Tord Romstad in Norway has done a fabulous job implementing the Stockfish engine on iOS 4. Stockfish also has a good selection of board designs, and I especially liked the “Wood” theme. And they they’re better than some of the silly designs found in Shredder. That said, the Leipzig, USCF and XBoard designs aren’t too bad they’re just not as cool as the Staunton set in tChess Pro. Having exotic, hypermodern pieces may appeal to some, but in my opinion, it detracts from the playability of the game. I believe that the players need choice, but the style of the pieces is important for pattern recognition on a 2D display. My chief complaint about computer chess programs in general and Stockfish in particular is the selection of the piece design. Stockfish also has a more basic kind of display of the score of the game which is more condensed and harder to read. The other two apps never crashed on me during testing. Stockfish doesn’t seem as stable to me as tChess Pro and Shredder. So in this regard, if you’re after a more full-featured chess program for the iPad (or iPhone) you’ll want to consider the above two apps which sell for under US$8.00 each. Shredder claims a rating up to 2600, and like tChess, will chart your ELO rating over time as you play against the computer. However, it doesn’t have some of the features of two notable iPad chess programs that I’ve reviewed before, tChess Pro and Shredder Chess.įor example, tChess Pro has a 3D mode, a custom designed Staunton piece design, a display of the captured pieces in a corral, a learn chess mode, a blindfold mode and an option to display the coordinates along the edge of the board. It has all the niceties required for playing, analyzing and saving chess games. Previous move marked in purple outlines.Several styles of opponent play from passive to suicidal.Ability to set the Opening Book variety of play.A running score on the display and ability to save the game or e-mail it.ELO setting up to 2500, near grandmaster strength.Main Chess board, USCF pieces on wood theme (note smallish game log) It can play at near grandmaster level and has most of the customary options for playing chess but lacks a few of the bells and whistles of the best paid chess apps. Stockfish is a free chess app for iOS devices and is based on the free Stockfish engine.
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