Chess for Android consists of a chess engine and a GUI. The application accepts moves through the touch screen, trackball, or keyboard (e2e4 pushes the king pawn, e1g1 castles king side, etc.). An optional "move coach" highlights valid user moves during input and last played engine move. Full game navigation enables users to correct mistakes or analyze games. Games import and export as FEN/PGN to and from the clipboard or via sharing, load and save as file, or are set up through a position editor. A draw by stalemate, insufficient material, the fifty move rule, or threefold repetition is recognized. The engine plays at various levels (including random, against itself in auto-play, or free-play, where the game can be used as a "magnetic chessboard"). The user can play either side and, independently, view the board from the perspective of white or black.
The application supports the Universal Chess Interface (UCI) and Chess Engine Communication Protocol (WinBoard and XBoard), which allows users to play against more powerful third party engines or even play tournaments between engines. Engines are imported in Android Open Exchange format (OEX), in Android Chessbase compatible format, or directly from SD card. Engine setup features time control, pondering, infinite analysis, hash tables, multiple threads, endgame tablebases, and opening test suites.
The application connects to an external electronic chessboard (Certabo, Chessnut, ChessUp, DGT, House of Staunton, or Millennium) and supports online play on FICS (Free Internet Chess Server) or ICC (Internet Chess Club).
Online manual at:
https://www.aartbik.com/android_manual.php
PERMISSION NOTES:
You can freely disable permissions you don't want to grant, the rest of the application will continue to work:
+ Storage (Files and Media): only required when you want to load and save games to SD Card
+ Location: only required if you want to connect to DGT Pegasus/Chessnut Air, which requires a Bluetooth LE scan
Added support for IChessOne Foldable Electronic Chessboard (BT)
Added support for IChessOne Foldable Electronic Chessboard (BT)
Added support for IChessOne Foldable Electronic Chessboard (BT)
Added support for House of Staunton Sensory Board (USB/BT)
Support for BryghtLabs ChessUp electronic chessboard
Fixed bug in ChessUp set up board position feature
Support for BryghtLabs ChessUp electronic chessboard
Upgrade to API 34
Migrated to mandatory API 31
Added support for Tabutronic Sentio
Fixed bug in crash on missing bluetooth permission
Color picker for light/dark squares (as RGB)
New chess piece sets by Bryan Whitby
Chessnut Air support
(1) DGT Pegasus support
(2) Certabo Bluetooth support
(3) engine tablebases path under API30+
(1) autosave game on FICS
(2) Pegasus support
(3) Certabo BT
(4) some internationalization changes
* Prepare the app for API 30
* Added move coach for electronic chess boards
* Completely revised file management
Fixed file visibility under API 29
**** SAD NOTE on ANROID 10 ****
New security restrictions of API 29 (mandatory for updates) no longer allow running arbitrary binaries, only pre-packaged binaries (see my thread at http://talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=75987). Thanks for your kind understanding, this is out of my control!
Extended support for the DGT3000 chess clock
Adaptive icons
Bug fix in resume from tournament
* Fast queen promotion on electronic chessboard
Electronic chessboard improvements (fast castling and en-passant; LEDs control)
Improved UCI engine options setup dialog
* FICS and ICC online play
* DGT clock messages
* translations/graphics upgrade
* minor bug fixes
Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) support
see http://www.aartbik.com/android_fics.php
* New graphics from Maurizio Monge!
* Offer draw now requires tap on one king, then the other
* Option to enable/disable saving annotations in PGN
* Simplified permission model for older Android versions: bluetooth for electronic chessboards, network for remote chess engines; see http://aartbik.blogspot.com/2019/02/chess-for-android-version-60.html
* Configurable tags for PGN export (player, ELO, event)
* Ability to offer draw or resign (click king twice)
* Support for Certabo electronic chessboards
Generalized sharing mechanism
Update chess set by Bryan Whitby
Support for all DGT e-boards (bluetooth and USB)
* Fix for DGT connection over USB
* New piece set (Bryan Whitby)
* Added support for bluetooth/USB connection to DGT chessboards
* BLE/classic bluetooth choice for Millennium chessboards
* NOTE: these features require api 23 (Android 6.0) and up
Optional move animation
Optional algebraic notation
Minor layout improvements
Minor external engine features improvements
* New piece set (thanks Bryan Whitby!)* Menu touch feedback* E-Board connection support* New permission model (permissions can be disabled if you don't like them!)
Improved menu appearance.
* Adjudication during chess engine tournaments* Minor improvements throughout the applicationNote: if you want to load/save games or engine from SD-card, make sure to enable the "storage" permission in settings.
Improved "position setup" board size for larger screen sizes.
new chess graphics (many thanks to Bryan Whitby)
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