Handpicked Software

I’m not a big fan of computer games, but I love chess. There are a few excellent chess programs for the Mac, but for solving chess puzzles I’ve had to fire up Virtual PC. Until now…

ChessPuzzle 2 is a Dashboard Widget offering up over 6,000 chess puzzles in six classic collections, including 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate, 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations and Modern Endgame Studies. The interface is polished and full-featured, with audio effects and visual feedback (including tooltips), Auto-Flip (automatically flips the board to put the moving side on the bottom), and a choice of board styles. And ChessPuzzle includes a built-in chess engine called “Sjeng,” which plays expert chess at a setting of only 2 or 3 seconds per move. If you’re new to chess, ChessPuzzle can highlight legal moves and offer suggested moves.

Bottom Line: If you play chess ChessPuzzle 2 is a must have Widget. Even if you’re not a chess fanatic, ChessPuzzle 2 is a great way to get the neurons firing.
From: Robert Silverman
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh