Chess Engines
Information for authors
If you are writing a chess engine and you want it to work with xboard/WinBoard, or if you are writing a user interface and want it to work with these engines, please read the Chess Engine Communication Protocol document, and consider joining the mailing list for engine authors, hosted at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-engines/.
Information for players
Here is a partial list of chess engines (programs that play chess) that work with xboard and/or WinBoard.
I am currently not keeping this list updated.
The last update was November 2002. For an up-to-date list of WinBoard engines with information about each one, see Leo Dijksman's web site. For announcements of new engines, see Leo's site and the WinBoard Forum. To be able to use still more engines, see my Extensions and Drivers page for drivers that allow some Auto232 and UCI engines to work with WinBoard. For help getting started with alternative chess engines, see Aaron Tay's FAQ, as well as the other links on my Chess Web Sites page.
Disclaimers: I have not tried most of these engines, so I can't guarantee they will work for you or offer help installing them. Contact the author of each engine if you need help with it beyond what is provided in its documentation. The list is in alphabetical order, not in order of merit.
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31337
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Adam
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Abrok
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Alarm (not released yet)
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Aldebaran
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Amateur
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Amundsen
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Amy
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Amyan
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AnMon
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Ant
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Arasan
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Aristarch
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Armageddon
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Asterisk
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Averno
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Awesome
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Ax
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Baby Chess
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BACE (also known as BCE)
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Baron
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Beaches
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Belzebub
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Beowulf
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Bestia
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Betsy
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BigBook
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BigLion
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Bionic Impakt
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Blikskottel
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BremboCE
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Bringer (also known as Der Bringer)
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BSC
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Butcher (also known as Rzeznik)
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Capture (commercial)
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Cefap
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Chad's Chess
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Chess-Rikus
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ChessterfieldCL
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ChessThinker
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Chezzz
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Cilian
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ColChess
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Comet
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Cpp1
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Crafty
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Crux
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CyberPagno
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Damas
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DChess
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Deep Bug (bughouse and crazyhouse only)
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Deep Trouble
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Defeo (plays a Czech variant of crazyhouse called "tetris holandany")
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Delfi
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Dragon
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Duke
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Embracer
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EnginMax
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Esc
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EXchess
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Faile
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Fauce
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Fimbulwinter
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Fortress
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Francesca
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Frenzee (formerly ChessCraft)
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Freyr
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Gandalf (commercial)
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Gargamella
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Gaviota
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Gedeone
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Genesis
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Gerbil
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Ghost
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Giveaway Wizard (aka Losing Chess Wizard) - see also
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GNU Chess
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Golem
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Green Light Chess
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GreKo
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Grizzly
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Gromit
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Gullydeckel
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Hagrid
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Holmes
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Horizon
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Inmichess
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Jester
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KACE
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Kaissa2
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KasparovX
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King of Kings
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KnightCap - bug fix
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KnightDreamer
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Knightx (also known as Techno Chess)
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La Dame Blanche
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LadyGambit
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lambChop
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LaMoSca
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LarsenVB
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Leila
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List
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Little Goliath
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LordKing
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Madeleine
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Matheus
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MFChess
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Mint
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Monarch
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Monik
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Mooboo
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Morphy
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Movei
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Mr Chess (formerly Dr Chess)
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MSCP
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Muriel (aka KDLChess)
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Mustang
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Mystery
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Nejmet
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Nero
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Nimzo (commercial)
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NoonianChess
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OliThink
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Ozwald
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Patzer (commercial)
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Pentagon - dead link?
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Pepito
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Phalanx - alternate link
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Pharaon (formerly ZChess)
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Pierre
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PolarChess
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PreChess
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Pyotr
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Quark
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Queen
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Raffaela
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RDChess
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Replicant
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Requiem
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Resp
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Rival Chess (also known as NewRival)
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Robin
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RoboKewlper
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Ruffian
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Sachy
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SdBC
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Siboney
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Sjeng (also plays several chess variants)
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Skaki
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Small Potato (also known as unches)
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SmarThink
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SnailChess
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Soldat
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SOS
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SSEChess
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StAndersen
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Stan's Chess
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Storm
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StrategicDeep
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Sunsetter (also plays bughouse and crazyhouse)
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Tamerlane
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Tao
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Terra
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The Crazy Bishop
- The King (commercial, part of Chessmaster 8000) - alternate Web page - how to use with WinBoard.
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TheLightning
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Tikov
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T-Rex
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Tristram
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Trynyty
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TSCP (Tom Kerrigan's Simple Chess Program)
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Ufim
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WildCat
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WJChess
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Yace
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YAWCE
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Zephyr