Crafty Chess – freeware Graphical User Interface for Crafty

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Rules – The Rules of Chess

Crafty commands - Crafty command synopsis

Changes – version history

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Crafty Chess is a freeware and open-source Graphical User Interface for Crafty - a GM level computer chess program by Dr. Robert M. Hyatt.

Crafty Chess requires Microsoft Windows operating system, but can also function on a Windows emulator or Windows compatibility layer software, such as Wine.

The system requirements are at least Windows95 OS, Windows98 being recommended (it should work on most Windows versions up to “Windows 7”, see the Microsoft support statement). The minimal hardware requirements are around IBM 300Mhz processor with 64 Megabytes of RAM. (the program can be adjusted for lower performance PCs)

The first installation of the program generally requires for you to be in the system Administrator's mode, having “Visual Basic 6 run-time” library installed (most Windows versions starting from WinME already include it). The VB6 run-time is required due to the program’s main part being written in this language, though some of more performance requiring code is written in C.

The main characteristics of the program can be described as a very good PGN and FEN code support. Full move variation and annotation support. Flawless legal move generation engine, and moderately good in-built mate search engine. The Crafty chess engine can be used either as an opponent or position analyst. You can also put the program in Crafty-Crafty mode and watch Crafty play against itself;)

This program is freeware – meaning, that you need not pay any fee for it, and as long as you don’t modify the original package –

you can redistribute it anywhere you want.