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This article is from the GNU Chess and XBoard FAQ, by Tim Mann mann@pa.dec.com with numerous contributions by others.

B.3 Does GNU Chess run on a PC under DOS (or Windows, or OS/2)?

Yes. There are several versions available.

WinBoard provides a graphical user interface to GNU Chess that runs on
Windows 95 and Windows NT. See topic [D.2] . The WinBoard distribution
includes a GNU Chess executable for the Intel architecture, plus
instructions and patches (when necessary) for recompiling GNU Chess from
the official sources, available separately.

GNU Chess 4.xx for Windows bundles GNU Chess and a custom graphical
interface into a single program. Unlike WinBoard, it runs on Windows 3.1
if you have the Win32s compatibility package installed (available free
from Microsoft). You can get GNU Chess 4.xx for Windows from
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gnuchess/ , filename currently
gnuchessPC-4.15.zip. The distribution includes complete sources and an
Intel executable. If you need Win32s, you can get it from
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/PW1118.EXE .

The standard GNU Chess 4.0 distribution can be compiled for MS-DOS, and
will run under Windows in a DOS box, but with no graphical interface.
Depending on what patchlevel of GNU Chess you get and what C compiler
you have, you may need to make minor source changes to get it to
compile. Some precompiled versions are available in the Internet Chess
Library; the most recent at this writing is:
ftp://ftp.freechess.org/pub/chess/DOS/ .

Here is a listing of GNU Chess files for the PC in the Internet Chess
Library (topic [A.3] ). They are scattered among the directories
/pub/chess/Win3, /pub/chess/DOS, and (don't forget)
/pub/chess/DOS/OLD-STUFF. This listing may be outdated; see the library
itself to look for additions.

MS-DOS:

gch4077.zip 497874 GNU Chess 4.0.pl77 for MS-DOS; needs 386 or better.
gnu40-62.exe 1323260 Probably GNU Chess 4.0.pl62 for MS-DOS
gnu40dos.exe T 317072 GNU Chess 4.0pl60 by Free Software Foundation
- compiled for DOS, executables only

  gnu40src.exe      307786  GNU Chess 4.0pl60 by Free Software Foundation
                         -  sources only
  gnuchs31.exe T    270559  GNU Chess 3.1 by Free Software Foundation
                         -  compiled for DOS, sources and executables
  gnuchs40.exe T    355494  GNU Chess 4.0pl60 by Free Software Foundation
                         -  compiled for 80386er, executables only
 
Windows:
  chess321.exe W  M 238185  GNU Chess 3.21 ported by Daryl K. Baker
 
OS/2:
  gpl65os2.zip      677824  gnuchess-4.0.pl65 compiled for os2.
  gc-os2-m.zip      578032  gnuchess 4.0 for os2 with mouse support.
  gnu40os2.zip     1303602  Executables for running gnuchess 4.0 pl62
                         -  under OS/2. 
  pmchs.exe    W  M  92004  OS/2 PM Chess 1.01 (GNU Chess 3.1 Windows by
                         -  Daryl K. Baker) port to OS/2 by Kent Cedola
  pmchssrc.exe      110279  OS/2 PM Chess 1.01 (GNU Chess 3.1 Windows by
                         -  Daryl K. Baker) sources only

Porting GNU software to PCs is not a major focus of the GNU project, and
these ports are not supported by the FSF. Contact the people who did the
ports if you have questions or problems.

 

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