Great chess game for anyone!
Tue Oct 05 2021 Rabit loverThis game is straight up chess you can do lay from anywhere at any time. I love how you can start over the match, set the difficulty, and make new games very easily. It’s really great how you are playing against a computer and not real people for safety. If you want a fun game to test your logic skills and challenge your brain you should definitely download this app now!if you need to practice chess for aCompetition this is perfect for you because you can have it at any difficulty and can undo your moves so you can learn from them. There are no adds during game time which is really great! However the one thing that is a little frustrating is that you have to have your volume up to know that your in cheek of you don’t see it and that it is hard to tell when it is your turn. If you completely new to this game and don’t know how to play it can be hard to get the hang of it on this app. If you are a beginner that knows how to play then this app is great for you! But other than that 10/10 would recommend!
I loved it until I discovered deceit...😒
Thu Jun 23 2016 FreekyFreshhI have been playing on this app for a few years almost DAILY when time allows. When I first was learning chess it was terrific and I was able to fine-tune my skills with the difficulty changer setting. That's a sweet plus for the app!
Sadly, as I was able to move up to much higher difficulty levels, it wouldn't allow me to make some legal moves and it was able to make illegal moves. At first I thought it was just glitchy or that it knew rules that I didn't know.
The game allowed a knight to move diagonally one square to take my rook that I used to take a piece and put its King in check. I thought was a glitch so I undid my move (the undo button is helpful for learners as well) and tried to redo it. It made the diagonal move again. I scoured the Internet to validate the legality of that move and couldn't find it anywhere, leaving the only conclusion to be that the computer in the game is somehow allowed to cheat. After reading other reviews of the game about some potential cheating going on, I am sad to say I will be deleting the app. As a new and learning chess player this app is useful but as an avid proficient chess player, it's equivalent to playing with a real person who tries to cheat. Chess is a game of challenging strategy and there is absolutely no room for cheating. Perhaps I'll check back on the app in a year or so to see if they have cleaned it up.
Poorly programmed algorithm and annoying ads
Fri Dec 21 2018 LautrecOfCarimI have two main complaints about this app. First, on the chess side. I'm rated around 1800 USCF and tried playing on moderate difficulty levels. The thing about the AI is that it always plays very strong tactically, probably 2200+. Meaning it will never make a mistake that loses material, nor will it ever fail to capitalize on one of your own mistakes. On the other hand it is extremely weak positionally, I would estimate below 1200 level. And it plays absolutely garbage openings, worse than most human beginners. The result is that it will always give you a huge positional advantage in the opening, but then begin defending extremely accurately making it very difficult to actually win a game. It does not play anything remotely similar to a human player and creates lots of frustrating games.
Second, the pop-up ads are the worst. I frequently got full screen pop-up ads for other apps that would not have an "X" on the screen to close them, and also wouldn't go away on their own. So I would be unable to get past the ad and to access the chess app at all. The only way would be to forcibly close the app and restart it, and hope that a different ad would appear. This completely ruins the user experience, independently of how the program actually plays.
1 star out of 5 for these reasons.
Great Game - needs chess notation.
Sun Oct 31 2021 dallasgolferThis app plays killer chess. The comment about weak openings, followed up by muscle bound defense is possible. The engine keeps track of time, but does not facilitate chess notation. This leaves me wondering how these “geniuses,” did their analysis! With the timer on, a novice cannot take time to note the moves in chess notation. I think the claims of the engine “cheating,” are bald faced lies. One review apparently claims to not be able to document and “en passant,” pawn loss. It is possible that the algorithm to change the level of the opponent, or difficulty has some holes in it, but if you let it play as default it appears unquestionably helpful to the amateur, provided he really wants to learn chess. Buy a book and learn a few openings, and the engine will sharpen your skills to a razor’s edge.
Great engine for a serious student of chess.
Pop-up ads, app freezes, phone screen freezes, and more
Sat Jul 09 2022 CruiseguruMy second attempt at posting a review. Leveling up a pawn tends to cause the app to freeze. A few weeks ago it got even worse, my phone (iPhone 12) screen would not function. I had to take the SIM card out and put it in an old phone to find a secondary way to reboot my phone. If the app freezes when you level up a pawn, do a hard reboot on your phone ASAP. I agree with the others who mentioned pop-up ads…even when the app’s ads are running it is ridiculous. Pop-up ads will run without notice even while you are playing. Ugh! I just deleted the app because I was close to winning but that stupid three repetition draw/stalemate stopped the game. That only happened because the computer opponent makes moves that a human never would. A common example, the computer king, when all alone, will do stupid things to cause a draw/stalemate. Why would a king intentionally go near my two rooks and my queen? Run the other way!!!
UPDATE: The computer rooms are so cowardly! Most of the time when they move, they don’t take out my pieces. The rooks seem really scared to attack even to put me in check! I don’t get it!
It could be better
Wed Sep 09 2020 Everything-else-was-takenA flawed system for sure, and very infuriating at times. I may or may not stick with this app because of this reason...I will sit and think for like, five minutes straight, and when I go to execute my move, I can’t. The game just doesn’t let me move. Before I wrote this, I had a plan to love my queen and it wouldn’t allow me to move it. It only allowed me to move it backwards, directly in the line of fire for a bishop. I couldn’t move my pawn, which clearly had plenty of space and availability to travel to the back of the board, I still had my knight but, despite a clear and open space AND a perfect lineup to snatch the opponent’s king, it wouldn’t allow me to move it, and although there was a pawn I was able to steal with my bishop, I was unable to move. This is a reoccurring problem that you constantly have to work around. I’m not very good at chess, and it’s one of my favorite games ever, but how on Earth am I supposed to learn properly and strategize if I’m unable to move my piece? Try this app out for yourself, like I said, I don’t know if I’ll stick with it or not. It’s very painfully mediocre.
Broken game
Fri Jan 15 2021 cutehamstersrealWould be good but the easiest difficulty is too hard for a beginner like me. I may be new and not know all the little tricks but even my friends know that the computer moves out of turn, there has been times it either took two turns or moved a poun 3 spaces or diagonal without taking a piece or moved the castle thing diagonal or the diagonal only piece up down and side to side, like even I know that’s against rules oh and yk that trick if you get a poun to the end of the board you get to swap pieces well sometimes it didn’t swap and just added or it wasn’t a poun and instead a knight and I know that’s against all the rules and when I try to do those exact same things I literally can’t cuz it’s not only not allowed but not existent rules or way of playing. This app is horrible because of all the flaws meant to make the computer win and it’s not a bug it’s literally the way the game was made. Other than that great graffics. Oh yeah sometimes my pieces would make how the shouldn’t be able to according to my sister who played for me once and she’s so not a newbie like me.
My take.
Thu Jun 02 2016 Kills-BI like it. It, (the computer)(on most difficult setting) did cheat on me right b4 I was about to checkmate' like twice in 2 years. I also did so other times though!
I wrote that n never sent it bc I checked it out again n couldn't beat it, so I just kept playing. That was 3 months ago, n I finally beat it again, ( set on most difficult). Now tonight I was seriously feeling like I was guna win, had everything set up just so... n it kicked me off! M a pretty peitiant man, so I started a new game. Kicked off again!!! N m talking lost the game, it was gone! Four more times!!! The last one I am sure I woulda had' again, n it let it play out for most of the game is how I can say that... So MAD, well for a few minutes anyway, (one step closer to a heart attack, unnessasaraly!!! M not da best speller, sorry! I really hope this might make a differance tho. I swear, it almost felt like it was getting hacked!!! It was just tonight, so far!
A Chess Game for Everyone
Thu Jan 25 2018 CWAMDMost computer games are for the advanced. This game is for every range of chess experience. From the earliest beginner to the advanced.
My wife never played chess before and didn't even know the names of the different pieces. I taught her the basic moves and downloaded Optime's chess for iPhone last month 1 month later she's addicted to this game, plays it whenever she has a few spare minutes. We played yesterday and gave me a real run, almost beating me.
The game has a real feel and sound to it. You can feel the piece as you move it, almost like it has a marble feel with a felt bottom.
It's very easy to play and convenient when it's on your phone.
I can't recommend it enough to everyone with an appropriate phone. And while you're downloading this game, check out Optime's other games of similar quality like checkers, free four, dots, tic-tax-toe.
Update 2018 January 24
While the features that I listed above remain, the latest updates have removed the ability to listen to your music while playing.
As with many others, I play this app as a means of relaxation, which for me goes hand in hand with listening to my purchased music.
Now, you can I either play the game or listen to your music. You can’t do both.
A good game... for people who know what they’re doing
Sat Feb 08 2020 Adelyn;)So it’s been awhile since I played this game. I got back on just now, but I don’t think it’s very good anymore. Not by preference, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this review, but the computer’s knight took out every single pawn I had in just a few moves, ignoring any of the legal moves a knight must follow (ex. Going three squares downward in a straight line and two diagonal). Eventually it was just my King left, and I was right next to someone from the computer I wanted to take out, but it just wouldn’t let me move there. I checked again and again, and there was nothing that could take me out if I made that move.
It’s not very good for beginners, in summary, who would think they could do those things legally. It’s learning wrong. Sadly I think I have to delete the app, but it’s a good game for people who know what they’re doing and have a good idea of what to do.
