Chess 3D - Stockfish GUI

Chess 3D is a modern and feature-rich 3D chess GUI designed for use with the world’s strongest chess engine — Stockfish. Enjoy playing against a grandmaster-level opponent on a fully interactive 3D board with deep engine integration and complete visual and performance customisation.

Take full control of the engine’s behaviour:

• Set the number of CPU threads
• Define search depth for moves and hints
• Specify move/hint time limits
• Adjust the hash size
• Choose a skill level
• Alternatively, set engine strength using an Elo rating from 1320 to 3190 for a more human-like challenge

After each engine calculation, detailed analysis is displayed, including:

• Position evaluation
• Search depth
• Time taken
• Nodes per second (NPS)
• Hash table usage (hashfull)

You can also force the engine to move at any time, request hints, or copy FEN positions to your clipboard for external analysis or sharing.

Chess 3D is flexible in how you play:

• Challenge the engine
• Play locally with another person on the same PC

Customise the interface to your liking:

• Modify board and piece materials (colour, metallic, roughness)
• Choose how moves, highlights, and selections are displayed
• Optimise graphical settings for smooth performance, even during heavy calculations

All settings are saved automatically. If you exit the game while the engine is not analysing a move, your current game position will be saved and ready to continue later.

Whether you're a casual player, a competitive improver, or a chess enthusiast seeking deep analysis, Chess 3D delivers a visually immersive and technically advanced chess experience.

System Requirements:

64-bit Windows 7 or newer

OpenGL 3.3 compatible hardware

Controls

• New Game – Press N
• Show Hint – Press H
• Force Engine Move – Press G
• Select Piece / Make Move – Left Mouse Button
• Choose Promotion Piece – Mouse Wheel Up / Down
• Rotate Camera – Right Mouse Button (Hold & Drag)
• Reset Camera View – Press R
• Flip Chessboard – Press F
• Quit Game – Press Esc

Installation 

Chess 3D supports only Stockfish 17.1.

The easiest way to install the game is to download it together with the engine (Chess 3D + Stockfish). In this case, Stockfish 17.1 64-bit will be included — this version is very slow, but it works on all 64-bit CPUs.

If you prefer to use a faster version of the engine (such as POPCNT*, AVX2**, BMI2***, AVX-512**** etc.), you can download the game only and get the desired engine separately from the official website:

👉 https://stockfishchess.org/

Once downloaded, place the engine executable either:

• In the same folder as the game, or
• In any other location and specify its full path in the engine_path.cfg file.

__________

* A bit slower than AVX2 | Intel (2008+) and AMD (2011+)

** Recommended for most users | Intel (2013+) and AMD (2015+)

*** A bit faster than AVX2 | Intel (2013+) and AMD Zen 3+

**** A bit faster than BMI2 | AMD Zen 4+