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I'm looking for a free version of chess for the PC - something along the lines of the one that ships with Win7.
Niece has started playing and she needs to practice (so does her uncle but let's not get into that)

I've tried the 3D one from GameTop, but let's just say it sucks. No castling, no way of turning of sound etc etc.

Any ideas? Preferably one that you've played yourself.

So what's wrong with the Win7 one? She not using Win7?
Will see if google want to give me anything.

Download Arena http://www.playwitharena.com/
You can also use Winboard, http://winboard.en.softonic.com/ but Arena have more features imo.
Then download a chess engine. Rybca or Zappa are good.

Start Arena up, go to the "Load Engine" located somewhere by the settings.
Once the engine is loaded, you can play a game against some of the best chess AI's that exists in the world today.

What is great about using these chess programs, is that you can download any historic game and view them move by move. You can save your old games and save games against friends and get the AI to suggest moves.

I find them way better than conventional static chess games (like the Win7 type). AND THEY ARE FREE.

Steam's daily deal is Chessmaster Challenger for about R27, if that helps.

Read this thread regarding the Steam Special:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/s ... ?t=1683893

Thanks Sojourn, but maybe I should've mentioned that said niece is in Grade 2?

I've downloaded Arena for myself though - lost two games in a row. Not enough beer I think.

Dunna worry though, she is now the proud owner of of an oldish PC with Win 7. And therefore - Chess Titans

Chess Titans is not a bad game as far as chess go.

Addition to the list. SparkChess - FREE extention for Chrome.