I've been playing chess for a number of years, though I've never really devoted enough time to be any good at it :) . My current USCF over-the-board (OTB) rating about 1600, but it's been a while since I've played OTB.

Some books I have found helpful are Best Lessons of a Chess Coach by Sunil Weeramentry and How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman.

If you are just starting out, I might recommend A Primer of Chess or Chess Fundamentals by Jose Capablanca, or Play Winning Chess... by Seirawan and Silman.

After you learn the basic rules, moves, and mates, the next best thing is to study tactics; Chess Training Pocket Book and Test Your Chess IQ: First Challenge are great for that.

If you're looking for a good sparring partner, there are a number of good chess-playing programs out there. When your OS of choice is Linux like mine however, your options can seem a bit limited. There are a number of good free engines, such as the venerable Crafty; but if you're looking for something that just works out of the box, and don't mind spending a few bucks, I like Shredder as they have an interface that allows you to easily analyze games and adjust the playing strength of the engine to something us mere chess mortals can play a reasonable game with.

If you are just looking for an interface to play online at places like ICC, I like jin.

Some other chess links...

• USCF US Chess Federation
• FIDE World Chess Federation
• ICC I play there occasionally as Euler.
• TWIC Online chess magazine