Main
Date: 28 Jul 2006 11:14:41
From: [email protected]
Subject: Free chess software for Linux (not with xboard)?
I'm using Fedora Core 5 Linux, and the installed GNUChess with xboard
is, well, the A.I. is OK, but the board is HUGE and clunky.
I'm probably being too picky, but I'm looking for something that takes
up oh, maybe only a 1/4 of my screen and may be a little more modern
looking interface.
I tried this "chess" package that uses Ogre for the rendering, but my
video card isn't powerful enough for it.
I'm also trying to install eboard for the GUI, but having a bit of
problem compiling the source code for that. Kind of hoping for a binary
package somewhere.
Of course MSN's games aren't accessible from Linux, otherwise that
would be perfect.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
-Liam





 
Date: 11 Aug 2006 12:39:07
From: Alexander Wagner
Subject: Re: Free chess software for Linux (not with xboard)?
On 2006-07-28, [email protected] <[email protected] > wrote:

Hi!

> I'm using Fedora Core 5 Linux, and the installed GNUChess
> with xboard is, well, the A.I. is OK, but the board is
> HUGE and clunky.

Just configure it ;)

> I'm probably being too picky, but I'm looking for
> something that takes up oh, maybe only a 1/4 of my screen
> and may be a little more modern looking interface.

Not yet perfect but you may want to check
http://theorie.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/~arwagner/chess/

Additionally I'd suggest you really carefully read the quite
extensive man page of xboard, and you'll probably find that
it's a bit hard to find anything competing in functionality.
Maybe Scotty may help you with all those options (that's
what I wrote it for) though I admit that you'll need to look
into it to set it up.

I'd also recommend to check out jose. And of course also
Shredder has a pretty nice interface. Both though can not
compete in fuctionality with xboard (yet).

Note 1: most of the configuration for xboard is done in the
traditional unix way: .Xdefaults... A sample for xboard is
on my webpage as well. Note however that I configure the
entire Athena Widget set to a decent (aka NeXTStep like)
look. The result is, at least for me, a very nice looking
xboard...

Note 2: I use 80x80 pixels for the board as my display is
1400x1050. It is ok on 1280x1024 as well IMHO but maybe a
bit large on 1024x786. Use eg. "convert" to scale the
pixmaps used for the themes to a smaller size then. My
themes include them only in 80x80 plus the original
png-files in 116x116.

--

Kind regards,
Alexander Wagner


 
Date: 28 Jul 2006 14:55:22
From: Geico Caveman
Subject: Re: Free chess software for Linux (not with xboard)?
[email protected] wrote:

> I'm using Fedora Core 5 Linux, and the installed GNUChess with xboard
> is, well, the A.I. is OK, but the board is HUGE and clunky.
> I'm probably being too picky, but I'm looking for something that takes
> up oh, maybe only a 1/4 of my screen and may be a little more modern
> looking interface.
> I tried this "chess" package that uses Ogre for the rendering, but my
> video card isn't powerful enough for it.
> I'm also trying to install eboard for the GUI, but having a bit of
> problem compiling the source code for that. Kind of hoping for a binary
> package somewhere.
> Of course MSN's games aren't accessible from Linux, otherwise that
> would be perfect.
> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
> -Liam

Knights, eboard, etc. are other possibilities. I do not use xboard either.
Its pretty primitive looking.

What kind of problems are you having compiling eboard ?


 
Date: 28 Jul 2006 14:43:34
From: Chris F.A. Johnson
Subject: Re: Free chess software for Linux (not with xboard)?
On 2006-07-28, [email protected] wrote:
> I'm using Fedora Core 5 Linux, and the installed GNUChess with xboard
> is, well, the A.I. is OK, but the board is HUGE and clunky.
> I'm probably being too picky, but I'm looking for something that takes
> up oh, maybe only a 1/4 of my screen and may be a little more modern
> looking interface.

Then use a smaller board; man xboard:

-size or -boardSize (sizeName