If looking for a chess partner that matches and challenges your skills, Arasan is an interesting open-source option to consider. This chess program comes with its own GUI, though it is fully compatible with Winboard, xboard, Arena, Fritz, or Chessbase thanks to its console-based engine. You can configure the program’s GUI to use the color combination and piece design of your choice.
You can play against Arasan, play against yourself, or let Arasan make all the moves and learn from its amazing capabilities. Arasan’s degree of difficulty is easily customizable from 0 to 100, the latter being the highest level. You can make your moves just by clicking on the piece and dragging it to the desired position in the chessboard. If in doubt, you can always ask the program for a hint to help you make your next move. All moves are neatly recorded – you can ask the program to show them for you at any time and even save them for future use.
You can customize nearly every detail of the game and the chessboard appearance – the colors or the squares, the position of the white and black pieces, the pieces’ appearance (Maya, Berlin, Marroquin, Merida, etc.), the board size, etc. You can also configure the gameplay to fit your preferences – who plays white, the search limits, Arasan’s strength, the amount of memory and cores to be used, and so on.
Arasan is free, simple, and comes with a database with more than 600,000 moves. Suitable for all players and skills thanks to its customizable level of difficulty, this app is an excellent tool to practice your chess, improve your skills, learn new movements and strategies, and compete with other players online.
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