My favorite chess apps for android

[tomgdrums]

I have had my Droid Incredible for almost two months now and have tried six of the chess apps that are on the android market.

Before I give my thoughts on them I must say that on my Droid, I am mostly interested in playing against the program, playing online a bit (fics), and in solving some puzzles if the program supplies them. I am not all that interested in engine testing or analyzing on the phone at this point. I say all this as it obviously influences my opinions as to what makes a good app on the Droid.

I am going to list them from favorite to least favorite:


1a) Shredder Chess: No big surprise as I like everything SMK does. Great easy to look at UI, very nice adjustable strength and timed games, is never glitchy AND has a 1000 puzzles!! Only minus is that there is no way to connect to the FICS. Not a free app.

1b) Chess by Mobialia: Great looking and great playing app!! Elo is very adjustable, UI is easy to use and nice looking, 2900 puzzles that are even grouped by difficulty. And I like that the puzzles tell you what game they came from AND you can even play out the position after solving (or not solving as the case may be) AND it connects to FICS...and does it very very well!!! Not a free app.

In reality these are the only two chess apps I really need as they cover all the bases!! But seeing as these apps are all cheap or free it doesn't hurt to try them...so:


2) Chess by AI Factory: I have only had this app for a few hours but it is VERY easy to use and VERY CONFIGURABLE!! The limit strength level is awesome AND you can play with piece handicaps as well. Looks great! No internet connection and no puzzles. But really fun to play so far! This is not a free app.

3) Chess Genius: The only Genius program I have ever owned. Plays well! Doesn't look as nice for some reason and the limit strength is a little nondescript. But it is very stable, plays a good game and you can save the games. No internet connection and no puzzles. Just not quite as fun. This is not a free app.

4) Droidfish: This is a nice easy to use app but it has no limit strength and I am not good enough to hang with Stockfish!! You can't even limit search depth or anything. It is very stable and very pleasing to work with but for my purposes it lacks an essential element in limit strength. This is probably the best program as far as I can tell for just plain analysis but don't quote me on that. No internet connection. Would be higher if it had limit strength. This is a free app.

5) Chess by jwtc: Connects to FICS but I couldn't see the sought games list..so not much help there. Game play is fine. The puzzles are cool and the test positions from games are nice but it wasn't super fun and didn't offer anything else AND it started to get glitchy and force close after an update so I uninstalled it.


There are other apps but these seem to be the highest rated ones on the android market.

And I am eagerly awaiting Hiarcs for android at some point...

[Cubeman]

I have also tried some of the apps you have tried, I have Samsung Galaxy and have yet to find the ideal app.I want online play, analysis and playing in that order.The online play with Chess Mobialia is O.K with good seek filtering and good settings for board and piece sets, bad points are no intelligent move completion, can't look over the game you just played which is poor if you want to see where the blunders were made, you basically play a game and can only look at the final position, and can't do anything else but play another game, no move takeback or running analysis the inbuilt engine only works for off-line play.Another frustrating thing with online play when using the Cellphone 3G network is that the connection sometimes briefly disconnects and you don't know till the time runs out for your opponent or your time is still running even though you made a move.About 1 in 4 games this will happen to me I think this is mainly a network problem.Playing using the home Wi-Fi network is more stable.
I have Shredder on the ipod touch and don't see much difference with Android and no on-line play so not really keen.
I have Droidfish and find it good for high quality analysis but like you don't play against it.
The good thing about Andriod apps is the price is very cheap so you don't feel too bad if you get a dud app.Compared to Windows Mobile the same thing can cost 4 times the price.
I hope that Hiarcs can make some improvements for Android.

[krusher]

I did try searching for previous posts and rather than start a new thread, I thought I would post in this one. Which are people's fav chess apps?

I was in the chess club the other day and a player was playing through a game he had just played with someone else. Is there something like pocket ChessBase for Android so that one can see Openings/games played by top GMs etc?

[carldaman]

I know there is a 'pocket' Fritz (same company as Chessbase). Not sure what devices it actually runs on. Hopefully, someone who has used Pocket Fritz recently can fill in the details.

Regards,
CL

[styx]

pocket fritz is for windows mobile only

there is a free chessbase app. you need a chessbase account to properly use it (which is not free):

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... =nav_other

[Don]

No one has mentioned Chess for Android by Aart Bik, it's an excellent app and let's you plug in multiple chess engnies!

Don

I have had my Droid Incredible for almost two months now and have tried six of the chess apps that are on the android market.

Before I give my thoughts on them I must say that on my Droid, I am mostly interested in playing against the program, playing online a bit (fics), and in solving some puzzles if the program supplies them. I am not all that interested in engine testing or analyzing on the phone at this point. I say all this as it obviously influences my opinions as to what makes a good app on the Droid.

I am going to list them from favorite to least favorite:


1a) Shredder Chess: No big surprise as I like everything SMK does. Great easy to look at UI, very nice adjustable strength and timed games, is never glitchy AND has a 1000 puzzles!! Only minus is that there is no way to connect to the FICS. Not a free app.

1b) Chess by Mobialia: Great looking and great playing app!! Elo is very adjustable, UI is easy to use and nice looking, 2900 puzzles that are even grouped by difficulty. And I like that the puzzles tell you what game they came from AND you can even play out the position after solving (or not solving as the case may be) AND it connects to FICS...and does it very very well!!! Not a free app.

In reality these are the only two chess apps I really need as they cover all the bases!! But seeing as these apps are all cheap or free it doesn't hurt to try them...so:


2) Chess by AI Factory: I have only had this app for a few hours but it is VERY easy to use and VERY CONFIGURABLE!! The limit strength level is awesome AND you can play with piece handicaps as well. Looks great! No internet connection and no puzzles. But really fun to play so far! This is not a free app.

3) Chess Genius: The only Genius program I have ever owned. Plays well! Doesn't look as nice for some reason and the limit strength is a little nondescript. But it is very stable, plays a good game and you can save the games. No internet connection and no puzzles. Just not quite as fun. This is not a free app.

4) Droidfish: This is a nice easy to use app but it has no limit strength and I am not good enough to hang with Stockfish!! You can't even limit search depth or anything. It is very stable and very pleasing to work with but for my purposes it lacks an essential element in limit strength. This is probably the best program as far as I can tell for just plain analysis but don't quote me on that. No internet connection. Would be higher if it had limit strength. This is a free app.

5) Chess by jwtc: Connects to FICS but I couldn't see the sought games list..so not much help there. Game play is fine. The puzzles are cool and the test positions from games are nice but it wasn't super fun and didn't offer anything else AND it started to get glitchy and force close after an update so I uninstalled it.


There are other apps but these seem to be the highest rated ones on the android market.

And I am eagerly awaiting Hiarcs for android at some point...

[tomgdrums]

No one has mentioned Chess for Android by Aart Bik, it's an excellent app and let's you plug in multiple chess engnies!

Don

I have had my Droid Incredible for almost two months now and have tried six of the chess apps that are on the android market.

Before I give my thoughts on them I must say that on my Droid, I am mostly interested in playing against the program, playing online a bit (fics), and in solving some puzzles if the program supplies them. I am not all that interested in engine testing or analyzing on the phone at this point. I say all this as it obviously influences my opinions as to what makes a good app on the Droid.

I am going to list them from favorite to least favorite:


1a) Shredder Chess: No big surprise as I like everything SMK does. Great easy to look at UI, very nice adjustable strength and timed games, is never glitchy AND has a 1000 puzzles!! Only minus is that there is no way to connect to the FICS. Not a free app.

1b) Chess by Mobialia: Great looking and great playing app!! Elo is very adjustable, UI is easy to use and nice looking, 2900 puzzles that are even grouped by difficulty. And I like that the puzzles tell you what game they came from AND you can even play out the position after solving (or not solving as the case may be) AND it connects to FICS...and does it very very well!!! Not a free app.

In reality these are the only two chess apps I really need as they cover all the bases!! But seeing as these apps are all cheap or free it doesn't hurt to try them...so:


2) Chess by AI Factory: I have only had this app for a few hours but it is VERY easy to use and VERY CONFIGURABLE!! The limit strength level is awesome AND you can play with piece handicaps as well. Looks great! No internet connection and no puzzles. But really fun to play so far! This is not a free app.

3) Chess Genius: The only Genius program I have ever owned. Plays well! Doesn't look as nice for some reason and the limit strength is a little nondescript. But it is very stable, plays a good game and you can save the games. No internet connection and no puzzles. Just not quite as fun. This is not a free app.

4) Droidfish: This is a nice easy to use app but it has no limit strength and I am not good enough to hang with Stockfish!! You can't even limit search depth or anything. It is very stable and very pleasing to work with but for my purposes it lacks an essential element in limit strength. This is probably the best program as far as I can tell for just plain analysis but don't quote me on that. No internet connection. Would be higher if it had limit strength. This is a free app.

5) Chess by jwtc: Connects to FICS but I couldn't see the sought games list..so not much help there. Game play is fine. The puzzles are cool and the test positions from games are nice but it wasn't super fun and didn't offer anything else AND it started to get glitchy and force close after an update so I uninstalled it.


There are other apps but these seem to be the highest rated ones on the android market.

And I am eagerly awaiting Hiarcs for android at some point...

It is a great app but the process of loading engines on to a phone is a little to work intensive for what I want chess on my phone to be.

[krusher]

No one has mentioned Chess for Android by Aart Bik, it's an excellent app and let's you plug in multiple chess engines!

Don

Thanks for mentioning. Will download and report back.

[daws]

No one has mentioned Chess for Android by Aart Bik, it's an excellent app and let's you plug in multiple chess engnies!

I agree with that but would add that the GUI is also the best in an aesthetic sense, in my opinion.

[ZirconiumX]

4) Droidfish: This is a nice easy to use app but it has no limit strength and I am not good enough to hang with Stockfish!! You can't even limit search depth or anything. It is very stable and very pleasing to work with but for my purposes it lacks an essential element in limit strength. This is probably the best program as far as I can tell for just plain analysis but don't quote me on that. No internet connection. Would be higher if it had limit strength. This is a free app.

Settings->Limit Strength

It also comes with CuckooChess - which again can be reduced in strength.

I still prefer Chess for Android though.

Matthew:out