Best iphone chess app?

Hi guys,
I’ve developed a new FICS cehss client for the iPhone (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=300592059&mt=8 - $1.99).

Features I think makes it stand out:
- The UI will zoom in on the board as you move the pieces. “The other apps” will make you cover the piece you want to move with your finger
- 100% online, no chess logic in the app itself

The app has some flaws – but I’m feverishly working through the known issues and feature requests (http://onlinechesssupport.blogspot.com/) – I’m dead set to make this the best online chess app in the app store.

I'm trying to get some people to review it (outside of the App Store) - so I don't have any unbiased reviews to link to (sorry).

I personally hate the App Store review functionality - i am adamant people get their buddies to review it. I don't have any 'buddy reviews' of my app - mostly because my buddies are too cheap to for out $2 for my game.

/Magnus Lidman

So Deep green and chessgenius seem to be people's favorites (that is, according to Deepgreene's very educated opinion). I am leaning towards Chessgenius, or tChess. I don't want to buy both. do what are their differences in strength? are both easily adjustable for strength? is Chessgenius as fast as tChess?

that's my biggest complaint with chessmaster. It's slower than molasses. and it sux. I can beat it on its highest level. I shouldn't be able to beat a machine with as much computing power as my iphone if its running a decent program. 

These are the things that I am looking for in a program:

strength of the engine, and adjustability to my level

speed, speed, speed!

analysis (in game is ideal, but post game is acceptable)

naming openings (optional, but nice)

interface (Hopefully I have a choice of 2d boards, or a really simple and intuitive one)

the ability to save my really good games to go over later.

Hey, Mendel314,

I've played ChessGenius against my chess computer (a Novag Obsidian) and against Palm Hiarcs on a Z22.  ChessGenius demolished the chess computer and fared about evenly against Hiarcs.  It's based on a powerful and well-known engine and its author estimates the strength of the iPhone app to be around 2500. 

It's got 13 "Easy" levels (so far I've beaten only the first three), 11 "Move in X" levels (from "Move instantly" up to "Move in 3 min.", and 10 "Game in X" levels (from "Game in 1 min" to "Game in 2 hours").  You can turn "permanent brain" (i.e. it thinks on your move time) on or off, and it has a Tutor (blunder warning) feature that you can also turn on or off.  You can optionally show analysis throughout your game, and it also has a mode that allows you to review games with the computer's analysis.  It names openings by title and ECO ("C36  KGA: Abbazia Defence" etc.).  It's also got a 'Next Best' feature that helps when you experiment with opening lines, etc.

It's got a 2D board and several piece sets (of which "Alpha" is, as usual, the best :-)

The real stand-out feature for me, as I said before, is the ability to email games as PGN.  Now I can use my iPod Touch to record games I play with friends.  And mail it home for later analysis and inclusion in my database.  Sweet.

I like tChessPro too.  It's UI is slick & simple for one thing, and it's one of the only apps (other than Genius) to do analysis and announce openings.  To set the difficulty is quite unique:  First, you choose a mode - like "Levels," "Use available time," "Fixed time search," or "Fixed search depth."  Then, for each mode there is a setting.  There are eight "Levels," for instance, or you can set it to Search Depth mode and set the depth to 4 ply, or whatever.  Et cetera.  There is no Tutor or setting for Permanent Brain.  There is no easy way to get your games off the device.

I honestly have no idea how tChessPro compares to Genius (or anything else) in terms of strength - but it can pound me, and quickly.  :)

They are both great apps and a pleasure to play against.  For me, however, ChessGenius has a significant edge in the features department.  (But I'm not deleting tChessPro because who knows what the next update will bring.  )

Hope that helps.

It does indeed. I guess I'll buy chess genius, and see how it suits my needs. If I am unsatisfied (but I don't think I will be, given your advice) I'll just buy tChess later. 

Thanks so much though, I've been wondering about this for a while, and it just occured to me that this is the ideal place to air my uncertainty.

Update:

I bought Chessgenius, and while I have yet to try out all the features, I  have played one quick game at 3 second difficulty that ended in a draw.  The game is rapid, responds intelligently, has an intuitive analysis bar, and seems to be an all in all excellent application.  Thanks again for the advice

ChessGenius 2.0 was the strongest engine available for this platform (update: today, February 22nd 2009, Glaurung 1.0 took it's place). In fact, this program has been the Computer World Chess Champion no less than 10 times during the '80s and '90s. In 1994 it became the first chess software to beat the human champion, Garry Kasparov at the time, in a non-blitz event. IBM's Deep Blue is more famous because in 1997 it defeated Kasparov after a 6-game match disputed under classical time controls. In 1994 it was only a 2-game match, counting for a rapid chess tournament in London (25 minutes each player for all the game), and the loss (0,5 - 1,5) knocked him out in the very first round. ChessGenius didn't stop there and defeated bosniac GM Pedrag Nikolic (2-0) before finally losing in the 3rd round to Vishy Anand, the actual champion. And it was running on a 100 MHz Pentium PC, while the iPhone supports up to 667 MHz, but is currently underclocked to "only" 412 MHz.

Therefore I made several interesting tests I want to share here. ChessGenius defeated tChess Pro (2-0), both programs being set to think no more than 10 seconds/1 move. These were not really crushing victories, in fact it was tChess Pro which blundered badly in the endgame -  it's very weak spot - basically from drawing positions. I defeated ChessGenius myself the very first game I tryed at the hardest level. All I had to do was to keep an even position until the endgame when it blundered as well, with the kings and 4 pawns each left on the board. However, ChessGenius' weak spot is not the endgame; the program is too materialistic sometimes and is very likely to grab a pawn even if this would screw up the position or threaten the king. Recently tChess Pro was updated and is said to be 50 Elo points stronger than the previous version, but I didn't repeat the test yet.

I was wondering whether the famous ChessGenius 2.0 from 1994 is really better than today's iPhone version, and if so, by how much. So, I downloaded CG 2.0 (oh my gosh, what an oldie interface it has...) and set both programs for a 30 minutes each / all game, permanent brain on. I knew from the very beginning that this will be like a 100 meters race between me and record holder Usain Bolt, as my computer's processor is a dual core running at 3 GHz and the iPhone is underclocked to a poor 412 MHz, but I did it more for fun than for science. During this game CG 2.0 reached very unfair depths, from 8 ply to a peak 15 ply (1 ply means calculating 1 move ahead), far too much for the mobile version. Next time I will calculate by how much the computer's processor is faster than the iPhone's and reduce the CG 2.0's time according to this number. But even so I was impressed, because I was expecting to see a checkmate in 30 - 40 moves, not in 62!!! This looked more like an epic battle, as the endgame found these progs with only the kings and pawns on the board, CG 2.0 having one more and a much stronger position. I didn't analyze the game yet but I think that the opening book must be slightly increased. The position was even after the first 10 moves, but the computer version was still in it's opening book when the iPhone version started the calculations (which means it didn't know that specific variation), and when the next move was made it fell already by 0,35.

I'm a National Master in my country and as a student I was part of the Ubisoft Bucharest team that created Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition. I'm discussing with both Richard Lang and Tom Kerrigan by mail and I can tell you that interesting updates are coming soon. You're welcome at anytime with any questions about chess and engines. Cheers!

PS: By the way, ChessGenius is said to be rated 2500 USCF points, not Elo points. 2500 USCF means approx. 2400 Elo.

 Chessmaster Updates? Please tell us more!!

Excellent News!

I just released my chess program Abaia for jailbroken iPhones. I think it is stronger than Chess Genius, but I am not sure. Please note that it is still a beta version -- there are a few rough edges, and not all features are implemented yet.

You can find further information and installation instructions on this web page:

http://www.glaurungchess.com/iphone

Those of you with non-jailbroken phones will have to wait a few weeks for Glaurung, the App Store version of the same program.  I also accept beta testers for Glaurung, if someone is interested.

Tord

I'd be happy to beta test it for you!  As long as it doesn't need to be jailbroken...

Cool!  More testers are always welcome.  And no, it doesn't need to be jailbroken.  Could you please drop me an e-mail (tord at glaurungchess com)?

By the way, I found out a little earlier today that my initial version for jailbroken phones was broken: Saving and loading games didn't work. If someone installed the first version, please reinstall.

@farbror: I think you didn't understand what I said. Richard Lang and Tom Kerrigan, the developers I'm talking to by email, are the producers of ChessGenius and tChess apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I worked at Ubisoft until 2007 but not anymore, now I'm running my own business, so I don't know what or if they are planning to release a new Chessmaster version soon. Personally, I like the current Grandmaster Edition and I don't imagine what further improvements can be made to justify something more than just a patch or something. In fact it's not even very different from the previous 10th edition, released in 2004: it only came up with multiprocessor capabilities, a new tutorial (Josh Waitzkin's Art of Learning) and several Staunton chess sets. That was all, they kept the same beautiful user interface which I don't wanna be changed very soon, and the engine is strong enough to rip all of us to shreds.

What I know is about ChessGenius' next update, Mr. Lang told me that some of the new features will be:

- an improved user interface;

- the opening book dramatically increased;

- an option to automatically reverse the board for your opponent after making a move in multiplayer mode (now you need to enter the menu for that, beacuse it's difficult to play not having your pieces down and your opponent's pieces up).

By the way, I tested ChessGenius once again against recently updated tChess Pro. Mr. Kerrigan claims that his program is 50 Elo stronger now, and the fact it that it managed to get a draw with white (after waisting a winning position!) but it got smoked with black in the second game. Final score 1,5 - 0,5 for the Genius.

Thank you for tha clarification!

I like Chess 0 Cause it's free :)

I ran a test match between Genius and my own Abaia last night, and Abaia won by a convincing 9-1.  The difference in strength is probably not as big as this result indicates (Abaia was a bit lucky in some of the games), but there is little doubt that Abaia/Glaurung is the strongest iPhone chess program at the moment.

Genius still has a more polished user interface and more features, and is a better program overall, but hey: Abaia/Glaurung is still just a beta, and unlike most of the other iPhone chess programs, it's free.  

I'd love to see HIARCS get in on this action.  Although the graphics are relatively crude, their app for Palm devices still makes most of the iPhone apps look like simplistic toys from a features perspective.

Glaurung Beta is fantastic!!! Thanks Tord!

The Chess app for the IPOD or IPHONe Games with friends works great. If you know someone with the app in your contact list you can start a game with them. Also you can open a game for anyone. Play more than one game at a time.

Great app and Free

Yes Hank66 but chess with friend (there is other thread in forum about it) has no rating system, then you don´t find people of your level. Is a bit boring.

I hope they solved this!.

Bye

There's a good reason for this: When all input is done with the fingers, you can't easily cram in as many features on a tiny screen as when using a stylus. All buttons, menus and other targets the user is meant to be able to hit precisely must be huge, as must the chess board itself.

Thanks! I'm glad you still like it. :)

For those of you who are not on my beta testing team and have not jailbroken your phones, I can tell you that I hope to submit the first public version of Glaurung for the iPhone to Apple within a few days.  Quite soon, the strongest chess program for the iPhone will be a free one.  :)

Tord