps the most impressive addition is the ability to search and download games from the online database of 5 million games!

Hints and Tips

Use Fritz 5.32 to create databases, and save and copy games to databases!
If you want to view games beyond the first 32,000 in your database, e.g. from the tournament or player index, or from one of the classification keys, simply use the Clip button (or press F5) to copy the selected games to the clip database, and view them from there! Shift F5 opens the clip database, and Ctrl-Alt-V empties it.
To get search results beyond the first 32,000 games, create a new search in one of the classifcation keys (right-click, Edit/Insert new Key...) that will find all games, such as Year: 1500-2100. After classifying the key (Tools/Classification/Classify all Keys...), click on the new key you just created so that the games are displayed in the games pane, and search using the Filter button at the bottom of the screen.
You can use Shredder 6 as an alternative analysis engine.
When observing games on Playchess, set Help/Spy... to show with an arrow on the board a threatened move, and Help/Opening Hints... to show the best moves from the opening book.

Limitations

The program is read-only, which means you can't create databases or save or copy games to databases. Some functions are limited to the first 32,000 games of the database, for which you can use the clip database as a workaround. UCI engines are not supported. Playchess Nicknames only last for 30 days, after which you will have tostart again or enter as a guest.


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Welcome to Arena


Arena is a free Graphical User Interface (GUI) for chess. Arena assists you in analyzing and playing games as well as in testing chess engines. It runs on Windows XP or higher or on Linux with Wine 1.0 or higher. Arena is compatible to Winboard protocol I, II and UCI protocol I, II. Furthermore, compatible to Chess960DGT electronic chess board & DGT clock XP, Novag Citrine, AutoplayerICS (chess servers) and much more.

Arena 3.0

Arena 3.0 is available since 2010-12-24
neu! small arrow Arena 3.0 ZIP (17 MB): Arena 3.0 with engines SOS 5.1, AnMon 5.75, Hermann 2.6, Ruffian 1.05, Rybka 2.2 free, Spike 1.2, book Perfect_2010 by Sedat Canbas, mini book Titus 2.4 (by Kevin Frayer), mini book Olympiad, PGN database from Olivier DEVILLE, EloStat 1.3, Gaviota 3-men tablebases, Speedtest 1.0.2, flags, fonts, graphics, help files, without setup program.
small arrow Arena 3.0 setup (16 MB): Arena 3.0 setup includes everything from the ZIP plus engines Nejmet 3.07 and Dragon 4.6 plus move announcements.  
 small arrow Arena 3.0 Help for Wine German Arena help files for Linux, copy to folder Readme/Help. Not necessary on Windows. 
small arrow Arena 3.0 Help for Wine English Arena help files for Linux, copy to folder Readme/Help. Not necessary on Windows. 







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Download Shredder Classic 4 Windows

You can download a slightly restricted test version of the world champion chess program Shredder Classic 4 FREE of charge and try it out for 30 days without obligation. Shredder Classic 4 runs on all Windows PCs with at least Windows 2000. The size of the download is ca. 22 MB.



http://www.shredderchess.com/download.php?file=SetupShredderClassic4.exe



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