I've been playing against glchess after 20 years away from the game. I was never any good. I'd like more of an opponent than easy mode, but normal mode just overwhelms me and I learn nothing except aggravation. Is there a front end or different game that will allow me to ask what the engine would make as the next move so I can study why that is better? Sure, the best alternative is probably to buy some books, but I was never good at chess notation and I don't really want to have to setup a board, etc.

There is a program called jin. It is java-based client for chess servers such as free internet chess server. I'd recommend you to register on fics and play with real people, because they are (in my opinion) easier to learn from, and you can control how powerful you want your opponent using their rating system. And they also have some lecture bots.

As for asking "next move", I believe many chess programs has that feature (xchess? thought I'm not really sure about it), but I don't think it will be useful. Computer might suggest you a very good move, but it will be difficult to understand what is the logic behind it. The easier way to learn something is to lose several dozen parties to human opponents. This way you'll analyze moves of opponent and notice similar sequences and logic behind their action. With machine you won't get that. Notice that I'm not a chess pro, it's just from some personal experience.

Hi Erv,

The reason I wanted the next move is that I like to play French Defense as black, and the easy level always obliges. However, move it up to normal, and it almost always spurns the French, and always in the same way. Until tonight, I have been struggling to find a counter. But, for the first time, I played to a claimed draw and I'm quite excited about it. Whether that's repeatable or not, remains to be seen. LOL You're probably right, though, I'm not sure whether asking for my first move after the denial would have benefited me all that much. But I was just getting so !#$% frustrated. I guess if I really wanted my butt handed to me, I'd join the local chess club, which used to be quite strong.

I got to learn a lot after joining FICS.

You just need an interface like xboard or eboard and you are set.

The good news is that now u can register for FICS with any email id. Earlier they demanded a non-free webmail id. visit freechess.org

See u on FICS.

Erv, what is ur handle on fics? (And rating..)

I'd prefer not to post my handle anywhere, sorry.
Rating is about 1100 and I've won only about 15% of games.

I install more than one chess program and play one against the other. Then study the moves. To play one chess program against another you will need to be white in one and black in the other.

I like Pouet chess or Dream chess in Linux. Both are in the repositories for Ubuntu and most other distros. Some people like Knights which is for KDE, but will work in Gnome. You need to turn off timers so that you don't run afoul of tournament rules.

What I'd really like to do is to be able to setup a game, save it, and then be able to reload to that starting point as often as I like, while playing against the computer.