ChessDiagrams

Freeware by A.Chatterjee. Windows.

Set up diagrams with the mouse and save as a bitmap that can be imported to a word processor. The pieces look like the well known Linares design. You can add semi-transparent arrows and mark squares with crosses and dots. There is also an option to save as html.

Diagramm3

Freeware (presumably - no claims at all are made in the read.me file). A DOS-program by Dr. Hans-Jorgen Fischer.

Diagrams are set up with mouse or keyboard and are saved in PCX-format. The design is very much like the pieces used by the old East German Sportverlag. There are facilities for problem-chess: 'neutral' pieces (both black and white), and pieces can be rotated +/- 90° and 180°. The diagrams are not framed, but frames are easily made in the wordprocessor.

An excellent program that was used for years by Nørresundby Chess Club for our newsletter. Download Diagramm3 (37 KB)

DiagTransfer

Freeware by Alain Blaisot. Windows 2000/Windows XP.

Print diagrams with Alain's own true type chess font or save as RTF (paste into your word processor) or a BMP picture. You can add coloured squares and arrows. Diagtransfer can also save the position as FEN or EPD text strings that can be pasted into a chess program for analysis.

One unique and ingenious feature of DiagTransfer is the ability to 'copy' diagrams from the computer screen (e.g. a webpage or database). You position the DiagTransfer window with a semi transparent diagram over the diagram you want to copy, resize the semitransparent diagram to fit and 'fill it up'.

Read more and download from Alain's homepage

GenDiagW

Freeware by Michel Drouilly

Macro for making diagrams in Word. Just write a position in 'plain English' like:
Kb3 Pa3 b2 c3 d4 Bc2 g7 / Ka1 Pe5
and run the macro. Requires either DiagramTTHabsburg or Chess Merida (type chess fonts).
Download from Michel's homepage.

FEN2DIAG

Freeware by Alastair Scott.
Macros for Word 6 or higher. Requires an installed chess font. In the zip-file is the font 'Chess Regular', but some fonts on our page Chess Fonts can be used as well.
Download FEN2DIAG (41 KB) and more from Alastair's web site Chess Word Macros & Fonts.

FEN2eps

Freeware by Dirk Baechle.
Converts FEN (Forsyth Edwards Notation) strings directly to EPS (Encapsulated Postscript) files, containing the chess board diagrams. 19 different chess fonts are supported. The compiled version should run on most DOS/Windows platforms, but you can also download the source (C++) and compile it yourself.
Download FEN2eps (1.2 mb) from Dirk's web site FEN2eps.

Pgn Converter for MS Office

Freeware by Michael Berganovsky. MS Office 97/2000.

With this program you can open/insert pgn files into an MS Office application (e.g. Word). The moves are converted to figurine notation, and if the game begins with a diagram - specified in the header with a FEN tag, you'll get a diagram too. Most freeware chess fonts on our fonts page are supported and included. The program was made for MS Office 2000, but should work with the 97-version too.

Schachdiagramm-Editor

Freeware by Ekkehard May. Windows.
Easy to use: drag and drop pieces and save or copy/paste the diagram to text as a picture. Settings for co-ordinates and squares can be adjusted. The diagrams are bitmaps and the size ca. 9x9 cm.

Download from the author's homepage (297 kb).

ChessDiagrammer

Freeware. Windows.
Ekkehard May has made this excellent program. With 27 different styles (chess fonts) to choose from you can make diagrams in various formats suited for webpages (graphics or HTML) or printed documents. It also supports fairy chess, and has an interface to the problem solving program Popeye. Despite a wealth of possibilities the program is easy to use. Everybody who makes diagrams should try this program - it is a gem!

The program's basic version is free. The professional version is not free, but offers more features.

ChessGrafix

Freeware by Brian Mitchell. Windows.

New version November 2005. Use the mouse to set up a position and save as a bitmap (BMP) or JPG - or copy to the clipboard. Square colours, frames and coordinates can be changed to your liking. Easy to use.
Link: ChessGrafix (ca. 1610 KB)

Chess Task

Freeware by Dirk Baechle. Windows, Unix, Linux.

ChessTask is a tool for creating collections of chess problems, each consisting of:

• a board diagram (or position),
• a text that describes which problem has to be solved (the task) and
• a text with the solution.

Link: Chess Task (1,52 mb).

Chess Font Diagram v.2

Freeware by Alan Hickey. Win9*.
A nifty utility that creates diagrams with True Type chess fonts. You set up the position on a screen board and copy the 'text diagram' to your word processor. The help file explains how (easy). The program can also make html files with True Type diagrams, but to be able to see the chess pieces on a web page your reader must have the chosen font installed. The program knows quite a few fonts already and can be configured for even more fonts. With the program you get the author's own font Chess Plain.
Download (193 kb) from the author's homepage.

EPD2diag p1.5

Freeware by Manfred Rosenboom. Windows 9*/NT.
EPD2diag is an excellent allround program. First of all it's a diagram editor, but the positions you set up or import can also be analysed with chess programs lige e.g. Rebel (extended support) and Crafty. EPD2diag can also generate HTML.
The program reads PGN, EPD and ECT (the correspondance chess program ECTool). You can save diagrams as GIF, BMP, HTML, ASCII, EPD, PGN and RTF (Rich Text Format). That way you can easily make diagrams with true type chess fonts - just paste them into your word processor. EPD2diag supports most fonts on our fonts page (and some more), and you can add new fonts just by editing the INI file.

Version p1.5 (669 KB) can be downloaded from http://www.rebel.nl/epd2diag.htm, where you can read more about this great program.

Download an updated version of 'ChessFonts.ini' which supports the newest fonts on this page: chesfont.zip 5. Feb. 2000 (2 KB). Compare the file date before you overwrite the original.

Zugzwang para Windows

Freeware by Manuel López. Windows.
A nifty program for making diagrams with True Type chess fonts or as jpeg images. Co-ordinates possible. The program is in Spanish, but very easy to use.

Write to Manuel and he will send the program.

MacChess

Freeware by Wim van Beusekom. Macintosh.
A chess-playing program, but it can also be used to make diagrams for printing or for web pages.
Link: MacChess

Other Mac Resources

At dmoz Open Directory are links to more resources for MacIntosh chess publishing.

Wiseboard Online Chess Diagram Generator

Freeware by Michal Ryszard Wojcik.
Generate a diagram online and save as a JPG image.

jsEPD2diag

Freeware by Manfred Rosenboom. Explorer & Netscape version >= 4.0.
jsEPD2diag is a webpage with a Java script for making diagrams for webpages - fast and very easy.
The diagram is made of smaller GIF-images, and the program generates the necessary HTML. Just copy and paste into your own HTML document. You put the GIF images on the server, but keep the webpage on your local PC.
Download fra forfatterens side (ca. 15 kb).

FEN2PPM for Linux

Freeware (GNU) by Dondalah. Linux operating system.
Makes chess diagrams from FEN (Forsyth Edwards Notation) strings. Graphic formats are png, jpeg or gif that can all be used on webpages.
Download FEN2PPM (38 kb) from http://www.ibiblio.org.

ChessPad

Freeware by Mark van der Leek. Win9*/NT.
A chess database that can export games with figurine notation (if you like) and diagrams with true type chess fonts for use with wordprocessors. It also exports HTML and diagrams for webpages.

PGN2FIG

Freeware by Alastair Scott.
Macro for Word 6 or higher. Converts PGN (portable game notation) to algebraic figurine notation. Requires an installed chess font. Most fonts on our page Chess Fonts can be used.
Download PGN2FIG (26 KB) from Chess Word Macros & Fonts.

Pgn2ltx

Freeware by Dirk Bächle.
Converts PGN to a LaTeX input file for figurine notation and Informator symbols. Requires LaTeX software.
Read more and download on Pgn2ltx Homepage.

Palview

HTML/Java Script. Freeware by Andrew Templeton.
Palview is an excellent program that can take chess games or chess problem stored in PGN format and change it to HTML/javascript for online viewing on a webpage. Together with Palive it can also be used for live game transmission. The webpages are quick to load and you have lots of cool options. Read more about the program, see examples and download from our special Palview pages.

pgn4web

Javascript. Freeware by Paolo Casaschi.
pgn4webjavascript, GPLv2 license javascript chess games viewer for websites, blogs and live broadcasts. pgn4web is a software package providing a chess games viewer for websites and blogs, including live games broadcast support; pgn4web also provides a variety of online web services, including a chess viewer and a board generator tool for adding chess games to websites and blogs without any coding; pgn4web integrates with several popular web platforms and services. See http://pgn4web.casaschi.net

LT-Pgn-Viewer

HTML/Java Script. Freeware by Lutz Tautenhahn.
Pgn Viewer for webpages. You load a pgn text file in the right frame and by copying the text into a window in the left frame you can play through the game. This copy-paste procedure is a bit tiresome, but on the orher hand the viewer is flexible because it reads pgn text and you don't need to write an html page for a particular game. If you're ready to write a few lines of JavaScript the Lite version can let the reader pick from a drop down list.
Download from the author's page (26 kb).

Chess Tutor

Java Applet. Freeware by Eduardo Suastegui.
Reads PGN files and interactively displays chess games on screen. Takes longer time to activate than the Java applets from Misty Beach or Internet Chess Club, but has more features. Chess Tutor handles files with many games, reads Java-compressed PGN (pgz), handles several files and can check the gamefile(s) for changes at user defined intervals, which is very convenient for live coverage.

Chess Viewer

Java Applet. Freeware by Andrew Gove.
Interactively displays a chess game on screen. Loads fairly quickly, but doesn't read PGN files. The moves are written in the HTML-document with a special (though simple) notation. You can put the applet on your server or you can link to the Internet Chess Club.
Link: Internet Chess Club (25 KB + images ca. 28 KB).

Misty Beach PGN viewer

Java Applet by Mark Roulo. Free for personal non-commercial use.
Reads PGN files and interactively displays chess games on screen. Loads quickly (10-20 sec.).
Download from Misty Beach (110 KB).

Montreux

Java Applet. Freeware by JP Hendriks.
A Java viewer for PGN files. Montreux loads fairly quickly and the setup is easy with a minimum of mumbo jumbo and magic spells. Read the text file 'Montreux.cfg' for setup information. The colours are strong (curry!), but if you like you can create your own pieces. Montreux only works with newer browsers that support JDK1.1.

MyChessViewer

Java Applet. Freeware by Michael Keating.
A nifty applet that reads pgn. Handles one or several games, game fragments (FEN), comments and quiz. A major advantage is the size and speed. The program is small and reads zipped pgn files, which saves time and bandwidth. The board however may seem a bit on the large side when you have to scroll to view the comments on a 17# screen.
MyChessViewer requires IE4.*, Netscape 4.06 or newer. Freeware if you credit the author's page http://www.mychess.com (84kb).