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UCI Engines

Toga II 1.3.1

Based on the ground-breaking open source engine Fruit 2.1, this engine adds another 100 Elo points to sit close to the top of the rating lists. At the same strength as the best commercial engines (apart from Rybka!), and with multi-variation analysis, this is an essential download! There is also another current version called Toga II 3.1.2SE.

http://www.superchessengine.com/toga_ii.htm

Rybka 1.0 beta/ Rybka 2.1 demo

Arriving in December 2005, Rybka has proved to be a revolution in chess engines, with the commercial version topping all the rating lists by a large margin. Programmed by an international master, it has a good evaluation function and provides accurate middle-game assessments where other engines often go astray. Like Toga, the beta version is comparable in strength to the best commercial engines. Rybka 2.1 demo, limited to 1 second a move, is also available.

http://www.rybkachess.com/index.php?auswahl=Download+demo

Pro Deo 1.2

The free version of what used to be the commercial program Rebel. This has a very human-like playing style, which means that it's not only satisfying to play against, but also very good for providing sensible analysis, such as when observing grandmaster games live. There are some additional opening books here.

TIP: So that the personalites are accessible, open the wb2uci.eng file using Notepad, and edit the line beginning "Personality..." so that it reads as below - use copy and paste. Save the file. The personality can then be chosen using a spinner when you change the engine parameters using the Universal Chess Interface. I especially like playing against the Tal and Q3 personalities!

http://members.home.nl/matador/prodeo.htm

Thinker 5.1

This is easily the most entertaining engine out there at the moment, in the style of Mikhail Tal. If it doesn't sacrifice a piece every so many moves, I think it gets a headache! A unique style, and able to compete with (and confuse) the strongest engines! Set it up in an engine match, sit back, and enjoy! On the downside, like Pro Deo, it's a winboard engine and either needs to be installed as a winboard engine or used with the wb2uci adaptor. Also the current version doesn't display its analysis. On the website, as well as the winboard engine, there is also a very simple GUI version, and a Pocket PC version with a FICS interface.

http://www.geocities.com/thechessthinker/download.htm

Glaurung 2.1

Glaurung is another strong engine with an interesting, attacking style, that can sometimes turn the tables on the top engines. Way too many UCI options, though! ;)

http://www.glaurungchess.com/

Homer 2.01

Say "Hello" to Homer! This is a good engine for playing against, with adjustable styles and some pre-programmed personalities. It also has the very useful limit strength UCI option. I hope the next version gets to say "DOH!" when you beat it! ;)

http://www.homer-chess.com

Fruit 2.2.1 / 05.11.03 / 2.3

Formerly the strongest chess engine in the world, this is now one of the strongest free engines, and makes a good no-nonsense analysis partner. Many, if not all, the commercial programs benefitted from the open-source Fruit - here's your chance to see how the original programmer developed it!

http://www.fruitchess.com/

Delfi 5.1

After Pro Deo, this engine has one of the more human-like playing styles, which can be good to play against. It is possible to limit the strength to approximately a 1000 ELO player in the UCI options, which is good for beginners. Also available is Delfi GUI.

http://www.msbsoftware.it/delfi/

Other...

Strong engines worth downloading include Spike, Naum, Alaric, and Bright. Slow Chess Blitz and Queen are engines that display their own interface when not used in another GUI.

Z.F.'s Free Chess Programs

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