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

[mephisto]

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

[Robert Flesher]

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.

This is stunning!

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2011.03.11"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Hiarcs Ipod Touch"]
[Black "Rebel 12.00.01 - Rebel"]
[Result "*"]
[PlyCount "69"]
[EventDate "2011.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 {0.00/1 0.8} 2. Nf3 Nc6 {0.00/1 0.9} 3. Bb5 a6 {0.00/1 0.8} 4. Ba4 Nf6
{0.00/1 0.8} 5. O-O Bc5 {0.00/1 0.9} 6. c3 b5 {0.00/1 0.8} 7. Bc2 d6 {0.00/1 0.
2} 8. d4 Bb6 {0.00/1 0.3} 9. a4 Bg4 {0.00/1 0.8} 10. d5 Ne7 {0.00/1 0.4} 11.
axb5 axb5 {-0.26/10 1.0} 12. Rxa8 Qxa8 {-0.28/12 0.0} 13. Na3 Bd7 {-0.29/11 1.5
} 14. Qe2 O-O {-0.31/11 1.1} 15. Nxb5 Ng4 {-0.52/12 0.9} 16. c4 Bxb5 {-0.46/11
9.5} 17. cxb5 f5 {-0.42/12 0.3} 18. exf5 Nxf2 {-0.41/12 0.6} 19. Rxf2 Qa1 {-0.
54/12 0.7} 20. Qe1 Nxf5 {-0.60/12 4.5} 21. Kf1 Bxf2 {-0.40/11 2.0} 22. Kxf2
Qa7+ {-0.46/13 0.7} 23. Be3 Nxe3 {-0.49/12 2.4} 24. Qxe3 Qa5 {-0.42/13 0.7} 25.
Bd3 Qa1 {-0.33/11 8.3} 26. Kg3 Qd1 {-1.18/14 0.7} 27. Ng5 g6 {-1.47/13 0.2} 28.
Ne6 Ra8 {-2.13/12 9.9} 29. Be4 Qh5 {-2.74/11 4.5} 30. Nxc7 Rb8 {11.09/0} 31.
Ne6 g5 {-3.63/14 0.3} 32. h3 Re8 {10.03/0} 33. Nxg5 Re7 {10.05/0} 34. Ne6 Re8 {
-4.72/12 8.3} 35. Qa3 1-0

[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.

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

Actually I have not tried the lower levels on them yet as I am still being amazed at the strength of these things.

[WuShock]

Stockfish on Motorola Xoom faster than iPad 2


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381767,00.asp

[Robert Flesher]

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.

This is stunning!

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2011.03.11"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Hiarcs Ipod Touch"]
[Black "Rebel 12.00.01 - Rebel"]
[Result "*"]
[PlyCount "69"]
[EventDate "2011.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 {0.00/1 0.8} 2. Nf3 Nc6 {0.00/1 0.9} 3. Bb5 a6 {0.00/1 0.8} 4. Ba4 Nf6
{0.00/1 0.8} 5. O-O Bc5 {0.00/1 0.9} 6. c3 b5 {0.00/1 0.8} 7. Bc2 d6 {0.00/1 0.
2} 8. d4 Bb6 {0.00/1 0.3} 9. a4 Bg4 {0.00/1 0.8} 10. d5 Ne7 {0.00/1 0.4} 11.
axb5 axb5 {-0.26/10 1.0} 12. Rxa8 Qxa8 {-0.28/12 0.0} 13. Na3 Bd7 {-0.29/11 1.5
} 14. Qe2 O-O {-0.31/11 1.1} 15. Nxb5 Ng4 {-0.52/12 0.9} 16. c4 Bxb5 {-0.46/11
9.5} 17. cxb5 f5 {-0.42/12 0.3} 18. exf5 Nxf2 {-0.41/12 0.6} 19. Rxf2 Qa1 {-0.
54/12 0.7} 20. Qe1 Nxf5 {-0.60/12 4.5} 21. Kf1 Bxf2 {-0.40/11 2.0} 22. Kxf2
Qa7+ {-0.46/13 0.7} 23. Be3 Nxe3 {-0.49/12 2.4} 24. Qxe3 Qa5 {-0.42/13 0.7} 25.
Bd3 Qa1 {-0.33/11 8.3} 26. Kg3 Qd1 {-1.18/14 0.7} 27. Ng5 g6 {-1.47/13 0.2} 28.
Ne6 Ra8 {-2.13/12 9.9} 29. Be4 Qh5 {-2.74/11 4.5} 30. Nxc7 Rb8 {11.09/0} 31.
Ne6 g5 {-3.63/14 0.3} 32. h3 Re8 {10.03/0} 33. Nxg5 Re7 {10.05/0} 34. Ne6 Re8 {
-4.72/12 8.3} 35. Qa3 1-0

Here is another.

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2011.03.12"]
[Round "?"]
[White "ChessTiger 11 Ipod Touch"]
[Black "Rebel 12.00.01 - Rebel"]
[Result "*"]
[PlyCount "90"]
[EventDate "2011.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 d5 4. fxe5 Nxe4 5. Nf3 Be7 6. d4 O-O 7. Bd3 f5 8.
exf6 Bxf6 9. O-O Nc6 10. Ne2 Nb4 11. Bb5 Bd7 12. Bxd7 Qxd7 13. c3 Nc6 14. Nf4
Rad8 15. Nd3 Rde8 16. Bf4 g5 17. Nfe5 Nxe5 18. Bxe5 Bxe5 19. Nxe5 Qb5 20. Qc2
Qa6 21. Rf3 Qe6 22. Raf1 c5 23. Qa4 cxd4 24. Qxd4 Rxf3 25. Nxf3 b6 26. Ne1 Rf8
27. Rxf8+ Kxf8 28. Nf3 Kg8 29. Qe5 Qxe5 30. Nxe5 Kg7 31. Nc6 a5 32. Ne7 Nf6 33.
Kf2 Kf7 34. Nc8 Ke6 35. Nxb6 Kd6 36. Ke3 Kc6 37. Nc8 Kc5 38. h3 Nh5 39. Kf3 Nf4
40. b3 Nd3 41. a3 d4 42. b4+ axb4 43. axb4+ Kd5 44. cxd4 Nxb4 45. Kg4 h6 1/2-1/2

[Tord Romstad]

(not sure if I can change the current screenshots without submitting at the same time an update to the application).

If I recall correctly (which I quite possibly don't), you can.

By the way, all the red tape surrounding iTunes connect and the App Store is in my opinion by far the most annoying thing about developing for iOS.

And Chess Tiger is definitely around 2700 elo on YOUR device.

I hope you're right, but nobody really knows. The estimates titled players give for Stockfish on the latest generation of iOS devices range from 2300 to 2700. It's possible that Chess Tiger is stronger, but I'd be surprised if it's hundreds of Elo points stronger.

At any rate, both programs are of course more than strong enough for the average chess player.

[Tord Romstad]

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

Thanks for recommending it -- I think it's at least in the same league as Hiarcs and Chess Tiger. But it isn't just mine: Don't forget Joona Kiiski and Marco Costalba.

[JuLieN]

Stockfish on Motorola Xoom faster than iPad 2


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381767,00.asp

StockFish for the Xoom use its two cores, Tom, so only getting a score of 207.7 against the single cored iPad version of Stockfish (that reaches a remakable 142 score) is a very bad result.

DroidFish is an Android port of the very strong Stockfish 2.0 chess engine. The Android version can often search 15 ply or deeper on a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU.

Features:
- Opening books
- Clocks
- Analyze mode
- Two player mode
- Edit board
- PGN import/export/edit
- One Touch Moves
- Color themes
- Animated moves
- Scid DB support using "Scid on the go"
- Free, GPLv3

Recent changes:
* Updated stockfish to version 2.0.
* Use both cores on dual-core CPUs. (Tegra 2)

(Source: http://fr.appbrain.com/app/droidfish-ch ... .droidfish )

I'm sure Tord is working on a dual-core version! Pleaassse, Tord, tell me you do!

[Tord Romstad]

Stockfish on Motorola Xoom faster than iPad 2


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381767,00.asp

That's a badly flawed benchmark. Because all iOS devices until now has had single-core CPUs, Stockfish for iOS uses only a single search thread. The new iPad 2, however, has a dual-core CPU. The next Stockfish version will of course use both cores, and will be almost twice as fast on the iPad 2. This makes the iPad 2 almost three times faster than the iPad 1 when running chess programs (at least Stockfish), and also faster than the Motorola Xoom tested in the above benchmark (unless Stockfish was using a single thread there, too).

I e-mailed the author and informed him about his mistake.

[Tord Romstad]

I'm sure Tord is working on a dual-core version! Pleaassse, Tord, tell me you do!

Well, I wouldn't use the words "working on". I only have to change a single character in the source code, so "working" is a too strong word to use.

But yes, the next version (which should be available within a week or two) will support both CPU cores of the iPad 2.