Free chess playing software for linux

Role Playing Tools extends the pen and paper role playing tabletop to the computer by providing a die rolling tool with a full expression language including Javascript functions, tabbed rolling bars, quick summation features, and the ability to save and restore sessions. There is also a client and server map sharing tool. Both are intended to be simple and powerful and enhance the game, not distract from it.

We found that we wanted to augment our pen-and-paper roleplaying (primarily 3.5ed D&D) with computer aids.

These tools extend and augment our traditional playing style. They are not a role playing game by themselves, nor are they meant to replace everything at the D&D table.

DiceToolis a simple but powerful expression parser that has built in functions for random number generation and can be further extended by JavaScript to do all sorts of calculations.
MapToolis an elegant graphical tool to share maps (images) and map data (drawings, markers, grid placement) in a client/server fashion between multiple players.
TokenToolis an accessory to MapTool. Drag any image onto the workspace and use the mouse to move and zoom the image in the reticle. Then drag from the preview pane directly onto MapTool -- or File->Save to save a png file.

Tonic Chess project is an online chess software.

Tonic is a graphical interface for playing online chess. It is based on Jin.

From now on Tonic is really open source software (and free as in libre as well) - I managed (I had some problems last time I tried) to import source to cvs sourceforge repository. It is a bridge2 release source with few little modifications. You can read how to get it from cvs here. If you are impatient pastenenter in console:

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@tonic-chess.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/tonic-chess login

When prompted for password just hit enter. And then:

cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@tonic-chess.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/tonic-chess co -P tonic

You should see a list of files downloaded from cvs repository. If you are a non-console user (i.e. Windows or Mac user) I recommend visiting this site. I myself use Linux for development. And Netbeans sometimes as you could figure out from examining the contents of tonic directory. So, enjoy the opensourceness of Tonic!

I uploaded new screenshot to Tonic project site. It is Tonic in Aero GTK engine tuxedo. Quite a peculiar engine imo, but you can use other GTK engines if you run Tonic in Java 6 aka Mustang (you know you can get it from here, dont you?) I test Tonic with Mustang and Ive problems with tray icon. After some searching Ive realized why Tonic crashed under Java 6 - the problem was tray.jar plugin and its dependencies - tray.so or tray.dll, so if you want to run Tonic on Java 6 move them away from theirs directory. Ive written a class for tray icon using new desktop API from Mustang, but it doesnt work as expected in KDE (tray icon is invisible) ; GNOME is better, but I have to work on the popup menu. Well, what could I say? Mustang is in beta stage, but it has some goodies to wait for (early splashscreen, access to tab component, ...).

ChessY! project allows you to visually review the game histories from Yahoo! online chess.

You can email to yourself at the end of a Yahoo! online chess game.

BabyChess is a chess program. You can edit chess games, play chess on the internet, and play locally against engines.
BabyChess is distributed as free software under the terms of the GNU GPL.
Main features:
- Games between humans and/or engines can be played in the match window. XBoard engines are supported.
- The chess position editor lets you edit a chess position, and save it in FEN notation, as used by other chess programs.
- The chess game editor understands PGN notation.
- The game archive editor reads PGN files that contain any number of chess games. It displays a list of all games and lets you edit those games using the game editor.
- The ICS client connects you to an Internet Chess Server and lets you play games against human opponents.
- The "evaluator" of BabyChess is a chess engine that uses its own communication protocol. It is not an XBoard engine. This program is given a FEN position as an argument and analyzes the position. During the thinking process, information about the current best move and more is written.
- The game editor uses the chess evaluator to analyze chess positions.
- Internally, the evaluator uses 64 bit numbers even on 32 bit systems, meaning it is possible to analyze more than 2 billion positions on PCs.
- This program implements an XBoard chess engine. It uses the evaluator as a backend.
- In addition to the standard algebraic notation (SAN). French, German and Dutch notations are supported. Figurine notation is also supported, also the current fonts dont make it look good. New notations can be created.

PicoChess project is a small chess program.

PicoChess will support one and two player games, as well as playing against itself. It can also load and save games, and export transcripts of games.

w3Chess is a Web- and Mail- based chess board. I built this to play chess over Internet with my friends. If you play chess via E-Mail, you have several problems:
- You need a chessboard in your house for every opponent
- You could drop your board down an loose the actual piece positions
- You can set a piece wrong and your boards doesnt look like your opponents one anymore
I searched for such programs but the I only found chess-servers, or tools which depends on sql-databases and javascript.
But I hate Java-Script and I hate huge dependencies for small solutions.
Main features:
- few dependencies (its written in c)
- high compatiblity (its written in c, should also work under unfree Gaming Systems from Redmond)
- it should run fast (its written in c)
- it should need less system ressources (do i have to say it ?)
- it should display the actual board via (any) Web-Browser (no JavaScript, even lynx should do it)
- you should have the moves stored at home (E-Mail-Notifications....)
- you shouldnt be able to do wrong moves
- you shouldnt do moves if it is not your turn
- the administration should be easy (old games are removed after nn days)
- the usage should be easy (no "cosmetic" features, easy translation)
- you should be able to search for an opponent
- your pieces should be at the bottom
Supported languages:
- German
- English
- Italian, thanks to Carlo !
- Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Fabio !
- Spanish, thanks to Pablo !
Enhancements:
- charset-Tag in Mail-Header

ChessTask project is a tool for generating chess tasks.

ChessTask is a frontend for easily creating chess tasks with LaTeX. The tasks are stored in a list which can be exported, either into a LaTeX input file, or into HTML files.