Just Chess

There are a huge number of options, free and commercial, for playing computer chess. In spite of that, it is surprisingly difficult to find a nice looking modern 3D interface that doesn't have significant drawbacks. Most mainstream chess software doesn't include any true 3D rendering at all. Ignoring trashy asset flips and completely broken games, there are a handful of 3D chess applications I like for various reasons, but they all suffer from their own debilitating design quirks, performance issues, bugs, or overly ambitious features that don't deliver. Just Chess finds a niche in this overcrowded space by delivering an elegant, minimalist interface that simply gets the basics right. It encourages you to jump into the game immediately, by not offering you a paradox of choice selecting opponents and options, or choosing sets, boards, or locales. The board and piece models are simple but pretty and, most importantly, highly legible. Combined with the typographic design and skeuomorphic UI elements, it evokes a late-nineties game design aesthetic that I remember fondly (but without the pixelation). The default view efficiently utilizes every pixel of a 16:9 monitor and doesn't require zooming or fiddling with the camera, or waste space or rendering cycles on a huge detailed environment you won't look at, or obstruct your view with gaudy UI elements. Drag-to-move pieces make realistic sound effects and you are left to your own devices if you want music. Everything here is designed to reduce distractions and get you to focus on the chess; after you set an initial engine strength, it will increment the strength up or down gradually based on your results without requiring continual user intervention, so you can just play match after uninterrupted match at the edge of your abilities. These may seem like minor things, but if you've played with competing software, you may realize how annoying their absence can be. This all sounds quite nice, and it is, but initially I wasn't convinced I needed another chess game. It seemed redundant. It seemed a shame to me that the lovely design of Just Chess was wasted in a game just a little too expensive and a little too feature-poor to attract chess players like me. So I made some suggestions to the dev, and to my delight I discovered They are incredibly responsive and dedicated to making this game a success. I suggested They lower the price, and add some features that are missing from the market, such as support for UCI engines. I was amazed how quickly this was implemented and how well it worked. The dev continues to enthusiastically implement suggested features and shows a clear commitment to the success of the application. The game is now well worth the price. I highly recommend you pick this up if you just want a simple, solid, beautiful way to play chess in 3D against an engine (either the dev's custom engine, or a UCI engine of your choice). And with an ambitious and effective developer supporting it, there is no telling how much it will improve in the future.

By far the best on steam. By. Far. Built in engine vs computer. Puzzle Arena (over 4 Million puzzles with difficulties) Engine vs Engine (check my guide for how to in words from creator) to watch toughest A.I.'s battle it out. Player vs Player of course -And my personal fav feature- Lichess Integration! It is amazing just HOW MUCH this Chess Application offers for the price. I have already recommended it to the few chess friends i have. Just Chess. is so much more than Just Chess. It is a full toolkit of chess and it is easily in my top 15 purchases on steam.

Awesome chess on pc with great features.

Good game and doesnt cost the earth

simplicity

Fantastic start with the features and game so far ! Here's my list of recommendations. 1- Having the UCI engine settings available will be amazing ! Having custom presets (maybe) for engines like rodent IV with it's personalities would be more that great ! 2- Engine profiles. Every engine that we add can be picked from a list with maybe a custom UCI profile as well. 3-A custom career mode (where you earn points (after elo) which you can use to challenge stronger pre-set engines/or same engine with different strength. (you set the amount of uci engines in the career and number of games/tournaments) 4-Puzzles should NOT be tied to any online account. You shouldn't have to login to anything to access them. Even tho you claim they work "offline" they don't as I need to login. You can download the lichess csv puzzle archive (it's way more than 4 mil now) and use that in the custom interface you have, make it in a separate menu, not lichess) look at github for "better tactics" chess puzzles for extra functionality (advanced) 5-Puzzle theme "Single/multiple/random Hidden selection" Have a hidden selection system for themes if hidden is activated it auto selects one theme. If multiple selected, it auto selects random hidden themes up to 'n' number 6-Not sure you want to expand into database territory but that should come after all these points. This has the potential to become the go to 3d chess interface, as there is none in existence so far that has all these options like UCI settings with advanced puzzles, and a career. Look at Lucas Chess and this: https://github.com/Amina-07-web/BetterTactics

It's just chess. Nobody lied.

Hats off to the programmer. They really thought about what makes a good chess game. It's a shame that it hasn't gotten much attention on Steam, because of the ones I've tested, this one has the most potential. I'd love to see it expanded even further. -Connection to Chess.com to play live there. -Maybe 3-5 additional pieces and board designs. -For accessibility, more languages for the menu. Really great work.