Chess on linux

Lately iv tried to pick up chess again. I have played since little but have dropped it on and off. I stopped playing 4 years ago and its hard picking up where you left off.

To play chess on a linux box there are a few programs out there to meet your needs. Firstly though, it takes time writing lines of complex AI so projects are separated by engine and GUI board handler.

Open source engines include, my favorite GNU Chess, Crafty, Sjeng, Phalanx. There are a few others around as well as none-open source engines.

GUI Boards include xboard which is the most popular and supports loads of engines. Theres a list on the official website of all the supported ones. The windows version is called winboard.
My favorite board though is eboard.

It only supports GNU Chess, Sjeng and Crafty. However it makes up for it with a internet chess server features and board preference options. Its available for Unix-like systems. There no windows version ;). I have a good setup of GNU chess and eboard running on openSUSE 10.3 with no problems.

I do have a copy of chess master 8000. Its a little old now but it just works. It has tutorials by International Master Joshua Waitzkin. Don't know him? Never seen 'searching for bobby fischer'? Well, as a child he was a chess prodigy. He beat his first grandmaster Edward Frumkin at just 10. Sacrificing a queen and rook to mate. View it here.

Install Restricted Formats, OpenSUSE

If your new to opensuse 10.3 you will notice theres no direct way to install mp3 support unless you get the Fluendo MP3 decoder. You can however download:

• Flash
• Java
• Latest Amarok (with MP3 Support) for KDE, or Helix-Banshee for GNOME users
• Encrypted DVD (libdvdcss)
• Extra xine codecs, for MPEG-4 etc. (libxine1)
• K3b with MP3 Support (k3b-codecs)
• Win 32 Codecs (w32codec-all) (xine)

With just one click install at
http://opensuse-community.org/Restricted_Formats/10.3
Just select your desktop gnome or kde.

BTW: if you went with the Fluendo MP3 decoder way you wont be able to get equalizer working in amarok.

KDE Lock screen on lid close

On openSUSE KDE 3.5.7, Kpowersave 0.7.x you can turn off the screen lock when you shut your laptop lid by going to 'Configure Kpowersave' (right click the battery/adapter icon in the system tray). Click the general settings tabs and look for 'Lock screen'. Un-cross "lock screen on lid close".

Click ok. And should be done.

Installed openSUSE 10.3

Wanted a change from debian based distros. So I downloaded a copy of openSUSE to give it another go. Installed fine although something went wrong with the xserver I managed to find my way around sax2 (a YaST module) to get everything working fine.

Iv installed the KDE desktop version as you can see.

I love the kde menu and quite happy to say with this till I fancy a kde4 desktop.

It seems very fast and solid. My mepis install was very slow even with fluxbox. This seems to be on the same level as ubuntu. I may get back to some linux posts in the coming days.