ChessRoller 27.2 is out. This one is about playing: on a real board, against engines that take a minute to set up instead of an afternoon, and with a clock.
Play on a real board (beta)
Connect a Chessnut Air, Chessnut Pro, DGT e-Board or Millennium ChessLink in Settings > E-boards, and play or annotate with real pieces. Moves you make on the board show up in ChessRoller, so you can play the engine or enter a game over the board.
E-boards are in beta because more is on the way, and what comes next depends on people who play on these boards. If you have one, we'd like to hear how it goes: get in touch.
Engines without the setup
Settings > Engines > Install engines… downloads free chess engines, including Stockfish and Leela Chess Zero (Lc0). You pick one and ChessRoller fetches it and adds it to your engine list.
Lc0 has always been the fiddly one, because the right build depends on your graphics card. ChessRoller now checks the graphics card, suggests the build that fits, and sets it up for you.
It also offers Maia networks for Lc0. Maia is trained to play like a human at a given rating, from 1100 to 2200, so you can practice against an opponent who makes the kind of moves people at your level make, not the moves a 3500 engine makes.
Play with a clock
Play now has time controls. Pick a preset such as 3+2 or 15+10, or set your own time and increment. The player and the engine can have different times, so you can give yourself fifteen minutes and the engine three.
Start from an opening
Begin a game against the engine from any named opening instead of the starting position. It's a quick way to practice the positions you actually reach, or to try one you're thinking of adding to your repertoire.
Fixes
Timed games keep the right clock times when you pause, take back moves, or step back through the game. There are also fixes for some UCI engines that didn't start on Windows, and for moving and removing game sources. The release notes have the details.
Available now
ChessRoller updates itself, so if you already have it, 27.2 will arrive on its own. Updates to version 27 are free. If you don't have it yet, the free 7-day trial includes everything.
Chessnut, DGT and Millennium are trademarks of their respective owners. ChessRoller is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.