XBoard Alternatives
XBoard
XBoard, also known as WinBoard on Microsoft operating systems, is a free graphical user interface client developed by Tim Mann that is compatible with various chess engines that support the Xboard Communication Protocol such as GNU Chess. It also supports Internet Chess Servers, e-mail chess, and the playing of saved games.
It includes international chess, xiangqi (Chinese chess), shogi (Japanese chess) and Makruk, in addition to many minor variants such as Losers Chess, Crazyhouse, Chess960 and Capabanca Chess. It displays a chessboard on the screen, accepts moves made with the mouse, and loads and saves games in Portable Game Notation (PGN). It serves as a front-end for many different chess services, including:
* Chess engines that will run on your machine and play a game against you or help you analyze, such as GNU Chess, Crafty, or many others.
* Chess servers on the Internet, where you can connect to play chess with people from all over the world, watch other users play, or just hang out and chat.
* Correspondence chess played by electronic mail. The CMail program automates the tasks of parsing email from your opponent, playing his moves out on your board, and mailing your reply move after you've chosen it.
XBoard runs on Unix and Unix-like systems that use the X Window System.
Best XBoard Alternatives
Looking for the best programs similar to XBoard? We reviewed our top picks below. Let's see if there are any XBoard alternatives that work on your platform.
Lichess
FreeOpen SourceWebAndroidiPhoneiPadThe complete chess experience, play and compete with friends and others around the world.
Features:
- Ad-free
- Gaming
- Multiplayer
- Patron
- Study Mode
Scid vs. PC
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsShane's Chess Information Database is a powerful Chess Toolkit, with which one can create huge chess databases, run engine analysis, or play casual games against the...
Chessmaster
CommercialWindowsChessmaster is a chess playing computer game series which is now owned and developed by Ubisoft. It is the best-selling chess franchise in history, with more than five...
Chess.com
FreemiumWebAndroidiPhoneJava MobileHP webOSPlay chess online, learn new chess strategies, tactics and rules, study chess games and openings - all FREE on Chess.com - the #1 online chess site!
Lucas Chess
FreeOpen SourceWindowsPortableApps.comThe aim is to play chess against the computer with increasing levels of difficulty and with a limited number of hints that are given by a chess tutor. Also included are...
Features:
- Gaming
- Portable
- Python
PyChess
FreeOpen SourceWindowsLinuxPyChess is a swift chess client originally developed for Gnome, but running well under any other linux desktops. As far as we know of. PyChess is pure, delicious Python...
Fritz
CommercialWindowsFritz is the world’s most popular chess program, developed by ChessBase, “the world's leading chess software company” (Washington Post). Whether you are a beginner...
DreamChess
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxDreamChess is an open source chess game featuring "Dreamer", a moderately strong engine. Any XBoard-compatible chess engine (Crafty & GNU Chess) will work...
Brutal Chess
FreeOpen SourceWindowsPortableApps.comBrutal Chess features full 3D graphics, an advanced particle engine, and several different levels of intelligent AI.
Features:
- Gaming
- Portable
WinBoard
FreeWindowsLinuxWinBoard is a pretty basic chess game that is mainly intended to play games online, using different chess engines.
Features:
- Gaming
- Gui
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