The bots have definitely undergone changes, also they resigned the interface for the bots on the iOS app, before the chess game and pieces were setup same as all other chess games on the app.
however this new ui is designed to maximise your attention reading bot messages, the pieces are all below the board. And the arrows are off to the side.
its a truly terrible redesign
And the bot performance? Well for one thing the game review shows the bot and myself estimated playing strength at 800 elo higher than just yesterday.
Maybe they are making the bots stroke ego and changing the ui to show this is a toy part of the app, don't expect to learn or be challenged here.
very very disappointed
I used to love playing some of these bots in 1600-2000 range cus they play solid opening theory. It looks like as of today we can write that off.
I've played Isabelle at least 8x w the same outcome: 1. d4 ..d5 2. c4 ..nc6
As black, I tried 6 different times - she opens with 1. e3.
Joel - same line..
Jonas opened with 1. nc3. I just resigned.
I played the Andrea bot like 6x. She used to play the London every time, solid training for London games. She's now an e4 beast and every game she 'plays like' a 2300.
These bots used to be reliable to train against & practice opening theory. What is the point of all this? This new update has to be the worst one yet. Pretty much a waste of time to even play against now.