ChessTiger 15

Chess Tiger 15

A new chess engine by Christophe Théron

Tyger, tyger burning bright,
In the forest of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

The Tyger, from Songs of Experience (1794) by William Blake

Chess Tiger, a relatively new program written by Christophe Théron, who lives on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. Christophe has been working since 1979 on his program, but only four years ago came the breakthrough, and Tiger went to the very top levels of computer chess. Since then it has consistently achieved excellent results in all the important tournaments, and it even managed to top the Swedish list on one occasion.

Christophe on his beautiful and tempestuous Caribbean island

In 1999 and 2000 Chess Tiger chalked up a number of remarkable tournament victories. It also became the serial winner of the Dutch computer chess championships, taking its last title there in December 2002. In 2001 Tiger won the "Republica Argentina" grandmaster tournament in Buenos Aires, ahead of a number of top GMs, with an incredible 2788 rating performance.

So it is hardly surprising that computer chess fans hold this program in the very highest esteem. It is especially attractive when it runs under the original Fritz interface. That means that Tiger offers plenty of functions for beginners, club players and grandmasters: blitz and tournament chess, handicap levels, analysis. There is a competent chess coach, with complete move descriptions, warnings and real-time help during the game. In a special sparring level the program deliberately sets up tactical chances for you to exploit.

Chess Tiger in the Fritz environment has many high-quality print functions, a beautiful 2D board and a state-of-the-art photo-realistic 3D board in elegant "glass" design. The latter you have to see to believe.

The program comes with a giant tournament-tested openings book and a database of 500,000 top games. It also includes free one-year access to the chess server Playchess.