Chess For iPhone

Back in the days when I was a little kid, my grandfather taught me how to play chess. Unfortunately for him, my n00bish days ran out pretty quick, and I started to beat him before going to school. Over a decade after that, I started to play chess with computers, and I suddenly found myself cornered. In the meantime, my best chess partner was my uncle, but he wasn't kicking my ass all the time... and now, it seems virtual partners are showing up everywhere, including on tiny handheld devices.



Obviously, I am talking about chess for iPhone and iPod Touch here, and today's pick is called Deep Green. Why Deep Green? (just think about the deep grin you'll get when beating it! ;)) Simply because Cocoa Stuff updated this chess for iPhone app less than a day ago, bringing the current version number up to 1.1, that's why! I hope you don't need any other reason...



... but if you do, here's the features list of Deep Green:



- Play against Engine or Human, or Engine versus Engine


- Adjustable Engine strength

- Concentration setting allowing the Engine to play more like a Human

- Manual board setup

- Game playback - First/previous/next/last position, auto-playback, drag slider

- Replay of last move

- Move suggestion animated on board

- Take back - Undo, all the way back to start

- Free choice between tap/tap and drag/drop moving (no need to set preference)

- Display of Captured Pieces


- Smooth animations everywhere

- Game and state saved between program sessions

- Built-in Help

- Rich, analog-type sounds, optional

- Callout notification for Check, Stalemate, and Checkmate

- Vibration on Check, Stalemate and Checkmate, optional

- Board Coordinates

- Board Auto-Rotation




Requiring iPhone or iPod Touch 2.1 or later, Deep Green 1.1 needs only 4.3 MB of free space, and it also comes as a free version, simply entitled "Deep Green Lite." Deep Green 1.1 for iPhone is priced at $7.99, and can be purchased via the iTunes App Store, while the Lite edition can be downloaded from this page.