Comparison of chess video games explained

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

See also

• List of chess software

Notes and References

1. Web site: A Decade of Blizzard. https://web.archive.org/web/20020218050643/http://pc.ign.com/articles/090/090953p1.html. dead. February 18, 2002. 2001-02-01. IGN. 2008-07-07. Commodore 64 Battle Chess, Windows Battle Chess, Amiga Battle Chess II, Amiga Lord of the Rings, and Windows Shanghai were some of our early projects..
2. Web site: Steam store page (Chessaria). Steam.
3. Web site: Review page of Chessaria: The Tactical Adventure. metacritic.com.