Do you like chess? Do you like Solitaire? Come on, you like one of the two. With all the bad things going on with the Internet these days, there are still a lot of good people who create web sites and make software to either give away free or to sell for a very fair price. When you think about it, you might pay $15 or $20 for a software program you can use for years. That’s a pretty good deal, right? Don’t worry, freeware fans the two games we’re about to present to you are freeware. Excellent freeware, by-the-way. Both highly rated by users as well as the software reviewers at CNet (Download.com) – not that the software reviewers at CNet are always on target. Sometimes we think they must have free libations at the office. Ahem! That being said, most of the time you can tell by the user reviews if the software reviewers were cognizant at the time of the review. If you see a CNet rating of 4 or 5 stars and a user rating of 1 star, then you know all is not right in computerland.
Yes, I know, you just want the darn Chess and Solitaire games, right. OK! OK! I give in to your wishes and whims.
Let’s play chess!
Mayura Chess Board
We wasted a lot of time on this one. Once you get started playing chess – if you haven’t played in a long time – you keep wondering if you have any brain left. The computer beat TC every time. But then he hasn’t played since high school and that was almost 100 years ago.
Anyway, this game is given a 4-star rating by users which is usually a pretty good indication that it’s a darn good program. People tend to find fault with everything, don’t they?
If you’re looking for a free game of chess that you can download free and play on your computer, against your computer. You’re about to find out your computer is a lot smarter than you think it is, even if it is old and slow like Eightball.
Here’s what the developer of Mayura Chess Board has to say:
Play chess against your computer using Mayura Chess Board. Attractive graphics combined with a powerful chess engine makes Mayura Chess Board one of the best programs for playing chess on Windows PCs. Beginner, intermediate and expert levels of play are supported. Beginners will find plenty of assistance: Mayura Chess Board can optionally highlight squares to which a piece can be moved, and highlight undefended and attacked pieces. Expert players will be challenged by the included powerful chess engine. Players at all levels will appreciate features such as animated piece movement, arrow to indicate last computer move, unlimited undo/redo, and other ease-of-use enhancements.
It’s a big download (30.63 MB) but it’s great free chess game. Learn more about Mayura Chess Board and/or download it from this Web site
How about a little Solitaire?
Rated one of the best free games of solitaire that you can download and install on your computer – 123 Free Solitaire features a dozen different solitaire games. When TC feels lonely he writes melancholy essays, when EB’s lonely she plays solitaire and watches Dr. Phil. Seh can do both at the same time, it’s hard to write while playing solitaire. OK enough!
123 Solitaire – Publisher’s description:
123 Free Solitaire 2009 card games collection includes 12 solitaire card games: Diplomat, Eighteens, Flower Garden, FreeCell, Grandfather’s Clock, Klondike, Pyramid, Royal Rendezvous, Spider solitaire, Spider Solitaire One Suit, Spider Solitaire Two Suits, and Yukon. 123 Free Solitaire 2009 features a winning layout, fast game play, rich sounds, extensive options, and quality help. Each solitaire has more than 9 trillion possible games to play.
What’s new in this version:
123 Free Solitaire 2009 – v. 7.0 includes the Ribbon, a graphical user interface composed of a strip across the top of the main playing area. Ribbon interface is a part of the new Microsoft Fluent User Interface that replaces the menus and toolbars used until the version 2008 of 123 Free Solitaire. The Ribbon is a way to enhance usability by consolidating related commands so that they are easier to find. Commands are organized into groups and related groups are organized on tabs….