Chess Giants

Chess Giants is a 3D chess game for Microsoft Windows that was created to replace and improve the well-known Chess Titans game supplied by Microsoft in their Windows Vista and in some editions of their Windows 7 operating system, and also to support other systems. As Chess Titans was not available on Windows XP and was removed in Windows 8, Chess Giants was created by an independent developer to fit the purpose, supporting both these legacy and newer systems.
It is a fully animated, photorealistic interactive game with three game modes and variable difficulty level. It can be played either online agains real opponents (through the FICS chess server), or by two participants, or one player against the computer. When played against the computer, Chess Giants acts as a frontend for several high-skilled open source chess engines such as Crafty, Fruit and Stockfish, enabling the player to match a 3000+ ELO opponent, which was not possible with the former Chess Titans.
Graphics
Like Chess Titans, the game is fully animated and designed for Windows Aero with its glass-like view. It features a photorealistic board with a Staunton chess set which can be rotated in 3D. When viewed from the top down, the chess pieces can be turned into standard 2D chess symbols. Seeking to be the most visually appaling chess game on PC, customizable backgrounds and themes are available for the chess pieces and board.
Gameplay
Similarily to Chess Titans, on each player's turn, Chess Giants displays the last move made by the opponent. The player can also click on a chess piece to highlight all valid moves for that piece. These features can be turned off in the Options dialog box.
The game can open and save files in the .pgn (Portable Game Notation) or .fen (Forsyth-Edwards notation) file formats, allowing to resume or study saved games and theoretical positions.
Online play
In this mode, Chess Giants connects to the Free Internet Chess Server and joins the public chatter channels. Inside this virtual chess club, the game then invites the player to either open a chat session with another connected player through a MSN Messenger-like interface which can eventually lead to a game between both, to specify a style of game he wishes to play and wait for another player to challenge him, or to reply to another open challenge.
During each game, both players can chat with each other, as well as participate in other discussions in any of the chatter channels they chose to join.
Player vs. computer
In this mode, Chess Giants is a frontend for several open source chess engines, which can be selected from the Options dialog box. The player can choose whether to play as black or white, cancel moves, or get a hint from the chess engine.
Player vs. player
In a two-player game, the chess board automatically turns 180 degrees for the opposite player after each move, allowing for a 1 vs. 1 "hot seat" gameplay in front of a realistic 3D chess board.

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See Also

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