I need an advice about PGN editor for iPad

Hi chess folk!

I am about to leave the city for my vacation and going to have Dvoretsky's "Endgame manual" and an iPad with me. I'd love to continue studying the book with the help of the tablet, so I need an iPad PGN viewer/editor capable to create game positions and keep sub variations. Something like PC's Kvetka I am satisfied with absolutely. I do not expect WiFi there, so it has to be an offline app, free if possible. Any suggestions, please?

There are a couple groups who are iPhone/iPad/Apple themed.

Here's one:

http://www.chess.com/groups/view/apple-iphone--ipod-touch--ipad-owners

You might find more help there?

Thanks, Captain :) I'll check this group for sure. Failed to google it on my own.

Just for the history: even with the help of iP* owners group (GeorgeBlackChess123 personally) I was unable to find suitable PGN editor. This was not an issue: my son left me no time to study a thing.

I know it's too late for your vacation now, but you might like Chess Genius to see if it works on the iPad. I'm happy with the iPhone version although I'm not sure about creating and editing subvariations (can't verify it right now because my iPhone is out of commision due to water damage). Also, it costs $5 or $10 but it's a serious app.

You probably already tried this, but searching 'chess pgn' in the app store seems to work well.

Hi, Doctor! Thanks for the response.

I have checked AppStore for 'chess PGN' and 'pgn editor' certainly. Sub variations make difference, if it were not I could use Stockfish I installed long time ago :)

Any text editor should be able to do the job. You just have to know the Forsyth-Edwards notation system:

http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Forsyth-Edwards+Notation

Nice old school approach, captain) I'd prefer something more comfortable, if I can find that something.

Have you looked at the PGN viewer/editor on this site?  I use it all the time & you can set up positions either by selecting & moving pieces or loading in FEN strings or PGN files. It looks like this...

Here's a quick link...

http://www.chess.com/analysis-board-editor

It's also on the 'More' drop-down menu. For instructions on how to use it see..

http://support.chess.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/148/2/how-do-i-use-the-analysis-board--editor

You need to select the Game Editor mode to view & play around with positions, games etc. but Position Setup allows you to paste a FEN string or design a position from scratch.

This topic would not exist if I can rely on Internet. And yes, Chess.com Analysis board fits in all the rest aspects.

You can get Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual for e+Chess Reader. The reader is free, and the book is about $20. That allows you to play through the variations in the book on a board, but does not meet your specific request for an editor. I have not found an app that permits entering variations, although several can read PGN files that have variations.

Ziryab, thank you!

e+ Chess Reader looks like almost perfect solution.

I could find no subvariations edit option in Stockfish version I use. Should I check it again?

tChessPro is my prefered software on iPhone - I hope it is just as good on iPad. Subvariations have been recently added to latest release.

Just noticed that tChess Pro claims editing functions for PGN in updates just released. Will test and comment again.

uri65, thank you. According to the description tChess Pro has all the functions I need.

Ziriab, thanks again. I shall wait for you tChess overview with impatience.

Where have you been 3 weeks ago? :)

I have not bought it either, it is a gift :) Meanwhile both my home and work computers run under Linux, Ubuntu and Arch respectively.

The ChessBase app is useful for accessing the online database and going through games found there. I don't recall paying for it, however.

It is not comparable to ChessBase software.

Those who believe that tablets will be replacing computers any time soon need to think long and hard about everything one can do with ChessBase 12, and then note that even one simple task--entering a game with variations--may have been impossible on the iPad prior to this week.

Since buying my iPad three years ago, a month before a trip to England, I have used it daily. It has not replaced my laptop, but it has significantly reduced the occasions when I take my laptop to work, it has cut down on my printing and filing costs for my notes to long PowerPoint presentations (I save them as PDFs on my tablet), and it has reduced the weight of books that I carry in my teaching bag.

This summer, I bought a iPhone.

Needless to say, my iOS app reviews on my blog are read by many: http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2013/08/correspondence-chess-on-iphone.html is one. The tag iOS/iPhone/iPad links to 47 more articles.

So it has been 14 months and I too would like a nice editor for the iPad. I like studying books all the time while entering the moves in a computer. Or better yet a touch friendly device. I think the process of entering the move in lets you remember what you studied. Anyone know of any good editors now.

A very good editor I know of is Chessbase for android. Does just about everything you would want in an editor. Too bad the iPad version doesn't have the same functionally.

The best editor for the iPad I know of is Chesswise 3. It allows for entering of moves and sub lines and comments and move symbols. It produces PGN files. It also lets you create individual position such as tactics and endgames.

Also Hiarcs Chess Explorer on a Surface pro 3 or other touch windows 8 device works really well. You also can use chessbase 12 on such a device.

Any other ideas out there.

Chessbud,

I have an iPad 10 inch running iOS 8, that was recently given to me. Also have a 3 yr-old Nook loaded with Android 4.3 from CyanogenMod.

On the Android Nook I have Droidfish. I can drag any file of my old games, or any game collection, onto it by plugging in to my PC's serial port. I like to carry around my OTB games for review.

On the iPad I have Stockfish. It's menu has an option "Load Games". But this only loads games you've played on it, or from its limited collection of Grandmaster games.  There is no way to put other games on it.

I have two editors on the iPad. There is no way to enter a game as a text file and transfer it to Stockfish, or to anything else. I put Python 3.2 on the iPad. There is no way to download my old scripts from my PC, or even to use one of the editors on the iPad to write a script and transfer it to the Python interpreter.

The iPad is a great piece of hardware , far faster than my old Nook. But   iOS is crippled software.  Apple talks about transfering to the 'cloud' or Dropbox, or passing through the iTunes store, but I have not been able to do any of this with the few programs I have. For this reason I am not putting any more on it. It's a shame for such a great piece of hardware.

Two years ago my wife got an iPad mini. She loves it, but mainly uses it to surf the web or read her email.

Likewise my son loves his iPhone. iOS may be great for a phone, where you're not trying to move your data around, but it STINKS for a tablet that you're using as a workspace.

Someday I intend to buy one of the newer Android tablets.  I've read a few reviews comparing these with the iPad. Most give details about the hardware but say little or nothing re the enormous differences in the operating systems.