My favorite (and least favorite) Ipad chess apps

[tomgdrums]

For what it is worth here are my rankings for Ipad (iOS) chess apps.

1. Shredder (by a nose--has endgame tablebase support with WIFI)

-Looks great
-plays nice
-best adaptive strength feature
-great opening book and endgame tablebase support
-only downside is no way to play timed games
-Awesome app!

2. ChessPro(CHESSTIGER)

-FUN engine to play against.
-Supports variations so analysis and playing through an annotated game collection are a breeze!
-easiest position set-up I have encountered
-only downside is that you can't play timed games on lower levels, no table base support and not optimized for Ipad (but it STILL looks great)
-I don't think you can resign a game.
-In actuality it is probably the app I use the most.

3. Hiarcs for Ipad

-best coach function
-opening book is easy to find
-adaptive strength, levels AND timed games!
-No real weakness other than no tablebase support compared to Shredder and game navigation is a little clunky but this is a great app.

4. Chessimo

-Not for play. For training
-Easy to use. LOTS of training material for the money! LOTS
-No real weakness

5. Chess by Mastersoft

-Looks nice and plays a good game of chess
-not much else to it.
-engine origins seemed shrouded in mystery

6. tChess

-Disclosure-I bought the lite version to test it BUT.....
-Everyone raves about the GUI for this. Why? Nothing special. Shredder and Hiarcs look better.
-Opening book is nice.
-I can't see any reason to buy the full version of this. I would rather download the free Stockfish.


7. Igrandmaster

-Don't buy it!
-Not bad but doesn't really do anything better or special than the ones listed above.

Just my two cents!

Final conclusion:

If I could only pick one: Shredder by a nose over ChessTiger (ChessPro)

And I mean just by a nose. Chess Tiger is a really fun and great app!

[JuLieN]

Thanks for this summary, Tom Although, as you know, my number #1 is tChess Pro A matter of taste, probably.

[tomgdrums]

Thanks for this summary, Tom Although, as you know, my number #1 is tChess Pro A matter of taste, probably.

Hey Julien!

Yeah that is why I bought the tChess app. I heard so many great things.

Am I missing something from the lite to full version that would make a difference?

[JuLieN]

Thanks for this summary, Tom Although, as you know, my number #1 is tChess Pro A matter of taste, probably.

Hey Julien!

Yeah that is why I bought the tChess app. I heard so many great things.

Am I missing something from the lite to full version that would make a difference?

Yes, that's a bit odd that you didn't fall in love for it, like most of us do. This is double odd, because I agree with your rankings of apps (just with tChess at #1, Shredder at #2, ChessPro at #3 and so on...).

As far as I know, the only difference between the Lite and the Pro versions is that the Lite one is limited to 1200 Elo.

So my guess would be that you didn't take time to see all the plus tChess has

I really agree with the review I PMed you:
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/review/t ... _for_ipad/

[tomgdrums]

Thanks for this summary, Tom Although, as you know, my number #1 is tChess Pro A matter of taste, probably.

Hey Julien!

Yeah that is why I bought the tChess app. I heard so many great things.

Am I missing something from the lite to full version that would make a difference?

Yes, that's a bit odd that you didn't fall in love for it, like most of us do. This is double odd, because I agree with your rankings of apps (just with tChess at #1, Shredder at #2, ChessPro at #3 and so on...).

As far as I know, the only difference between the Lite and the Pro versions is that the Lite one is limited to 1200 Elo.

So my guess would be that you didn't take time to see all the plus tChess has

I really agree with the review I PMed you:
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/review/t ... _for_ipad/

Okay so hold the phone!

tChess Pro is VASTLY DIFFERENT!

Since we agreed on the other apps I decided to a give a go on tChess Pro. I am going to have to update my above synopsis. The Pro version has a LOT more features than the Lite version.

I will update my thoughts later today.

I can say I deleted IGrandmaster from my iPad. That was a waste of money.

More on tChess Pro in a bit.

[AdminX]

So far I am a big fan of Hiracs HD and Stockfish. Both look great on my new iPad (3 Gen). I may get t- Chess Pro, but need a little more info.

[mclane]

tchess has a very nice 3D chessboard. also you can setup any kind of time control. and it uses 2 cores in analysis mode (when i remember it right).
and... last but not least... tom kerrigan is a nice guy.

[AdminX]

tchess has a very nice 3D chessboard. also you can setup any kind of time control. and it uses 2 cores in analysis mode (when i remember it right).
and... last but not least... tom kerrigan is a nice guy.

LOL, Okay I have been sold. Buying it right now!

Thanks

EDIT: Bought the Pro version

[Robert Flesher]

For what it is worth here are my rankings for Ipad (iOS) chess apps.

1. Shredder (by a nose--has endgame tablebase support with WIFI)

-Looks great
-plays nice
-best adaptive strength feature
-great opening book and endgame tablebase support
-only downside is no way to play timed games
-Awesome app!

2. ChessPro(CHESSTIGER)

-FUN engine to play against.
-Supports variations so analysis and playing through an annotated game collection are a breeze!
-easiest position set-up I have encountered
-only downside is that you can't play timed games on lower levels, no table base support and not optimized for Ipad (but it STILL looks great)
-I don't think you can resign a game.
-In actuality it is probably the app I use the most.

3. Hiarcs for Ipad

-best coach function
-opening book is easy to find
-adaptive strength, levels AND timed games!
-No real weakness other than no tablebase support compared to Shredder and game navigation is a little clunky but this is a great app.

4. Chessimo

-Not for play. For training
-Easy to use. LOTS of training material for the money! LOTS
-No real weakness

5. Chess by Mastersoft

-Looks nice and plays a good game of chess
-not much else to it.
-engine origins seemed shrouded in mystery

6. tChess

-Disclosure-I bought the lite version to test it BUT.....
-Everyone raves about the GUI for this. Why? Nothing special. Shredder and Hiarcs look better.
-Opening book is nice.
-I can't see any reason to buy the full version of this. I would rather download the free Stockfish.


7. Igrandmaster

-Don't buy it!
-Not bad but doesn't really do anything better or special than the ones listed above.

Just my two cents!

Final conclusion:

If I could only pick one: Shredder by a nose over ChessTiger (ChessPro)

And I mean just by a nose. Chess Tiger is a really fun and great app!

Great review Tom! Christophe is currently working on the I-pad version of Chess, so if you like it now, I am sure it will be amazing next update.

[mclane]

tchess has a very nice 3D chessboard. also you can setup any kind of time control. and it uses 2 cores in analysis mode (when i remember it right).
and... last but not least... tom kerrigan is a nice guy.

LOL, Okay I have been sold. Buying it right now!

Thanks

EDIT: Bought the Pro version

)))

let me know about your impressions.