First of all, with this version, the development team recommends installing the HoiChess engine by default, instead of Phalanx or GNUChess (or really anything else), in order to make the GNOME Chess game actually winnable for human beings. GNOME Chess 3.9.5 adds supports for the Octochess engine, introduces easier Easy/Normal settings for many engines, instructs CECP engines to add randomness to play, suggest longer game duration, adds keyboard shortcuts for next and previous move, adds missing tooltips to various new toolbar items, and updates the About dialog copyright notice.
Moreover, this development release of GNOME Chess also moves “opposing player” to the top in the Preferences dialog, makes the difficulty and side selection more insensitive in human vs. human games, improves alignment of file letters in 3D mode, makes the bottom-right corner white in 3D mode, and adds sentence capitalization to the preferences options.