Chess for iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod) blog created

[Robert Flesher]

There it is, I finally managed to put my lazy fingers at work and create a blog about chess programs for our iOS devices, as I yet suggested that should be done on several occasions.

Here is the baby:
http://chessforios.blogspot.com/

It is really a new born, still to be polished, so please tell me what you think.

For a starter, I just copied/pasted the review I made yesterday of Chess Tiger for iPhone.

Hello Julien, thanks for the info. I purchased an ipod this afternoon just to get Chesstiger 11. It's amazing! Very STRONG! I am curious on what device are you getting 600k nodes? My Ipod touch (4th generation), is no where near that fast.

[JuLieN]

Hello Robert!

Congrats for your purchase, and welcome to the AppStore! ^^

I run Tiger on an iPad (I nearly never use my iPhone for anything else anymore than... well... ring people and send sms, since I got my iPad ). But those speeds aren't as frequent as I first noticed. Actually I noticed how fast it was during an end of middle game phase, and then thought it was often when I saw big numbers on Christophe's screenshots too. Hope that wasn't misleading for you!

BTW, as you noticed there are hundreds of chess programs, so if you feel lost and need advices, just ask Also, if you want a specific engine to be tested, I'll be glad to do that (providing I'm not too busy, but I surely can find 20mn for that ^^)

[Robert Flesher]

Hello Robert!

Congrats for your purchase, and welcome to the AppStore! ^^

I run Tiger on an iPad (I nearly never use my iPhone for anything else anymore than... well... ring people and send sms, since I got my iPad ). But those speeds aren't as frequent as I first noticed. Actually I noticed how fast it was during an end of middle game phase, and then thought it was often when I saw big numbers on Christophe's screenshots too. Hope that wasn't misleading for you!

BTW, as you noticed there are hundreds of chess programs, so if you feel lost and need advices, just ask Also, if you want a specific engine to be tested, I'll be glad to do that (providing I'm not too busy, but I surely can find 20mn for that ^^)

Julien, thanks for the reply!

I also just purchased Hiarcs for Ipod/Ipad/Iphone, another MONSTER program! I just lost to it in 22 moves, due to a DEEP tactical line.

[tiger]

There it is, I finally managed to put my lazy fingers at work and create a blog about chess programs for our iOS devices, as I yet suggested that should be done on several occasions.

Here is the baby:
http://chessforios.blogspot.com/

It is really a new born, still to be polished, so please tell me what you think.

For a starter, I just copied/pasted the review I made yesterday of Chess Tiger for iPhone.

Hello Julien, thanks for the info. I purchased an ipod this afternoon just to get Chesstiger 11. It's amazing! Very STRONG! I am curious on what device are you getting 600k nodes? My Ipod touch (4th generation), is no where near that fast.

Wow! You have purchased an iPod because Chess Tiger was available for it? And for Hiarcs also as I see!

Actually an iPod touch is an incredible value for the money. It is far less expensive than PalmOS or PocketPC devices (back in the years) and can do so much more...

And its processor is as fast as an iPhone 4, and faster than my humble iPhone 3Gs.

Unless you are in the top 100 players in the world, I think that Chess Tiger on an iPod touch will be a formidable opponent, and will even be useful to analyze your games.

About the nps: now I see what the problem is. The screenshots on the Apple Store have been made using the Mac iOS simulator. So the nps is higher than on an actual device. My apologies for this, i will have to take the screenshots again on a real iPhone (not sure if I can change the current screenshots without submitting at the same time an update to the application).

You will get around 200knps on your device (depends on the position naturally). It does not matter anyway because there is no setting that would alter the speed of the engine. So you do not need to worry about getting suboptimal performance: you always get the best performance. And Chess Tiger is definitely around 2700 elo on YOUR device.


// Christophe

[tiger]

Hello Robert!

Congrats for your purchase, and welcome to the AppStore! ^^

I run Tiger on an iPad (I nearly never use my iPhone for anything else anymore than... well... ring people and send sms, since I got my iPad ). But those speeds aren't as frequent as I first noticed. Actually I noticed how fast it was during an end of middle game phase, and then thought it was often when I saw big numbers on Christophe's screenshots too. Hope that wasn't misleading for you!

My mistake. Please see my answer to Robert. I'll correct this.

It's around 150knps on iPhone 3Gs, 200knps on iPod touch 4 and iPhone 4 and over 200knps on iPad.

Depends on the position, naturally.


// Christophe

BTW, as you noticed there are hundreds of chess programs, so if you feel lost and need advices, just ask Also, if you want a specific engine to be tested, I'll be glad to do that (providing I'm not too busy, but I surely can find 20mn for that ^^)

[Robert Flesher]

There it is, I finally managed to put my lazy fingers at work and create a blog about chess programs for our iOS devices, as I yet suggested that should be done on several occasions.

Here is the baby:
http://chessforios.blogspot.com/

It is really a new born, still to be polished, so please tell me what you think.

For a starter, I just copied/pasted the review I made yesterday of Chess Tiger for iPhone.

Hello Julien, thanks for the info. I purchased an ipod this afternoon just to get Chesstiger 11. It's amazing! Very STRONG! I am curious on what device are you getting 600k nodes? My Ipod touch (4th generation), is no where near that fast.

Wow! You have purchased an iPod because Chess Tiger was available for it? And for Hiarcs also as I see!

Actually an iPod touch is an incredible value for the money. It is far less expensive than PalmOS or PocketPC devices (back in the years) and can do so much more...

And its processor is as fast as an iPhone 4, and faster than my humble iPhone 3Gs.

Unless you are in the top 100 players in the world, I think that Chess Tiger on an iPod touch will be a formidable opponent, and will even be useful to analyze your games.

About the nps: now I see what the problem is. The screenshots on the Apple Store have been made using the Mac iOS simulator. So the nps is higher than on an actual device. My apologies for this, i will have to take the screenshots again on a real iPhone (not sure if I can change the current screenshots without submitting at the same time an update to the application).

You will get around 200knps on your device (depends on the position naturally). It does not matter anyway because there is no setting that would alter the speed of the engine. So you do not need to worry about getting suboptimal performance: you always get the best performance. And Chess Tiger is definitely around 2700 elo on YOUR device.


// Christophe

I am in total shock
I just watched both Chesstiger and Hiarcs on the Ipod CRUSH Rebel 12 on my I7 920! I had no idea these things were that strong now. I am befuddled.

[mephisto]

Hi Robert
Don't forget Tord Romstad's excellent Stockfish which is a free download.
Bryan

[DomLeste]

There it is, I finally managed to put my lazy fingers at work and create a blog about chess programs for our iOS devices, as I yet suggested that should be done on several occasions.

Here is the baby:
http://chessforios.blogspot.com/

It is really a new born, still to be polished, so please tell me what you think.

For a starter, I just copied/pasted the review I made yesterday of Chess Tiger for iPhone.

Hello Julien, thanks for the info. I purchased an ipod this afternoon just to get Chesstiger 11. It's amazing! Very STRONG! I am curious on what device are you getting 600k nodes? My Ipod touch (4th generation), is no where near that fast.

Robert how accurate are the adjustable elo levels between hiarcs & Chesstiger on the ipod?

[Max]

Actually an iPod touch is an incredible value for the money. It is far less expensive than PalmOS or PocketPC devices (back in the years) and can do so much more...

// Christophe

Yes indeed, iOS is catching the lead from Windows Mobile (6.x and former) in the small device chess league.

Thanks for the iOS Chess Tiger. Purchased it the day he came out. With this great gui it's a pleasure to play chess yourself against the elo-levels.
Well done Christophe!

Beside the fun, got these small issues on my iPod touch 2G running iOS 4.0

- could not send a game via email. CT gui closed, but noting happens then. Same feature works like a charm with stockfish
- after setting difficulty to 1900 fide elo, playing some moves, ending CT and coming back later, the difficulty changed always to 850 elo. OK, got some fast winnings ..
- on the iPod 2G CT searches about 60 kNs. From the games which I played, it seems to me, that a setting of 1900 fide-elo creates an opponent playing more like 1750-1800 elo (or weaker)
- when finishing the setup position dialog, an option to reset the clock would be nice. Otherwise the clock counts up from the last and timing of positions gets difficult
- an infinite analyze time would be welcome

All the best,
Max

[JuLieN]

I am in total shock
I just watched both Chesstiger and Hiarcs on the Ipod CRUSH Rebel 12 on my I7 920! I had no idea these things were that strong now. I am befuddled.

Hehe, and this is just the beginning The iPad 2 (and the up to come iPhone 5 and its iPod counterpart) has an A5 chip, twice as fast and double-cored. When I said mobile devices are the future for us computer chess enthusiasts, you now see I meant it! ^^ Just like Apple does when they call them the "post-PC devices".

Other classic engines for iOS you might want to look at:
- ChessGenius
- Deep green Chess
- Fritz (but I suspect it's powered with the HIARCS engine, if I'm not mistaken). Still, good interface.
- iGrandMaster
- Shredder (on the iPad, it has the best interface of them all, by far! ).
- Stockfish (and it's free )
- Viktor 2
- tChess Pro (by Tom Kerrigan). Again, the iPad version is very good. But the iPhone one is ok too.

Other interesting chess software are the three opus of TWICFiles : a chessbase for your iPhone.

Those were only the big names, there are hundreds of others.