PouetChess is a portable 3D chess game for Windows and Linux. It comes with 8 levels of difficulty; the default is normal. You can change the camera view according to your preference with the arrow keys.

Great little game for when you can’t find anyone to play chess with!

I started to learn how to play XiangQi last weekend, a really fun chess-like game. There is a cool online version of XiangQi; no plug-ins required, only a JavaScript enabled browser. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be searching for portable versions available for download as well.

Until then, if you want to learn how to play, you can check out Wikipedia and An Introduction to Xiangqi for Chess Players.

Here are two small chess games for chess lovers.

• NagaSkaki
• Slow Chess Blitz