Chess for Android v5.0: Time Control

[Gurcan Uckardes]

I've just managed to download the apk from google play via chrome extension. It's a 416k file. Manual install failed too. Will try 5.0.1.

[Gurcan Uckardes]

Installation problem on Android 4.1.2 solved with v5.0.1

[Ferdy]

Running a tournament at TC 40 moves / 1 min, while the tourney is in progress, and you press the menu button purposely interrupting the tourney, a message "Tournament Terminated" shown. However the clock of the side to move was still running. When time had passed a text shown white resigned, or black resigned. Looking at the pgn file, that game was not saved which is good. Perhaps once the tourney is terminated, all clocks should be stopped.

[Ferdy]

Installation problem on Android 4.1.2 solved with v5.0.1

Nice to know that .

[Gurcan Uckardes]

The most important issue looks like, as previously reported, white clock starting not before but after first move in tournament games based on pgn book. This makes the first move free of charge for white, which becomes unfair in LTC.

[Ferdy]

The most important issue looks like, as previously reported, white clock starting not before but after first move in tournament games based on pgn book. This makes the first move free of charge for white, which becomes unfair in LTC.

I guess this can be addressed easily as this is by design according to Aart.

[Laskos]

Thank you very much, Aart!

[Ferdy]

After some delay, I finally released version 5.0 of Chess for Android, available on Google Play or as direct download. New features include:

• * Time control to define a chess clock for both sides with a choice between the number of moves between time control (possibly the full game), thinking time per time control, and an optional time increment per move.
  * Double engine analysis lines during tournaments, especially useful with pondering on.
  * Re-factored a lot of the engine handling code, with improved cleanup of hanging engines.

This is a relatively major release, so please let me know if you encounter any issues. Also, as usual, suggestions for improvements are welcome.

One more regarding logs. Arasan 17.4 will also create games.pgn. This filename will appear in import engine list. Cleanup Logs command cannot delete this. But this can be uninstalled.

[abik]

Just reacting to some of the reported issues so far. Thanks for all the feedback.

• Signature issue has been resolved. Thanks for double checking!
• By design, the clock only starts when the user or engine makes the first move, either from a new game, or from a game just loaded. During a tournament, that makes no sense though, but the fix for this is extremely easy. Upcoming
• Navigation typically stops a tournament by design. Indeed the clock continues, but the game is not saved in the result. Using the "resume" option will continue the tournament starting at the interrupted game.
• Right after publishing I remembered I had to look at the cleaning up logs issue. Not functional yet, sorry about that.
• Chessbase compatible engines are directly recognized by Chess for Android but obviously cannot be *un*installed since they belong to other applications. I don't have Deep Fritz 14 so without further logging, cannot really comment why it does not work.
• It would be possible to continue tournaments when navigating away from the application. However, this is not quite what all users would want, so I am very reluctant on this. Perhaps an option
• Please remember that Chess for Android works just as well with UCI as with XBoard engines. For XBoard engines I send the time control only once at the start of the engine (no further syncing). I am curious how well that works in practice.

[Ferdy]

Just reacting to some of the reported issues so far. Thanks for all the feedback.

• Signature issue has been resolved. Thanks for double checking!
• By design, the clock only starts when the user or engine makes the first move, either from a new game, or from a game just loaded. During a tournament, that makes no sense though, but the fix for this is extremely easy. Upcoming
• Navigation typically stops a tournament by design. Indeed the clock continues, but the game is not saved in the result. Using the "resume" option will continue the tournament starting at the interrupted game.
• Right after publishing I remembered I had to look at the cleaning up logs issue. Not functional yet, sorry about that.
• Chessbase compatible engines are directly recognized by Chess for Android but obviously cannot be *un*installed since they belong to other applications. I don't have Deep Fritz 14 so without further logging, cannot really comment why it does not work.

[*] It would be possible to continue tournaments when navigating away from the application. However, this is not quite what all users would want, so I am very reluctant on this. Perhaps an option

Putting it in option would be ideal.

[*] Please remember that Chess for Android works just as well with UCI as with XBoard engines. For XBoard engines I send the time control only once at the start of the engine (no further syncing). I am curious how well that works in practice.
[/list]

Tested with Crafty at TC 40 moves / 1 minute, all works fine. There was even a case where Crafty resigned and CFA indicated this resign in the later part of the game record after the result.