Comparison of chess video games

This is a comparison of chess video games.

General information

	Developer	First release	Latest release	License	Platform
Battle Chess	Interplay Silicon & Synapse (C64)[1]	1988	1994	Commercial	Windows, Apple Inc., Amiga, 3DO, Acorn Archimedes, Atari, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, FM Towns, NES, PC-98, Sharp X68000
Battle Chess: Game of Kings	Interplay	2014	n/a	Commercial	Windows
Battle vs. Chess	Targem Games Zuxxez Entertainment	2011	n/a	Commercial (Topware Interactive)	Windows, Mac OS X, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Wii
Chessaria: The Tactical Adventure	Pixel Wizards[2][3]	2018	n/a	Commercial	Windows, Mac OS X
Chess Assistant	Victor Zakharov	1988	2018	Commercial (Convekta)	Windows
Chessbase	Mathias Wüllenweber, Mathias Feist	1987	2018	Commercial (Chessbase)	Windows, Android
Chessmaster	David Kittinger, Kathe and Dan Spracklen, Johan de Koning	1986	2008	Commercial (Ubisoft)	Various
Chess Titans	Oberon Games	2007	n/a	Included in Microsoft Windows Vista and 7	Windows Vista, Windows 7
ChessV	Gregory Strong	2009	n/a	GPL	Windows
Combat Chess	Minds Eye Productions	1997	n/a	Commercial	Windows
Fritz	Frans Morsch, Mathias Feist, Gyula Horvath, Vasik Rajlich	1991	2018	Commercial (Chessbase)	Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS
Fritz and Chesster	Chessbase	2005	2010	Commercial (Chessbase)	Windows, Mac, Nintendo DS
GNOME Chess	Robert Ancell, GNOME Team	2000	2018	Free	Unix-like
GNU Chess	Stuart Cracraft, John Stanback, Chua Kong-Sian, Fabien Letouzey	1984	2013	Free	Windows, Unix-like
HIARCS	Mark Uniacke	1980	2012	Commercial (Chessbase, Hiarcs.com)	Windows, iOS, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile, Freescale DragonBall, ARM-based Palm OS
Houdini	Robert Houdart	2010	2018	Commercial (Chessbase, Convekta)	Windows
Junior	Amir Ban, Shay Bushinsky	1997	2014	Commercial (Chessbase, Hiarcs.com)	Windows
Komodo	Don Dailey, Larry Kaufman, Mark Lefler	2010	2018	Commercial (Chessbase, Komodochess.com)	Windows, Linux, Macintosh Operating System, Android
Playchess	Chessbase	2003	2018	Commercial (Chessbase)	Windows, web
Play Magnus	Tord Romstad	2014	2018	Free to try with in-app purchases	Android, iOS
Pure Chess	VooFoo Studios	2012	n/a	Commercial (Ripstone)	Windows, Android, iOS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita
pyChess	PyChess Project	2006	2018	GPL	Unix-like Windows
Rybka	Vasik Rajlich	2010		Commercial (Chessbase, rybkachess.com)	Windows
Shredder	Stefan Meyer-Kahlen	1993	2010	Commercial (Chessbase Shredderchess.com)	Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android
Wii Chess	Fritz Reul	2008	n/a	Commercial	Wii
Winboard/xBoard	Tim Mann, Harm Geert Muller		2013	Free GPL	Unix-like, X11, Windows

Gameplay

	included chess engine(s)	Can open/save PGN	Can import UCI[a] engines	Levels	3D or Animated pieces	Variants	Online multiplayer
Aquarium	Crafty, Delfi, Rybka, Spike	Yes	Yes	multivariation,[b] uci_elo[a]	No	Chess960	No
Battle Chess	n/a	No	No		Yes	No
Battle Chess: Game of Kings	n/a	No	No		Yes	No
Battle vs. Chess	Fritz	No	No	levels 1-9	Yes
Chessaria: The Tactical Adventure	Chessaria AICE	No	No		Yes	Yes	Yes
Chess Assistant	Dragon, Rybka	Yes	Yes	multivariation, uci_elo[a]	No	Chess960	No
Chessbase	Fritz	Yes	Yes	uci_elo[a] for analysis but no timed games	Yes	Chess960	No
Chessmaster	The King	Yes	No	Personalities with Elo ratings	Yes	No	No longer supported
Chess Titans	n/a	No	No	Yes	No	No
ChessV
Combat Chess	n/a	Yes			Yes		Yes
Fritz	Rybka, earlier Pandix or Fritz	Yes	Yes	Friend Mode,[c] Handicap and Fun,[d] uci_elo[a]	Yes	Chess960
Fritz and Chesster	Koenig Schwarz
GNOME Chess
GNU Chess	GNU chess	Yes	No		No	Knightmate, Capablanca, Gothic, Shatranj, Courier, Cylinder, Berolina	No
Hiarcs Chess Explorer	Hiarcs	Yes	Yes	uci_elo[a]	No	No	No
Chessbase Houdini	Houdini	Yes	Yes	Friend Mode,[c] Handicap and Fun,[d] uci_elo[a]	Yes	Chess960	Yes
Chessbase Junior	Junior	Yes	Yes	Friend Mode, Handicap and Fun, uci_elo[a]	Yes	Chess960	Yes
Chessbase Komodo	Komodo	Yes	Yes	Friend Mode,[c] Handicap and Fun,[d] uci_elo[a]	Yes	Chess960	Yes
Playchess	none	Yes	No	Other players have Elo rating	No	Chess960	Yes
Play Magnus	Glaurung	Yes	No	can choose Magnus' age	No	No	No
Pure Chess	n/a	No	No		Yes
pyChess	Pychess engine, Stockfish	Yes	Yes				Yes
Chessbase Rybka	Rybka	Yes	Yes	Friend Mode, Handicap and Fun, uci_elo[a]	Yes	Chess960	Yes
Shredder UCI GUI	Shredder	Yes	Yes	uci_elo[a]	No	Chess960	No
Wii Chess	Loop Express	No	No				No longer supported
Winboard/xBoard	Crafty	Yes	via UCI2WB	No	No	Knightmate, Capablanca, Gothic, Shatranj, Courier, Cylinder, Berolina	Yes

See also

• List of chess software

Notes

1. Acronym for Universal Chess Interface
2. The GUI will take a second or third best move from the engine.
3. The GUI will adjust the level of play during each game based on how well you are playing.
4. You can select the Elo rating and style that the engine will play.