What's a good chess computer programs for an intermediate player?

I don't have a USCF rating, but my best realistic self-assessment is around 1100-1300 (standard, blitz I'm somewhat worse). This is based on what I have done online and also based on a tournament I competed in recently. I've dabbled in chess for a few years but only a couple of months ago did I start taking it seriously. I'm looking to take the next step and learn some of the more advanced nuances of the game.|||Define "good."





These are free.





http://www.tim-mann.org/xboard.html





get winboard, it is a user interface you'll need and comes with gnuchess installed|||I can tell you are serious about learning by the way you present your question. To answer this, I would not advise you to get a chess program and download it, because playing against a computer will not get you anywhere. If you really want to learn more about chess, I suggest you try: www.chess.com


This site will give you all you need, and I support it immensely because of the learning materials provided. Player ratings are very organized, and you can play older, more experienced players to learn from them. There is also a large forums section, which gives you the opportunity to seek community help. Live chess gives you instant action and gives you the ability to meet new chess players like yourself.





Try it, and I know you will like it.


Good Luck|||Grandmaster 13th edition or Chessmaster 9000 is a great affordable chess programme. It teaches you very vital tips in improving your analysis of the boared and you will quickly increase your playing skills. There are also lots of quizes on the actual programme. You can also have rated games which can find your real rating playing against the computer which has a very wide range of levels.|||flyordie.com is a great website to play chess. to make an account is free or you could just play as a guess,,it will take a little while to get used to it but once you get used to it your going to love it..|||Get Chess Master grand masters edition.|||Chess Mentor is a nice teaching program. It does not contain a chess engine, so you can't play against the program, but it's a good training program that can be geared to different skill levels.





You can check it out at





http://www.chesscentral.com/software/che鈥?/a>





This program is meant to be used in combination with actual play against slightly stronger players.











The Chessmaster program does have some nice tutorials as well as a lot of opponents to play against.





You can also check out programs such as Fritz and Shredder.








Winboard and "Der Bringer" are two free chess-playing programs that you can download.





http://www.tim-mann.org/xboard.html (to download Winboard - the site refers to it working on all versions of Windows through XP, but it does work with Vista as well)





http://www.chess.com/download/view/der-b鈥?/a> (to download der Bringer). This is a German program, so make sure you choose English as the default language so you can navigate the menus. Its interface is similar to Fritz and Shredder.





Chessmaster does a good job of analyzing the moves of a game, but Fritz and Shredder provide a more in-depth analysis of each move, and also will rank all available moves in any situation from strongest to weakest. I have not seen the latest Chessmaster (I have the 10th edition), so you might want ot check out the program at:





http://chessmaster.us.ubi.com/xi/index.p鈥?/a>





Good luck to you!