Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Free British "Chess" Magazine in pdf format

The British Magazine "Chess" is available as a free download with 29 pages and 13 annotated games in pdf format.
Ideal for use with Chess Book Study!
#android #chess

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6942

Thursday, 19 April 2012

Enpass bug in Chess Book Study v1.2

Chess Book Study v1.2 has a bug which does not allow you to capture enpass (pawn capture) for the side that is on top. It works fine if the side at the bottom tries to capture enpass.

Workaround
I will fix this bug in the next release but meanwhile if you come across a position where the side on top needs to capture enpass, then just flip the board and make your move.
You can flip back again if you wish.

Thanks to my anonymous friend 'átopos' for bringing this to my notice.

Edit: átopos suggested a better workaround.
"Moving the pawn only one step instead of two is other simple trick to deal with this issue. I know, it is not the move in text, but it works until you fix the bug."

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

Chess Book Study v1.2 released!!

I am excited to release v1.2 of Chess Book Study with some important features.
  • Move Left/Right: You can now move back and forth through the moves. Just tap on the left or right half of the board or on any empty square.
  • Ebook Browser: Some of you mentioned that the ebook scanning operation in 1.0 can be slow and potentially shows a lot of pdfs (which may not be related to Chess). Now that is replaced with File browser so that you are in control!
  • Move Notation: See last move notation next to the board. This makes it easier to know at what move you left reading once you start the app again.
  • Illegal Moves: Basic illegal moves checking has been added so that you don't inadvertently move pieces to the wrong square
  • Auto-complete castling
(Thanks to Benzi, Munroe, Luis, Jacob for their suggestions)

Right way to study a Chess Ebook!














"Chess Book Study" is a unique fusion of an ebookreader and a board.
You can load any ebook and make the moves on a variation board in the same screen.
This helps to STUDY the chess book by making moves on the board and not just read it.

 

* Supports pdf, djvu & djv file format
* Multi zoom, bookmarks, goto page
* 3 board sizes
* Its Free!

Well I personally studies over 100 pages of Mikhail Tal's Life and Games during the course of its development!

(Ideal for large screen phones and tablets.)

Android Market Link: http://goo.gl/sR4ra

Saturday, 26 November 2011

iChess v1.7 released!!

Finally, I am happy to release v1.7 of iChess for Android.

Whats new in this release?
☆ Open puzzles file in PGN format from SDcard! (thanks to user Brandon)
Note that your PGN file should have a move for every puzzle so that iChess can provide you hints or assess your move.
Bird view is also supported!
☆ Added nearly 150 positions from recent GM tournaments played in the last 2 months featuring top GMs like Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik, Aronian, Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Polgar, Svidler, Nakamura etc
☆ Shows game information like White/Black/Event and Date.
☆ Corrected moves for some positions (thanks to user Ulrike)
☆ Added extra moves to positions which previously had only one move

Note: If you are upgrading from v1.6 to v1.7, your Master level (ONLY) Bird view will be reset. Sorry!
This is because of a bug in v1.6 which is now fixed.
Bird view from Normal and Advanced level will be maintained

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

iChess v1.6 released!!

I received some good feedback and suggestion from users. This update is for them!

☆ New Bird View feature to view your Solved/Failed positions for each level. Tap on the number to load that puzzle (thx user Benson)
This is only for puzzles you see going forward
☆ Copy puzzle in FEN notation. Long press on board to see the option (You can import FEN in apps like 'Chess for Android' for analysis with the Engine in that app) (thx user Tiago)
☆ Remember last puzzle for each level (thx Tiago). This is handy when you frequently switch between levels.
☆ Touch related bug fix which did not allow selecting a piece if you have already selected one

Thursday, 1 September 2011

Why the name iChess?

Some users think "iChess" is too Appleish.
True it is, and for that matter any English word that starts with an 'i'!

I chose this name for several reasons:
1. 'i' is the reverse of '!' which as a chess player knows stands for a good move.
2. Many app publishing websites do not allow special characters like '!'.
3. 'i'  also sounds similar to 'eye'; and training your tactical eye is the main focus of this app!