Anyone aware of a FREE iPad/iPhone app that provides an analysis board?  I want to setup pieces in any position to use as a study guide along with a chess book.  The Chess.com Analysis board works on a laptop/computer, but is not usable onm a mobile device (and the Chess.com mobile app does not provide an analysis board!).

Currently, I am using "Chess Openings", then painstakingly making all preceding moves to get to the desired position.  But finding the exact preceding moves is sometimes very difficult if not impossible...and the app crashes now and then causing me to start over.

Anybody?

If it needs to be free, one that you could use would be Stockfish.  It would be pretty easy to do by setting it up with the engine disabled by putting it in two player mode and then using the position editor (Game/Edit position).

Cool, thanks!  Is there a better one that is NOT free?

I'm confused. If, as the OP says, "the Chess.com mobile app does not provide an analysis board," then how will Stockfish, Hiarcs or Shredder help?

I have all those apps, and the "setup position" features are pretty much the same in terms of what they can do (?). Likewise, they can all support "human vs. human" or "enter moves" games, where the computer stays out of it. Are we missing something in the question?

Well Stockfish comes CLOSE, but it still is not sufficient.  It allows board setup, but there are two problems with it:

1. The "Setup" is not on the playable board, it's on a side board.  I need to freely move pieces around WHILE playing the game, not leave the game, change things, then come back.
2. There is no "Backup" or "Forward" during play.

DeepGreene - what I am trying to do I think is simple: Find a mobile app that will allow me to do what I would be able to do on a real board while studying a book....setup a board with any configuration, and then move pieces around, anywhere.  The Chess.com WEB analysis board (via Live) allows this, but it is not usable on an iPad.  The Chess.com Mobile app doesn't have anything like this!

So... the crucial thing is that you are able to turn off the enforcement of legal moves? ..and still go back and forth, as you can with a Live-Chess analysis board (if you uncheck the "Legal" checkbox)?

...I *think* so, but it may be possible to implement this without providing a "Legal" moves checkbox.  I guess if you imagine yourself reading a chess book and you want to follow along, here is what you would do:

1. See the image in the book...then setup your board to match it (a Setup Board feature)
2. Make moves for both sides to follow along (2-player mode)
3. When the book author provides a variation, you backup and play the variation (an UNDO option)
4. If the author provides an alternate board layout option (e.g. "If the Queen had been on c3 instead of c4 then this would have happened...", you move the Queen there to imagine and follow along (a "Legal Moves" checkbox, or possible a live "Setup" option to you can move the pieces anywhere you want)

For example, the "Chess Openings" mobile app almost has it right...it provides an UNDO button so I can make a move, and undo it to play a variation instead.  However they do not provide a means to setup the initial board.  So I have to make every move preceding the board layout in the book I'm studying at the time. And sometimes those moves are not listed, so I have to guess. In some cases, I can find the famous game online, and make the moves that way.  But in the case of this app, the only thing missing is the "board setup" feature (and a little stability, since it crashes periodically, WIPING OUT my current board).

In the case of Stockfish, they DO have a board setup.  But you can't undo moves. And a minor inconvenience is that the board setup is on a different screen.

So if Chess.com is considering an analysis board in the Mobile app, I would ask that it at least have these features listed above so anyone can setup any board (preferably on the board screen, not an alternate "setup" screen), play from any position, undo moves, and turn on/off legal moves. The benefit to the community at large could also be a Chess.com base "portable chess board".  Set in 2-person mode, I can play chess with my son on my iPad sitting in my living room without needing a board.

Another cool feature (for 2-player chess) which I have not seen in any app yet, is the "rotation" of pieces.  So let's say Chess.com decides to implement 2-player mode.  We can sit across the table from each other, I make my move fro white, then all the pieces rotate (the board stats the same obviously), so he sees them from his perspective.  Other apps force a board "flip", which is not ideal if you want to sit across from each other and play.

I use tChess when reading books, works a charm! It also supports pgn files so if you can find the books game collection (silmans amateurs mind is an example) you even don't have to set up the position.

I do too - only issue it doesn't meet the "free" requirement. 

Re. Stockfish, it does allow you to take back moves, either by hitting the "move" button and selecting Take back or Take back all, or by swiping your finger right to left across the move list.  Swiping left to right moves forward through the list as well.

Bishop - tell me more!  I happen to be reading Silman's "The Amateur's Mind" right now, so if all the positions are already part of tChess, I might be willing to drop $8 for it.  How do you get those boards - are they in-app purchases, or a free part of the app after you install it?

pwwaring:  THANK YOU!  I did know about the "Move" button or swiping in Shredder.  So it appears for FREE options, Shredder fulfills the basics of what I need.

I wrote another post about e+Chess Books app, which combines the BOOK with the BOARD in one package, and Silman has a book thjere as well (along with Streetfighter).

Uh, my chess.com mobile for my droid has an analysis board.

King....what are the steps to get to it?

Namssob! It doesn't come with the games per se, but if you manage to locate a pgn file with the games you can load that file into tChess and have them available there... Give me a few hours and I,ll see if I can make some screenshots.

What I need is a an app that can do annotations or read .cbh files

Awesome, thanks!

I can tell you so far Stockfish is working like a charm.  The "Go Back to Start" feature is nice also, because specifically in Silman's book, he repeats the same positions over and over with different students, so it's a breeze to start again.  The game clock is a MINOR inconvenience, and of course set in 2 player or Analysis mode, it's easy to repeat the same moves over and over to add time to the clock if you need, but generally, 30 mins is enough to easily complete every exercise.

tChess Pro is what I use. It's 8 dollars, but it's an awesome app.