Hopefully there some other Aspies out there who enjoy a truly epicurean Aspie pastime - chess via computer.
I use a dual boot system with Windows 7 and Xubuntu Linux. When I use Windows 7, I primarily use either Chess Titans (the one that comes preinstalled with the Windows 7 system) or Chessmaster (XI) Grandmaster Edition primarily for the chess tutorials and practice exercises.
On Linux, I primarily use PyChess with the following engines: Pychess 0.10beta3, Sjeng 11.2, Fruit 2.1, HoiChess 0.10.3, Phalanx XXII-pg, GNU Chess 5.07, Crafty 23.4. I like that Pychess automatically sets up and integrates most engines and that you can easily adjust the difficulty setting to match your skill level. (I'm a weaker player just coming back to Chess after many years.)
I also have Eboard and use that on occasion. I tried Xboard and while it is fully functional - I like something a bit more intuitive to use. These all allows me to also use FICS and such if I want to play against a "real person" and not a computer engine.
I also have a goal of learning Go, Shogi (Japanese chess), and Xiangqi (Chinese chess). It is nice to see that Ubuntu has many of the classic games represented. (If it had more classic card games as well as dominoes I would be even happier - I live in a rural area with satellite internet so we lose signals during snow storms and such so installed games help to whittle away the time.)
What do others use? Any recommended interfaces and engines? Other favorite classic abstract strategy games and such?
17 Sep 2011, 1:05 pm
