Linux Chess Apps

10 Best Free Linux Chess Apps (Updated 2021)

Chess is a recreational and competitive board game played between two players. It is a very popular game, played by millions across the world, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.

Chess has the virtue of being suitable for people of all ages. It has many positive attributes such as to help individuals develop their memory, improve and enhance their concentration, as well as logical thinking. It also promotes and improves imagination and creativity. Chess is one of those games that takes a few days to learn and the rest of your life to master, with the game being a never ending learning process, even for the top players.

The game is played on a square chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Each player controls 16 pieces, and the object of the game is to checkmate the opponent’s king.

Linux chess software generally is separated into a “front end” application and a “chess engine”. There is a wide range of chess-playing software for Linux, which can defeat most master players under tournament conditions. Computer chess has been a phenomenal success, aiding chess analysis, and allowing players to play when no human opponents are available. Other types of chess software include chess databases and tournament managers. Chess databases provide a convenient way to store your own games, a time-efficient method to study, and offers access to statistics about your own games and of titled chess players.

To provide an insight into the quality of software that is available, we have compiled a list of 10 top chess applications, identifying our favorite front ends. All of these tools are released under a freely distributable license.

Best Free and Open Source Chess Apps

Let’s explore the 10 chess applications at hand. For each application we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, screenshots, together with links to relevant resources. Start playing one of the greatest games ever devised. Play chess, have fun!

Chess Apps
Lucas ChessHighly polished chess app with superb training facilities
PyChessAdvanced chess client following the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines
KnightsChess game for the KDE desktop environment
ChessXChess database and FICS client
XBoardGraphical user interface chessboard for chess engines
ScidShane's Chess Information Database
eboardChess board interface for ICS and chess engines
Cute ChessGraphical user interface, command-line interface and library
NibblerChess analysis GUI for UCI engines
GNOME ChessVala-based chess GUI
Best Free and Open Source SoftwareRead our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software.

The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk.

There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

5 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
rhY
rhY
5 years ago

No brutal chess?!?! You fail!

helosos
helosos
1 year ago

Thanks man!
can you recommend any chess apps that give me access to previous games played by GMs or something ? i want to study a lot of games, thanks in advance

Ron
Ron
1 year ago

i am trying to make progress im relatively new player. I need something thaat has various strength opponents. Im not learning much at present just getting smashed all the time. I cant get Lucas chess to install. Im not a linux pro just want something to insstall without all the linux B. S.

Tony
Tony
1 year ago
Reply to  Ron

Lucas Chess is what you need.

You definitely don’t need to be a Linux ‘pro’ to install Lucas Chess. The developer provides an easy installation with his .sh file.

What steps have you tried to install Lucas Chess? Have you asked the project for any assistance in installing the software?