Free studying chess software for linux

Ruby Chess is a chess game implemented in Ruby using GTK2. Ruby Chess project has a good artificial intelligence that is heuristic-based and stochastic.

TryChess project is a multiplayer online chess game.
First it was only a test to try PHP5s news features. But it started growing and became a nearly complete chess game with many features.
Main features:
- Multiplayer game
- Preview move
- Hostory of moves
- Check and Check mate detection
- Browser indepentant (even lynx works, but does not look so good :) )
- Special moves supported partialy (rochade,...)
- Top Score list
- Invite friend function
- "Whos online?"
- Forum
- Admin functions
- Search for users

VDB Chinese Chess is a Chinese chess program which uses pictures instead of Chinese letters so people who arent Chinese can play it. VDB Chinese Chess supports 99 levels and different computer levels can play against each other.
Installation :
Step 1: Make sure that all necessary components are installed!
This program needs:
1. g++: Gnu c++ support including header files
2. xaw3d: 3D-extension for the Athena Widget Set if you cannot find it you can change xaw3d by xaw in src/Makefile.in but the program will not look so nicely
3. Standard Template Library
Actually this program will use only one header file for the function max(), that returns the maximum of two values. You can implement that yourself. 4. xpm: this is a library for icons in x- all board pieces are implemented with this library, this library is very common under X, so it should be included in your distribution 5. pthread: this is used for multithreading, sometimes also called pthreads, you might have to change this in your src/Makefile.in
Step 2:download this program and unzip it in the directory you want to run it. There is NO separate installation directory! tar xfz cchess.tar.gz
Step 3: cd cchess_dist/cchess
Step 4: ./configure
make
make install
Rules of Chinese Chess:
Indeed, Chinese Chess is very similar to Chess but there are some differences according how to move your pieces on the board and the following:
1. You cannot exchange the pawn against some other piece if you reach the end of the board
2. There is no rochade and moving "en passant"
3. You lose the game also if you are stalemate
4. If both kings are on the same column there must be one piece between them
5. If there is three times the same position because of the same moves you must move different next time
6. The pieces are not black and white but red and black. Red moves first.
There are the following important locations:
The two palaces, each consists of nine fields marked by two diagonal lines.
The river: The area in the middle of the board, that is not interrupted by lines
The pieces on the board move the following way:
King: Can only move one field forward or to the side, not diagonal. Has to stay inside the palace
Pawn: Moves one field forward. If he is beyond the river he can also moves side wards
Rock: Moves one or more fields to the side, forward, backward but not diagonal
Cannon: Moves one or more fields to the side, forward, backward but not diagonal. Must always jump over one piece!
Horse: Moves one field straight, one field diagonal, cannot move over another piece.
Elephant: Moves exactly 2 fields diagonal, cannot move over the river
Mandarin: Has to stay inside the palace. Moves one field diagonal.
Enhancements:
- This release fixes some defects in the game strategy.

Five Chess is a connect-five board game. Five Chess is released under the terms of GNU General Public License version 2.
It was initially developed from a qt Tic-Tac-Toe example.
Main features:
- 4 ways to play -- Human vs Human, AI vs Human, Human vs AI, AI vs AI
- 6 board sizes available -- 9X9 to 19X19
- Save Played games
- View played games
- Not so smart AI

Java3D chess project is a Java applet that allows you to play chess.

Java 3D Chess is a chess program with uses Java 3D. You can play the game on any computer capable of using Java.

You can play Java 3D Chess agains yourself or a friend (on the same computer).

Maybe inthe near future you can play against other as well.

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.

3D Python OpenGL Chess Game project is a 3D chess game in Python with OpenGL.

3D Python OpenGL Chess Game is a normal chess game that has no computer player (yet). You can play against a friend on your PC.

IRC-Chess project is a 2-player chess game for IRC which turns a computer into an IRC chess bot.

It consists of a Java chess server, with frontend scripts to convert an IRC client into a chess bot. Players then communicate with the bot using standard IRC commands, and dont require any special software to play.

Frontend scripts are available for IRSSI and X-Chat.

The client is merely responsible for interpreting this data and displaying it. In this way, porting the system to a variety of IRC clients is very simple, since
the client script will be short, and effectively contain no code specific to the game being played.

In other words, the Java part is smart. The script is dumb and is just there to make things look pretty.

This idea works. Currently, client scripts have been designed for RSSI and XChat. Since both these programs use Perl for scripting, the scripts are practically identical, with a few client specific modifications.

Porting this script to other IRC clients shouldnt be too much of a hassle, since its just the frontend thats ported, not the chess game itself. Anyone wanting to create frontend scripts for other IRC clients, please feel free to do so.

The PROTOCOL file describes exactly what needs to be done.