Best iphone chess app?

I've just found very nice online chess app in app store. It is extremely functional, even chat is supported.. It's called BeregChess.

Here is a link to the official site:

http://www.beregchess.com/

Fritz for iPhone is going to be upgraded into full-fledged chess app:

== cite ==
Version 1.3 has been submitted to apple!
New features includes:

- Board setup feature
- "Shake to undo move" feature
- 2 players autoflip mode
- Threefold repetition bugfixed
- Minor bugfixing

== end of cite ==

screenshots - http://bit.ly/16Jdgw

fritz is disappointing...

My favorite is "Chess with Friends."

@ KHRoN: Unfortunately you are right, it seems that the best-ever chess engine cannot see a mate in two, loool! That's pathetic and hilarious in the same time...

 I have talked with one of Fritz-iPhone developers. It seems that it was "memory related bug" and it will be fixed in 1.3.1 .

Also there is 1.4 version comming with some new features.

So we have to wait for at least 1.3.1 an we'll see then...

I heard that not only the bug will be fixed with 1.3.1, but they also added a button in the menu in order to access much more quickly the set-up position screen. Right now it's a little bit weird, you have to enter the menu, tap custom board, then set-up. I also proposed them a pop-up window - when you finish with position set-up and press OK - with 2 options: analyze position and play position, as now you have to tap a lot of buttons until you get where you want. Step by step, Fritz will become a must-have-software for any real iPhone chess fan I think.

Check out my review of the 5 Best Chess Apps for the iPhone.

http://menoob.com/iphone/5-best-chess-apps-for-the-iphone/

I use two apps (not playing programs)for my iPhone one is 

Chess Quest which is a series of puzzles developed by GM Yudasin. I like the puzzles but I think it needs a litle more polish to be 100% perfect

Also a new app is ChessDB which has a 500,000 game database which allows various searches. It is new and still a little rough but an amazing bargain.

@menooB: Congrats for a very good review, though my Top 5 is slightly different, because I'm looking mostly for engine strength:

1. Fritz Chess

2. Glaurung

3. ChessGenius

4. Shredder

5. tChessPro

I care relatively little about engine strength, compared to a well-rounded feature-set and a polished design.  (I also don't like rip-offs, so buh-bye Caissa.)

1.  Shredder

2.  Chess Genius

3.  Deep Green

4.  Fritz

5.  tChess Pro

There are elements I love about all of these (Glaurung as well, actually).  So much so that it's a photo-finish & darn near a five- or six-way tie for first place.  But there's no doubt that if I was only allowed one chess app, it would be Shredder all the way... at least till the Hiarcs app hits the app store.  :-)

I have found my old Nokia E50 with Chess Genius installed so I thought it would be fun to see Nokia vs iPhone. As tChess Pro allows "move in x sec" I set both to move in 5 seconds. And well...

... time to buy Chess Genius for iPhone while waiting for HIARCS ;]

Interesting.. Thanks for posting that.  :)

After posting my top 5 in post #134, I played a few games against tChess Pro and thought it deserved to move up in the standings.  (Again, I'm not tooooo concerned about engine strength; they can all destroy me.)

Anyway, I got to thinking about the 'little things' that makes each of my favoured apps unique, and here's what I got:

Shredder

You get an estimated rating and the app can adapt its strength to your level of play after each game.  I like the little 'gauge' that shows you who's ahead on the evaluation without revealing anything about the best line, etc.  You get 1000 chess puzzles so you can practise your tactics.  (Bonus!)

Chess Genius

Auto-adjusts from portrait to landscape if you turn the device.  Good openings announcements.  It's the only app that allows you to import PGN databases from the Internet (assuming you know where to find or how to get them uploaded to the 'net in the first place).  Has a "Next Best Move" feature that I enjoy, & which is particularly good when practising openings.

Deep Green

The UI is practically a work of art.  Period.

tChess Pro

Blindfold chess, for starters!  Also, tChess allows you to pick your opening at the beginning of a game, or allows you to see what GM opening options look like from your current position.  Excellent openings announcements and a very well integrated analysis mode.  A 'Learn Chess' sub-application that is actually pretty good.  Detailed user stats for each level of difficulty.

Fritz

Fritz combines a glossy UI with a brutal engine.

Looking ahead, I can't wait for Hiarcs too much longer, but apparently, it's right around the corner.  :-|  Given their Palm chess app (which supports crazy stuff like variations in the move list and Chess960), I think it's going to be pretty sweet.  Maybe I should avoid getting my hopes too high before seeing ver. 1.0.

Oh, and in other rumours, Deep Greene 2.0 is going to close a lot of the current gap between its current 'casual player' feature-set and the top three apps (e.g. emailing games, etc.).  That's going to be very interesting, I think.

Anyway, TODAY, my top five:  1. tChess Pro  2. Shredder  3. Chess Genius  4. Deep Green  5. Fritz.  (Fickle to the end!  This is why I never delete anything -- well, almost anything.)

Cheers.

A few days ago I was curious if chess apps can mate king with king and two bishops. One can thing that it should be instant so question is silly... but is it? Outcome of this simple test was really surprising to me...

And sorry for looong post.

All I did wast to set chess app to strongest possible or just 60 seconds or so (I have no patience to wait 10 minutes for move ;) ). And then - while playing white - I made some random moves waiting for engine to force mate.

The first thing was to run tChess Pro on "use available time" with no timer (so I thought it will "think" for a minute or so just like Fritz do on strongest setting). And well... it must be some bug or something:

 So the next thing I did was to set "move in 60 sec" and then it mated me properely:

 Well... then I tried Glaurung. It immediately showed "mate in 8" and proper analysis line.

 Then I tried Fritz. It was "thinking" a bit longer, but gave me mate in 6.

 Then I tried my latest purchase - Shredder. Which... could not force mate?!

Disappointed I tried Chess Genius on my Nokia E50. Outcome was predictable. Or not. Mate in 6.

All in all Glaurung and Fritz was the best. tChess Pro has some strange bug while Shredder can't even force mate and was beaten by application (Chess Genius) on ordinary cellphone.

Also Fritz is not saving user-set position in PGN file... so after loading it you will see:

Interesting!  What's kind of strange is that I just repeated your experiment with Shredder (same results), but when I turned on analysis mode, it found the #8 almost instantly and the #6 after a couple more seconds. 

Fritz had buggy analysis mode but plays very well, while Shredder has buggy engine but it's analysis seems to be ok. Fritz has it's issues fixed in 1.3.1 while there is no sign of new version of Shredder (bugfix or new features).

So all in all it's one should buy Fritz (now, while it is discounted) or ChessGenius if Glaurung is not enough...

Well, crap fellas. I'm a relative chess novice (scratch that: total novice, but decently capable fellow) looking to become a better player.  I've been playing on "Chess With Friends" recently, but now I want an official iphone app to play with... Although incredibly helpful, all this back and forth has me now thoroughly confused as to which app would be best for me.  Which of these apps is best to learn/practice/enjoy becoming a better player with?  So far, I'm torn between ChessGenius, Shredder, Fritz, and tChess... any advice?

In the mean time, I've just downloaded Glaurung to play with, I'll let you know how that goes. :)

Thanks in advance!

Hmm... tough one.  "Learn/practice/enjoy..." That's pretty broad, and as far as I'm concerned, these apps all have their charms (unlike some of the ones now available).  It's a very close race - at least for me.  I'm wouldn't dream of parting with any of the candidates on your short list.  But I'll tackle your three aspects in reverse order & speak only of the apps you've listed there, fwiw...

"Enjoy" - I enjoy Shredder, Genius and tChess Pro about equally, and I still play regularly with all three of them.

"Practice" - Again, this one seems pretty equal to me.

"Learn" - On this point, I think tChess Pro really shines - at least where book openings are concerned.  No other app (so far) is as interactive and rich in features where openings are concerned.  You can choose a book opening by name from a list - or, at any point in the opening when you're still within the app's opening book (15000 ply), you can see a ranked list of continuations based on GM games.  (See this page for details.) 

If you're not that interested in openings, again, I'd say that the apps are about equal as far as 'learning' is concerned.

Cheers

I have bought Chess Genius. And well... it feels somehow different from another chess apps for iPhone.

Chess Genius feels like it is developed from some time, not "since yesterday" like the strongest but still buggy Fritz (and developers admit that iPhone Fritz still have two major versions to go to be - featurewise - as good as Fritz Mobile). Also it is because that it has more features than any other chess app for iPhone (like engine vs engine, importing and managing PGN databases, next best move if you want engine to play something different - it is not "give me another hint") altogether with strong engine with opening book... it feels more like now iPhone is dedicated chess computer, not just cellphone with chess game installed...

... however it is not like other chess apps are bad or something.

 @tokillamichaelbird

Glaurung is the best chess app as it is free, has really strong engine, huge (up to 20 moves deep (sic!) ) opening book - those moves are displayed with percentage (so you can learn which moves are better/played more often than others), allows to input custom position and analysis. Interface is somewhat "rough" however.

Next best chess app is Fritz I think. It is the strongest engine available in AppStore (but wait till 1.3.1 for analysis bug to be fixed), has opening book, allows for custom posiotions etc. also it has some features for begginers (like suggested moves from opening book, pieces in danger etc.). It has cleanest interface out there. Also it is on sale now.

Third best app is Chess Genius. It is full featured chess app - it has all that Glaurung and Fritz have and many more (see above) along with strong engine and mentor (warns about blunders) but like Fritz (unlike Glaurung) it has no display of "next suggested move in opening" (other than "hint") if you specifically want to learn openings. Also importing PGN-s from the web to see and analyze can give extraordinary improvement in your play (learn from grandmasters, you can have whole database just in your chess app without use of any third party "chess database" app). Interface is comparable to Glaurung's.

tChess Pro has something like "chess openings encyclopedia" so you can learn specyfic opening (found by name) and play it. Apart from that it has weaker engine (in comparison to other iPhone chess apps), custom positions, analysis, has clean interface and is a bit more expensive than Fritz.

Shredder for iPhone is strange program - basically it plays well, has nice interface, but it seems there is no updates and I couldn't contact developer. Also engine has strange bug (set at it's maximum it can't force mate in specific situation). It is as expensive as Chess Genius, but from my initial reactions after using both, Chess Genius is overall better to buy than Fritz.

Now we can only wait for HIARCS which will be better than any of now available chess apps for iPhone. According to HIARCS forum app itself is ready but it was delayed due to issue related to US taxes...