Filed under: Gaming, Reviews, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Strong chess game for the iPhone/touch
Chess goes way back in our history, maybe as far back as 100 A.D., and beautiful chess pieces were found in Scotland dating back to 1200 A.D. Tournaments started in the 15th or 16th century, so along with 
death and taxes, chess has been around a long time.
With the coming of powerful computers, chess was a natural to test how those 'thinking' machines could do against humans. I think the first computer vs. human chess game was in 1950 written by Alan Turing. Of course, there was Deep Blue (from IBM) which defeated world champion Gary Kasparov in 1997.
Chess-playing computers have also played some key parts in movies ... like the WOPR computer in "War Games", and of course HAL-9000 won a game in "2001-A Space Odyssey". It's said the creators of the film, Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick put in a chess playing computer as a joke because they thought no computer would ever play chess well.
Well, chess is played pretty well by computers now, and a fine, fine application has just been released to the iPhone app store. It's called Deep Green [iTunes link], a tribute to Deep Blue and the 'green' I expect comes from the applications origins for the Newton. The creator of the program, Joachim Bondo wrote Deep Green for Apple's ill-fated PDA, and a few days after Deep Green appeared, the Newton was pulled off
the market.
Well, Deep Green is back, and is certainly a powerful chess partner. You can play against Deep Green, and adjust the strength of the chess engine. You can play against another person, or you can watch Deep Green play against itself.
Chess mavens will like that you can set up the game board manually, and you can take back moves or watch them again. The animation is very smooth and the chess pieces are very nicely rendered. I played a few games against Deep Green and it pretty much put me out of my misery quickly. When it takes one of my pieces, it vibrates to make sure I don't miss the bad news. If you quit the game before it is completed, it nicely saves it's state and lets you resume where you left off. (Or you can always resign.) Deep Green will also play back a previous game with full animation and you can control the speed.
Features I'd like to see added are iPhone to iPhone games, either over the internet or a wireless LAN.
The game is on sale through December for 4.99 but after the holidays it goes for 7.99. Another chess game that gets good reviews at the app store is Cyber Chess Ultimate, which is an online chess application but I have not tried it.
If you're into chess, I think you'll like Deep Green. It just might be 'checkmate' for iPhone/iPod touch chess games.
death and taxes, chess has been around a long time.With the coming of powerful computers, chess was a natural to test how those 'thinking' machines could do against humans. I think the first computer vs. human chess game was in 1950 written by Alan Turing. Of course, there was Deep Blue (from IBM) which defeated world champion Gary Kasparov in 1997.
Chess-playing computers have also played some key parts in movies ... like the WOPR computer in "War Games", and of course HAL-9000 won a game in "2001-A Space Odyssey". It's said the creators of the film, Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick put in a chess playing computer as a joke because they thought no computer would ever play chess well.
Well, chess is played pretty well by computers now, and a fine, fine application has just been released to the iPhone app store. It's called Deep Green [iTunes link], a tribute to Deep Blue and the 'green' I expect comes from the applications origins for the Newton. The creator of the program, Joachim Bondo wrote Deep Green for Apple's ill-fated PDA, and a few days after Deep Green appeared, the Newton was pulled off
the market.Well, Deep Green is back, and is certainly a powerful chess partner. You can play against Deep Green, and adjust the strength of the chess engine. You can play against another person, or you can watch Deep Green play against itself.
Chess mavens will like that you can set up the game board manually, and you can take back moves or watch them again. The animation is very smooth and the chess pieces are very nicely rendered. I played a few games against Deep Green and it pretty much put me out of my misery quickly. When it takes one of my pieces, it vibrates to make sure I don't miss the bad news. If you quit the game before it is completed, it nicely saves it's state and lets you resume where you left off. (Or you can always resign.) Deep Green will also play back a previous game with full animation and you can control the speed.
Features I'd like to see added are iPhone to iPhone games, either over the internet or a wireless LAN.
The game is on sale through December for 4.99 but after the holidays it goes for 7.99. Another chess game that gets good reviews at the app store is Cyber Chess Ultimate, which is an online chess application but I have not tried it.
If you're into chess, I think you'll like Deep Green. It just might be 'checkmate' for iPhone/iPod touch chess games.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
VP said 4:02PM on 12-10-2008
There is also Chess with Friends. It offers only iPhone to iPhone games and is free (no AI opponent games). You can play against a friend in your contact list, "pass and play" with a friend on the same phone, or against a random person online.
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Gilbert Tang said 2:01PM on 12-11-2008
I am a huge Chess With Friends fan. My main problem, however, is in instances such as this where I would really like to ask you to play, but have no way of accessing you directly by user name (I also have a difficult time remembering which user name I selected for myself since it's not displayed anywhere).
I could, of course, add you to my contact list, but isn't that a bit much (not that you don't deserve to be on my contact list)? The other option is to pray you're randomly selected as one of my opponents.
I'm considering a Deep Green purchase, but I'll wait until the reviews are a little more robust and I'll also compare some of the better-rated games as well.
John said 4:25PM on 12-10-2008
Chess is fine, but what I really want is a good Bridge game, either standalone or network style.
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e said 4:57PM on 12-10-2008
Chess Genius is very strong.
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Caroline said 5:00PM on 12-10-2008
I'll second Chess With Friends. I wasn't that into chess before I downloaded the app, but it's since developed into a raging addiction. I can't go 10 minutes without checking to see if any of my friends have sent me new moves. Very cool the way it has made a formerly intimidating game so accessible. Oh, and according to the devs, the next version will offer AI play and chat.
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comstat said 6:20PM on 12-10-2008
Another vote for Chess with Friends. Addictive and free. Who wants to play a phone game for 2 hours. Chess with friends lets you make moves whenever you log on.
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David Chow said 8:49PM on 12-10-2008
I purchased the original deep green on the newton, do I get a discount here?
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David Chow said 8:52PM on 12-10-2008
Actually I also purchased it for the palm pilot too!!
Ubaid said 9:00PM on 12-10-2008
I've been using tChess for a while - bought the Lite version first ($.99), played for a few days and then sprung for the Pro ($7.99). I think tChess is one of the better Chess Apps in the AppStore, it is extremely well designed, the engine is easily configurable, you can save games (in the Pro version), go back move by move etc. DeepGreen seems to have a similar feature set - and better graphics - but I can definitely recommend tChess for the casual player.
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Mark Williamson said 9:38PM on 12-10-2008
Deep Green vibrates when your king is in check, not whenever a piece is taken. It vibrates twice for a checkmate.
From what I can tell, the chess engine included (Tiny 4.0 by Scott Ludwig - information on it is scant) is generally strong, but I have not compared it to any of the other chess apps on the store.
Wouldn't it be cool if we could get a decent engine like Fruit or even Cyclone on the iPhone?
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alyosha said 5:59AM on 12-11-2008
Is it possible to save a current game and come back to it? Chess can take some time to play.
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Gilbert Tang said 2:03PM on 12-11-2008
"If you quit the game before it is completed, it nicely saves it's state and lets you resume where you left off. (Or you can always resign.)"
Thanigai said 8:15PM on 2-01-2009
I'd like to see some of these phone chess games provide the ability to play on existing chess community sites - World Chess Live, in particular (as I am a member there, and I like it; this option just extends my ability to play when I'm on the move too).
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