Concerning the ELO level, it starts at about 200-250. One should know the rows, the columns, and the names of the pieces though.
I'm not 100% sure if the program itself will run without any graphics card. There is a version with a CPU-only chess engine available.
There are OpenGL graphics drivers around that will run OpenGL programs without a gfx card, sadly I couldn't find a trustworthy source (only some youtube video with a mediafire link).