Complete Chess System

Complete Chess System is a video game in the strategy genre developed by Oxford Softworks and published by Oxford Softworks originally released in 1993. It is currently playable on DOS, Amiga.

Complete Chess System (CCS) is an excellent 'hardcore' chess program from Oxford Softworks that sold reasonably well in the UK, but is literally unknown elsewhere.

In addition to running on one of the most powerful chess engines ever created, CCS is also the world's first commercial chess program to include a respectable collection of historical games, some database capabilities and a very nice interface (albeit a step behind Chessmaster in the graphics department). And beating the chess engine is no child's play. For example, on a Pentium 200, CCS gets 2160 Elo in the LCTII test. That's equivalent to about 2000 Elo on computers that were around in the year the game was released. (For anyone who has no idea what I'm talking about: Elo is a mathematical system used to rate chess players, invented in the 1960s by Dr. Arpad Elo. Some typical Elo ratings are: 2800+ for a world champion; 2300+ for international masters (IM). Read this interesting article on how to estimate IQ from Elo rating and vice versa).

In general, novice players who are used to the popular Chessmaster from Software Toolworks may be intimidated by CCS. But for a real, uncomplicated chess game with all the trimmings, including a large database of historical games, CCS is simply a must-have. Highly recommended.

Note: The most recent incarnation of the engine is Complete Chess System Tal II, a great program for Windows 95 and above that was designed to play in the style of Mikhail Tal, Russian world champion famous for his bold, offensive style of play. Buy it at a special price from the Oxford Softworks site today.

It is possible that we have multiple downloads available when different versions exist.