ChessCentral's
Cheer CD

Chess Software - Chess Demos
Chess Screensavers - Chess Literature
All on one CD

The ChessCentral Cheer CD is jam-packed with great chess screen savers, chess literature, chess software and chess software demos (PC, Mac and Handheld) for chess enthusiasts of every skill level. Here is what the ChessCentral Cheer CD has in store for you:

Chess E-Books

Chess Fundamentals (J.R. Capablanca) $16.95 Value!
Capablanca teaches chess! Let the 3rd World Chess Champion’s classic manual be your guide to improvement in chess. Capablanca covers every phase of basic chess, building logically toward the understanding necessary to tackle more advanced concepts. Read more

Off the Wall Chess Trivia (NM Bill Wall)
Off the Wall Chess Trivia is piled to the ceiling with tons of little-known facts, historical gems, and amazing stories - all you could possibly think of that defines chess. ZDNet and CNET have given Off the Wall Chess Trivia a 5 star rating with over 100,000 downloads! Whether you are a chess enthusiast or just a dabbler, you will be delighted, amazed and amused.

Chess History and Reminiscences (H.E. Bird) $11.95 Value!
Of all the claims which have been advanced to the invention and origin of chess, that of the Hindu Game the Chaturanga is the most ancient. Its accounts contain the earliest allusion worthy of serious notice to anything partaking of the principles and form of chess. The description of it is taken from the Sanskrit text, and our first knowledge of it is obtained through the works of Dr. Hyde, 1693, and Sir William Jones, 1784. Professor Duncan Forbes, in A History of Chess, dedicated to Sir Frederic Madden and Howard Staunton, published in 1860, further elaborated the researches of his predecessors and claims by the aid of his better acquaintance with chess, and improved knowledge of the Sanskrit to have proved the Chaturanga as the first form of chess. (in PDF format)

Chess Screen Savers

Professionally made and easy to install! Just double-click the icon on the .exe file and follow the on-screen instructions. Once the screen saver is installed you will have fun configuring it to your liking! Just right-click on the screen saver icon and go to “Configure”. Enjoy!

Modern Art
The latest graphic images from "akamycal" the hottest chess artist on the Internet. This screen saver will amaze you! Many of the images included in this fabulous screen saver are available in limited editions at our Chess Art shop. Others may be purchased by special request. 

Chess Refraction Screen Saver (Jade)
Chess pieces refracted on exquisite boards that will make your dull monitor into a beautiful work of chess art. Click here to see the images included in the screen saver which can be also be placed on your desktop as wallpaper!

Fine Art
The royal game of chess has been the theme for many wonderful fine art paintings, going back hundreds of years. ChessCentral's staff has collected their favorites and have presented them in a gorgeous screen saver for your enjoyment.

Chess Literature and eClassics

Here we have two brilliant short stories to be read with the Adobe eBook Reader or with Adobe Acrobat. We have included both of these readers in the ChessCentral Cheer CD. Many thanks to Adobe for providing these readers to our ChessCentral customers. Check out these interesting literary gambits:

Fool's Mate (Stanley Ellin)
This is a classic among both lovers of mystery stories and chess players. The plot revolves around George Huneker, a henpecked husband, and his obsession with chess. Can George find a happy balance? We think not.

Interplanetary Chess Congress (Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov)
In an excerpt from "The 12 Chairs", this hilarious story features con man Ostap Bender as he single-handedly transforms a backwaters Volga River town into the chess capital of the universe. Many thanks to Sovlit for their permission to reproduced this Russian classic.

Free Chess Software

phpchess
phpChess is a chess server software package written to be used on most normal internet servers. phpChess does for chess what phpblog did for blogs and phpbb did for bulletin boards. phpChess is a proper, scalable, fast chess server - managing communities and bringing the fun of chess to the internet. On this CD you get the community version. You now have the ability (when placed on a domain on the Internet) to have your own chess server (play against other people or the computer), private chess chat area, Buddy List, Admin control panel, and personal newsletter. You even get to add your creative touch with your own look and feel. To learn more about phpchess click here.

Fruit 2.1
Fruit 2.1 is a chess engine. If you seek maximum playing strength, Fruit is your choice! Fruit is co-champion of the world in computer chess, and one of the strongest chess programs around - if not the strongest. Fruit has a unique playing style, making it a good addition to any chess-engine collection. Many thanks to Joachim Rang and Fruit Chess for allowing ChessCentral members this awesome free download.

Chess Scan
Finally a way to get those newspaper and book diagrams into  your computer for analysis. Use Chess Scan when you want to save those diagrams in a format readable by your chess software. Simply scan a chess diagram using Chess Scan as your intelligent "OCR" tool. Then save the position as a .FEN, .EPD, .PGN or other popular file format. Many thanks to Gerhard Trippen for this great free download. Click here to learn more.

Chess Assistant Lite
The people at Chess Assistant are so confident you will like their product that they have a FREE slim version of Chess Assistant. In this free version you get the following powerful features:

Also included: CALSetup.exe, fonts.zip, crafty.zip, Help.zip, Eval.zip

Pro Deo  (Version1.0/3.5 MB)
Pro Deo is the first version of the former commercial Rebel chess program series. Ed Schroeder, the author of the famous Rebel programs, has just released a freeware version of his latest Rebel engine which is 20-30 points stronger then Rebel 12 and comes in the UCI format. Many thanks to Ed for allowing ChessCentral to offer Pro Deo FREE to our Members. You can visit Ed's website here.

Approximately 2700 ELO!!
Download Pro Deo 1.0
After the download open the archive with WINZIP and double click SETUP.
To run PRO DEO you will need to announce the engine first.
Under Chessbase this means: Engine -> New UCI engine -> Browse -> RebelUCI.exe
Under ChessPartner do: Extra -> Engine Import Wizard -> Winboard engines -> Install -> ProDeo.exe

NagaSkaki Chess
NagaSkaki is a free, fully functional chess program for Windows 9x, NT and XP. Features include: Opening Book, Levels like Seconds/Move, Blitz, Tournament and Beginner. Chess Clocks, Load/Save pgn files, Hash table, and shows best move and evaluation of position. A real gem!

R3D Chess
This freeware version of "the game of kings" is not only fully 3D, but also boasts a whole host of features. Variable opponent strength, online mode via internet (including chat), replay function, undo move, and save/load game. You can even design your own pieces and appearance using publicly available tools. In addition you get full support. That should not distract you from the eye candy you are getting: Reflections, lighting, move animation and end of game sequence.

Your computer needs to be DirectX 9 compatible, have a 3d card (TNT2 or better) and run on Windows XP, ME or 98.

Version 2 of R3D Chess is already in the making and will take the game forward into becoming your all inclusive chess solution. You can find out more and get online support at http://www.380k.com or email at support@380k.com. The only thing the authors ask for is a donation if you like the game.

Chess Software Demos

Shredder Classic
The Shredder chess programs by Stefan Meyer-Kahlen have already won nine titles as World Computer Chess Champion, are leading in all important computer chess rating lists and are accepted as the best chess programs for PCs. They combine extremely powerful chess play with easy handling. The level of play of the program can be adjusted to any chess playing strength so that everyone can find an adequate chess partner. Many functions are available for analyzing one's own chess games, including a built-in chess coach, who is alert to mistakes and helps improve your chess play. This is the slightly restricted test version of the world champion chess program Shredder Classic FREE of charge and try it out for 30 days without obligation. Shredder Classic runs on all Windows PCs with at least Windows 98. Click here to learn more about  Shredder Classic.

Shredder for MAC
You can download a slightly restricted test version of the world champion chess program Shredder Classic MAC FREE of charge and try it out for 30 days without obligation. Shredder Classic runs on all Windows PCs with at least Windows 98. The FREE download of the chess program Shredder Classic MAC is 4 MB. You can see all the new features of Shredder 9 MAC here

Smart Chess Viewer - Trial Version
Smart Chess Viewer is a powerful and flexible utility for replaying and annotating chess games in pgn (portable game notation) format. Download the full version for a FREE 7-day trial period. Now you can access the millions of pgn games stored on the internet, or simply play over your latest club victory. But this unique program not only reads pgn game scores - with Smart Chess Viewer you can comment on every move of the game, using a complete array of graphical marks. Click here to learn more, and purchase your registered version.

Chess Endgame Training Demo
This superior endgame program is designed to teach you different endgame methods. The material written by IM ICCF Alexander Alpert. Includes more than 2,450 endgame exercises taken from practical games and endgame studies. Get a great demo of how endgame training was meant to be! You can take a look at the complete version by clicking here.

Chaturanga - The Mother of All War Games
FREE (limited Moves) Chaturanga game - fully playable Chaturanga, played in India, in or before the 7th century A.D., is the oldest known form of chess. Easier to learn than chess, Chaturanga's play develops faster and reversal of fortunes can occur suddenly. The alliances feature gives it a Machiavellian aspect missing from common chess. Click here to discover more about the Mother of all War Games, Chaturanga.

Chess Workouts
Thanks to "Think Like a King Software" you can access either a Mac or PC demo version of Chess Workouts©, the first interactive curriculum designed specifically for scholastic chess programs! Each Chess Workout is like a full book on chess - but in an interactive format that students will love. The Workouts can be done on computers at home or at school. To learn more about Chess Workouts click here.

For the PC use: cw_demo_setup.exe
For Mac use: cw_sdemo_installer.bin or cwdemoinstaller.hgx

Advanced Chess School Demo
Advanced Chess School is an interactive tutorial for those players, both children and adults, who have learned the rules of chess and now wish to become stronger players. This demo contains many lessons including Basic Pawn Endings, Fundamentals of Chess Tactics, The Stages of the Chess Game and more. Click here to see the complete features of Advanced Chess School.

CT-Art
This program is the 3rd revised and expanded edition of the ever popular Chess Tactics Art by the Russian GM of Correspondence chess, Maxim Blokh. The material was chosen for a wide variety of player strengths from 1600 ELO to 2300 ELO. The level of difficulty of the examples is aimed at  beginner and intermediate strength chess players, but even masters will find themselves challenged by the hardest ones. Click here to learn more about CT-ART 3.0 software program.

Theory and Practice of Chess Endings
Theory and Practice of Chess Endings will teach you the intricacies of the endgame. It’s theoretical section of over 700 games/lectures illuminates both theoretical and practical endgame methods. Much of the material found here has not been seen before in any coaching session. Click here to learn more about Theory and Practice of Chess Endings.

Chess Software Demos for Handhelds

ChessGenius 1.7  for the Palm
ChessGenius is a world championship winning chess program for the Palm Computing® Platform. Superb playing strength and packed with features for beginners and experts. It runs on all Palm devices including Tungstens, Zires and all Sony Clie's. - Version 1.7 with board coordinates and 5-way navigator/jog dial support.

ChessGenius 1.5 for the Pocket PC
With much stronger play, new piece set and position count option. This is a free update for all registered users. Written by Richard Lang, ten times Computer Chess World Champion.