Best iphone chess app?

Any thoughts on the best iphone chess app?  Anyone know of any apps that let you play against live people.

Thanks

Their arn't much chess apps in iphone yet. However i do know of a chesspuzzles application.Its basically solving the "mate in one,mate in two,mate in three" puzzles.

over at daringfireball.  so I guess i am still waiting for a good "live" or "turn based" app.

I know Erik and the team are thinking about iphones; but as he has said before iphones arent a priority for chess.com. 

In anycase, for a mobile device, I want an app, not access to the website.  with a small screen, its going to be hard to maintain all of the normal websites functionality. For me what makes chess.com attractive isnt just playing a game, but how the game IS played. I want practice boards, and conditional moves, and what not.

Maybe you should try "RealDice Multiplayer Championship chess" I have it on my N95 8G and it rocks :-)

It works on many smartphones but I'm not sure it runs on the iPhone though.

I have Caissa Chess on mine; it's a pretty decent program against which to play.  I know there is some app that provides for "live" chess against other iPhone users, but I don't know if many people have it, or how reliable it would be.  I think it requires a Wi-Fi network too, which is no surprise -- the regular 3G connection is way too slow for normal blitz play.

Does the Ipod touch run the same apps as the iphone?

some found a way to do pocket fritz 2 if you can figure it out for the iphone you will have a good chess parnter

The more i think about it, the more i am convinced that until other wish list features are fulfilled, like the practice board and better integration of live chess, there can be no chance of a iphone/android app.  even with a great UI the functionality is just not possible on a touch screen device until there is a better web function-- at least not if you want to enjoy the game.

I will stick with Green for the time being; as i dont want to jail brake a phone.

But i would buy an $99 iphone app if it were bundled with a premium membership or the like.

JoshH- yes iphones and touches run the same apps.

There is a IPhone App that is currently free called Chess "Games with Friends".

It is worth looking at.

Caissa Chess is my favourite App and you can even play an email game with now. BTW I play on Chessworld.net and regularly use my iPhone with very little control issues, most sites work fine (excluding Flash based ones).

JoshH - Yes ipod Touch & iPhone run the same Apps

All the best

Fritz

More Chess tips for beginners and kids at Learn to Play Chess with Fritz blog.

seconding Deep Green - http://cocoastuff.com/deepgreen/

no question really

definitely on our to do list. we're starting on it this month.

I've tried pretty much all of them (and there's more now than there used to be)...  Here's my 2 cents:

ChessGenius is King.  It's got the best combination of options, a fine interface (one of the few that shift when the device is turned), a killer engine, the ability to show analysis and announce openings, lots of levels, and you can also employ the a 'next best move' feature to force the engine to play alternative moves. 

Best of all, in addition to managing saved games in multiple PGN databases on your iPod/Phone, you can also email games (complete or otherwise) in PGN format from the app.  This means that you can set the app on human vs. human and use your iPod/Phone as an OTB game recorder, with no trouble transferring the game to your PC later on.

The one limitation of this app, which may bother some people more than it does me is that it doesn't give the user a view of captured pieces anywhere that I can find.  (Personally, I tend to worry more about the stuff on the board than the stuff off of it.)

tChess Pro is also pretty excellent.  It does probably the best job with analysis, giving you the ability to step backwards and forwards through a game as the engine shows you its analysis.  (Surprisingly, the ability to step back and forth through moves already played is still rather rare in the world of iPhone chess.)  tChess is a good-looking app, but very straight-forward.

I have also enjoyed playing Deep Green, which has a bit more personality in terms of its look & feel.  It plays a great game and has a very nice interface - which is important because you can't customize it in any way.  It's awesome for casual chess but lacks many of the features of Genius.

Caissa Chess has maybe the nicest looking chess board of them all, but again, from a features perspective, it's not as robust as Genius.

There are a few others out there that really aren't worth the time it takes to install them, but the field has changed a lot in a very short time.  The first time I searched 'chess' in the App store, I came up almost empty - and that has already changed a LOT, so there are more good things to come.

Also, I've never tried any apps that feature online play against other humans.  That's what I come here for.  :)

Yay! If you see a sudden spike in iPhone traffic on the site... it's just me. With my new iPhone I now have another facilitator to my chess addiction. 

That's the best/worst news I've heard all month... the worst because it will mean MORE time taken out of my life and spent playing chess!

Thank you for your reviews!  I have been looking into chess apps now that I got an iPod Touch for Christmas, and appreciate your feedback!

Nice!  How many GB?  You must have been good this year.  :)

Anyway, my pleasure...  I've now deleted every app except ChessGenius (whose awesome analysis level I recently discovered) and Deep Green (because I like the name ).

Also, just for a larf, I pitted ChessGenius (iPod) against my Novag Obsidian over the holidays (full strength, no permanent brain, 10 seconds per move) in two games.  The iPod beat the chess computer mercilessly both times.  It wasn't even close.  I wouldn't be surprised if the ChessGenius app does come in around the 2500 Elo that its author estimates.  Not too shabby for a glorified mp3 player.

Yeah, I must have done something right this year, got a 16 GB! Even though it was for Christmas, I still think this means multiple "ulterior motive-free" backrubs for my wife.

I would like to see a chess game for the iPhone/Touch in which you can review and annotate the game yourself right there, and then maybe email/export the PGN (with your annotations built-in). But it seems like some developers are focused on the strength of the engine, rather than the features. The engine strength doesn't matter to me, probably because I am a beginner.

I agree with your sentence "a glorified mp3 player" -- with all the apps out there, it seems like the mp3 playing capability could easily take a back seat to the other apps. Before you know it, it could be called "a PDA with web browsing capabilities, video viewing, game playing...oh, and it plays music, too".

Too true.  I've had my 'pod for a little over a year now, and I must admit that most of the time I'm using it (say, 60-70%), I don't even have head-phones plugged in.  It's nice to be able to get in bed and choose between a novel and my RSS feeds.  Or playing more chess.  Or email.  Or Facebook.  Or Tetris.  Or... etc.  Then when I'm done reading (or whatever), I leave it on my night-stand (because it's also my alarm clock).

You should try Versus Chess for online playing (really cool!). And chess With Friend for turn based games on the iphone.

There is also Cyber Chess for online play at FICS.

I also have tried tChess Pro: Really one of the best engines for iphone.