Online chess against the computer upgrade#
Online chess against the computer full#
Online chess against the computer free#

It comes with three difficulty modes: 1 star for Easy, 2 stars for Normal, and 3 stars for Hard.

Online chess against the computer free#

This is a free online competitive chess game that can be played against a computer or in 2-player mode with a friend locally. If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. You can actually get a lot out of the free tier despite bumping into the paywall fairly regularly, but you’ll have to put up with regular nudges asking you to pay up.

Online chess against the computer upgrade#

The apps follow a freemium model, where you download a free version and then make an in-app purchase to upgrade the experience.

Online chess against the computer full#

The pieces are detailed, but not to the point of being distracting-not a trivial factor when one’s full mental capacity is required to truly get the most out of those steep fees. The aesthetics are unique among chess apps and have the look of a collector’s chess set instead of a cheap board you picked up at the local game store. The apps (available on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows) are quite comprehensive, with dozens of lessons and mini-courses. The program is unique in how it offers not just chess instruction but also drills that improve your fundamental skills and teach pattern-recognition techniques that help you mentally plan ahead during games. Examples provided in lessons generally come from Carlsen’s game history against other top players. The puzzle and exercise set is hosted and narrated by world champ Magnus Carlsen, who appears in quick videos onscreen to pump his fist or smirk at you, depending on how you perform the tasks he provides. Magnus Trainer is pricy-$8 per month, $75 per year, or a one-time fee of $300-but learning from the best isn’t cheap. The app starts by giving you a heavy piece advantage over the AI, and it gradually turns the tables if you demonstrate to the computer that you are up to the challenge. You can’t play other humans, just the AI, which does not alter its strength, only the material it has to work with. Stalemates, in which one player has no legal moves, should also result in a tie, but they are treated like checkmates. For instance, the app does not allow for draws, even when both sides repeat the same moves over and over (which should trigger the game to end in an automatic draw). This free app, available for both iOS and Android, is pure silly fun, as long as you can forgive some rough edges. For a seasoned player, it can help you see a familiar game with fresh eyes. All that storied history goes out the window with Really Bad Chess, a mobile app that generates bizarro opening setups: You might start the game with six queens, or have all of your pawns replaced by knights. One of the great allures of chess is that it has endured, unmodified, over centuries and across continents. It is run by a nonprofit and is funded by donations. Perhaps most remarkable of all: Lichess offers all of this without any ads and never asks for money. The mobile apps ( Android, iOS) recreate the browser experience, with the main limitation being your tolerance for examining a board on your screen.

Lichess also produces a graph after each game to show you who was winning (according to Stockfish) at each move, and how much that advantage increased or decreased with each move. You can even explore past games by masters that most resemble the one you just played. Lichess includes a nifty feature where you can see how many top players have played the moves you and your opponent played, and the outcomes of those games. Considered the top chess AI in the world until it was dethroned by Google’s AlphaZero, Stockfish can quickly analyze positions and assess which side is stronger and by how much. feels clunky and formal by comparison.īoth and Lichess let you analyze your games afterward with the help of the renowned open-source chess engine Stockfish. Just fire up a new game, try some puzzles, or watch a chess streamer play three-minute games while listening to techno and chatting with the comments section. You can create an account, but if you’re not concerned with tracking your games and finding other players at your level, there’s no need to log in. The site has a simple appearance, and it seems built to get you where you want to go in as few clicks as possible. Lichess has all the same basic offerings as : a large community, many game types, tutorials, puzzles, and livestreams.