For those who like a good game of chess but lack someone to play with (that has been my problem with the game most of my life), there are excellent free programs available for download on the internet. I looked at a few but can recommend two, Arasan 9.5 and AlphaChess 3.

Arasan has been around for ages, as you can see from its version number, and I can remember playing it ten years ago on my old Windows 3.11 computer. As a result, it is tried and tested and has no bugs; it is a serious program and will beat you every time on its harder settings. Fortunately, you can dumb down the computer opponent by limiting the time it has to think about its next move.

You can alter the appearance of the board, selecting the colors and the size, and it will give you a hint on your best move, if you ask it nicely. But it’s the playing strength that makes Arasan a professional program - this one is for those who take chess seriously.

AlphaChess is more about fun, I think, although it is perfectly capable of giving you a hard game. It has three settings for strength of opponent and is easy to beat on the weakest level. Like Arasan, the colors and pieces can be altered to suit you but I found no way to enlarge the board. A nice touch is that it will make sounds as you move pieces; these can be turned off too if they irritate.

Either of these programs are well worth a try, although my preference is for Arasan as an old friend. There are others, too, and you can sample most by googling “free chess programs”.

It was when I looked for free checkers programs (or draughts, if you’re English) that I found myself defeated. There are plenty that claim to be free but invariably they are loaded down with intrusive advertising or limited to a ridiculous extent. My advice on checkers has to be that you should avoid “free” programs, therefore, bite the bullet and shell out a few dollars for a full program.

It’s a great pity that such a popular game should be so badly served by the programmers but that is the price of fame, I guess - they figured they could make money from the millions who would want to play checkers whereas chess, with its smaller fanbase, offers fewer prospects of getting rich.