And you can get a free rybka 1.0 from rybka's homepage which can you find from google . Its the strongest free engine here.Its strength is comaparable to most of other top commercial engine.

If you want to avoid all the hassle , you can buy a commercial package from fritz or rybka which also contains their latest engines.

The pros and cons of various chess programs can be found at

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/200...

There someone recommended Toga II.

In addition, <scholes>'s suggestion below:

http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/40...

rates Glaurung (#1, ELO 2939, Mac), Rybka (#2, ELO 2921, Linux), and Toga II (#3, ELO 2896, PC). For comparison, Kasparov's highest rating in the chessgames database is 2851. Because I am on Vista, I downloaded Toga II 1.3.1 by clicking on the corresponding link at

http://www.superchessengine.com/tog...

I unzipped the *.rar file with rarzilla freeware at

http://www.download.com/RarZilla-Fr...

to create a directory "Toga131\Distribute 1.3.1\Compiles" with three executables, including "TogaII131(DM1-Compile).exe".

The "downloads" link on the left at

http://www.playwitharena.com/

provides free the Arena chess GUI (graphical user interface). There seems to be no official English help, and unfortunately, the English.hlp file from

http://www.playwitharena.com/downlo...

does not work with Vista.

The Arena GUI has a menu item "Engines" and by selecting "Install Engine" and then clicking on the "TogaII131(DM1-Compile).exe" file, I was able to set up chess analysis. Many engines run under the Arena GUI.

The lack of explanation for the Arena interface is irritating, but by experimentation, I could get things to work.

<If anyone finds a good explanation of the Arena interface, please post the links here.>

G M Todorovic vs Z Kozul, 1988

and came up with the correct Rh5 Rxd5 maneuver at 17 ply, 1:25:32 time, +6.02 value. Rybka 2.3.2 ($40) still had not got the maneuver after 25 ply 9:46:55 time +3.49 value.

1. How do I set up a position by hand? When I go to Position > Setup a position , I can't seem to make the pieces go where I want. For example, I right-click on the and click on h5, and a black appears there! Nor can I drag the pieces to their appointed posts.

2. More importantly, how do I set up a position expressed in FEN? When I copy a FEN description of a position from a file (specifically,

click for larger view

I am going to have limited patience for being the "help desk" for Arena, but I can answer some of your questions easily enough. Here are your two questions, with answers. I hope the answers are helpful.

"1. How do I set up a position by hand? When I go to Position > Setup a position , I can't seem to make the pieces go where I want. For example, I right-click on the and click on h5, and a black appears there! Nor can I drag the pieces to their appointed posts."

1. Position > Setup a position

The "Set-up a position" window that appears has 6 icons in its upper left corner, one for each type of chess piece: K, Q, R, B, N, and P. As you set up your position, you need to click on the corresponding icon in the window, e.g., an N. Then, you go to the main Arena board, where a left click on a square places a White N there; a right click, a Black N; and a simultaneous left and right click remove any piece on the square.

Note: you can clear the entire main Arena board by clicking on the Board icon underneath the File menu within the main Arena window.

"2. More importantly, how do I set up a position expressed in FEN? When I copy a FEN description of a position from a file [snip] and click on Position > Get FEN from clipboard , nothing happens. When I highlight the second icon on the Arena toolbar, I get a popup that says, "Load a game (all supported chess formats)." But how?"

2. I have no experience with importing FEN into Arena, but if you happen to discover ways to handle FEN within Arena, let us know by adding to my chessforum. I handle everything within the *.pgn format. Under the gameboards in chessgames.com, e.g., the gameboard on the page

Adorjan vs J D Tisdall, 1981

http://alain.blaisot.free.fr/DiagTr...

Let me explain what I'm trying to accomplish. I want to find a way to send out e-mail messages to members of a school chess club to supplement talks at meetings of the club. The messages will contain data to enable recipients to 1) display positions discussed in the talks; 2) see the successive moves of the analysis of such positions, including variants, e.g., by clicking on '>' as we do using <CG>'s software; and 3) to do this with a minimum of software installation and hassle.

*In addition*, I would like to be able to input a series of moves, starting with that specified position, and be able to see the positions that result, move by move, as I click on a button, the way we do when we click on '>' and '<' at <chessgames.com>.

Ideally, it would be nice if those moves could be expressed is some simple format, e.g., ordinary algebraic notation, rather than the whole elaborate PGN formalism.

BTW, in my previous message I should have said that the combination of Arena + Tioga II doesn't satisfy my requirement 2). Requirement 1) is OK.

There was a brainstorm about named checkmates a while back:

H Hamdouchi vs M Bezold, 1999

I don't know if we got all of 'em, but we named quite a few.

Arena's basic concept is to copy and move things around with the Windows clipboard. To export FEN from Arena, "Position > Copy FEN to Clipboard" translates the position on the Arena game board into a FEN string in the clipboard. If you then open a text file "[filename].fen" with, e.g., Microsoft NotePad, you can paste the FEN into "[filename].fen" as text. You can even do this for several positions, on consecutive lines (terminated by carriage-returns from the "Enter" key). Then, save and close the "[filename].fen" file.

To import FEN into Arena, go to "File > Open". At the bottom of the window that appears, set the "Type of File" to "Forsyth-Edward Notation *.fen". Double-click on, e.g., the "[filename].fen" you created. Arena opens a FEN window to the left of the game board, with the consecutive positions from "[filename].fen" on consecutive lines. To make a position appear on the Arena game board, double-click on the corresponding line of the FEN window.

I have had little need to experiment with variations, but I have seen them within Arena, and I am confident that with a little experimentation, you can develop the specific capabilities you desire.

There's an old joke about a plane going down. The pilot announces: "We need to reduce the plane's weight, but we have thrown all the luggage off, so someone has to go. The crew has decided to make the choice on the basis of social utility."

And immediately, at the back of the plane, a fight broke out between the mathematician and the disc jockey.

One of my favourite stories is that Euclid was teaching in his academy when a student asked what the practical applicaiton of the mathematics they were studying. Euclid, suspecting the student of being too concerned with worldly things, gave him some money and told him never to darken his door again.

That is my understanding. The cross-table for the computers

http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/40...

For what it is worth, I run a quick experiment today. Glaurung 2.0.1 got trounced by Hiarcs 11.2 in a series of blitz games (5 minutes per side per game). 50 games with opening books, 35 without.