SilChess

SilChess (from “silly chess”) is a chess program written by Oliver Hamann in C++ in the years 2000—2009.

The command-line version shows a pseudographical board with ASCII art pieces, and asks for a command. It also supports xboard protocol.

The other version (using the same code) is a plug-in for the Eagle Mode ZUI environment. Its UI is isometric, with the pieces reflecting everything around them.

The plug-in says it is called so because it was written by a weak chess player and weak chess programmer. However, John Knight called the AI “rather aggressive” and “rather nasty” in his article.