Shredder for iPhone and iPod available

[Sean Evans]

Shredder Chess for iPhone und iPod touch

Dear Shredder friend,

Shredder, the most successful chess program ever, is now also available for the iPhone. You can play against Shredder, analyse with him and solve chess puzzles. It offers the usual Shredder standard for your pocket.

In addition to the outstanding playing strength of the 12 times computer chess world champion, Shredder is also able to mimic the play of a human chess player with any playing strength. He even deliberately makes typical human mistakes in those levels.

Solve 1000 built in chess puzzles. Shredder keeps track of your performance and offers advice if needed.

You can adjust Shredder’s playing strength from beginner to master level. If you like, Shredder automatically adjusts his strength to yours. He even calculates an Elo rating for you. This is how the playing strength of chess players is typically measured.

During the game a coach is watching your moves and warns you if you are about to make a mistake.

See how you are getting better and better the more games you play and the more chess puzzles you solve.

Shredder for iPhone is only available in the Apple App Store:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSt ... =308032437

More information is available on our homepage www.shredderchess.com

Best regards

Stefan Meyer-Kahlen

www.shredderchess.com

[Sean Evans]

http://www.skizzix.com/games-for-iphone/shredder-chess

[Tord Romstad]

I'm a bit confused by the GUI. In particular, where do I set the level? I can't find it anywhere...

Tord

[Cubeman]

I don't think you can set a time control level.Hard to believe that a quality product like Shredder leaves this option out.

[Tord Romstad]

I don't think you can set a time control level.Hard to believe that a quality product like Shredder leaves this option out.

It seems so. My initial impression is that this isn't the "real" Shredder, but just the Shredder engine bought by some mass-market company and bundled in a program designed for casual players rather than serious players or computer chess geeks. I'm quite disappointed so far.

Judging from the first reviews, however, the customers are very happy so far.

The reviews for Glaurung are not as impressive, but still not too bad. I guess you get what you pay for.

Tord

[smk]

Hi,

no, you cannot set a level in the "classical" sense. You set Shredder on the iPhone to a certain strength and then play without chess clocks.

We had looooooong discussions if we should add time controls or not. We find it hard to believe that someone really wants to play blitz games with a chess clock on his iPhone on the road. Also many users will be confused if you can set the level in Elo AND the level with different times. We thought that Elo levels are much more important. One of the design goals was to make it as easy as possible.

I must admit that I first missed the clocks in the beta versions, but now I believe that it is much better without it if you play yourself on the road against Shredder.

Stefan

[smk]

Ähhh, it is not a mass market company but Eiko Bleicher with whom I did Shredder for the iPhone. He is the one who already did the GUIs for Shredder for Mac, Linux and Java phones.

So we both have quite a bit experience in computer chess GUIs.

It is the real Shredder, believe me. We have thought and discussed *a lot* about what to add and what not to add there.

Stefan

[Tord Romstad]

Hi Stefan,

Nice to see you posting here! Thanks for the iPhone version of Shredder. I think it will sell very well: The download statistics for the two iPhone versions of Glaurung (one through the App Store, the other through Cydia) are stunning. I think the iPhone is by far the most popular platform for computer chess today.

We had looooooong discussions if we should add time controls or not. We find it hard to believe that someone really wants to play blitz games with a chess clock on his iPhone on the road. Also many users will be confused if you can set the level in Elo AND the level with different times. We thought that Elo levels are much more important.

In my opinion, an Elo level is not even meaningful except in the context of a specific time control. A 2000 rated player plays a lot better at 30 minutes/game than at 5 minutes/game.

Of course, as a reader of this forum, I am about as far from the average potential customer of Shredder for the iPhone as you can get.

One of the design goals was to make it as easy as possible.

That's a very important design goal on the iPhone, I agree.

I must admit that I first missed the clocks in the beta versions, but now I believe that it is much better without it if you play yourself on the road against Shredder.

I'll never play myself on the road against Shredder -- I bought it in order to finally get a decent sparring partner for Glaurung on the iPhone.

I play 5 minute games against my own program almost every day, by the way.

Tord

[Tord Romstad]

Hello Stefan,

OK, I'm sorry for my complaint. I know how frustrating it is: It's not possible to cram every single feature into a GUI on the iPhone, and everyone has some pet feature they want to see implemented. I get several e-mails with feature requests for Glaurung on the iPhone every day. You'd better get used to it.

I hope you'll consider adding timed levels some time later, though. Perhaps in a special "professional" version? For me, it is the single most important feature, and without it I'm never going to use Shredder at all.

Tord

[smk]

Hi Tord,

In my opinion, an Elo level is not even meaningful except in the context of a specific time control. A 2000 rated player plays a lot better at 30 minutes/game than at 5 minutes/game.

Of course this is true, but we wanted to keep it easy here.

I'll never play myself on the road against Shredder -- I bought it in order to finally get a decent sparring partner for Glaurung on the iPhone.

Ups

I play 5 minute games against my own program almost every day, by the way.

Are you insane?

Stefan

PS: Of course I also have Glaurung for the iPhone. It is great, thanks for making it free, but I certainly would also have bought it.