Mastersoft Chess for iPhone Review
Available from the App Store for £0.59 / $0.99.
Few games suit the modern mobile smartphone better than Chess. Few games have been ported as much as Chess to mobile platforms. Few games have been as badly ported to the mobile world as Chess. Chess is one of the most complex games in the world and to this day human beings are still, on the whole, better at the game than computers are. However, any computer in the world can beat me at Chess on most levels and so I need something that will teach me to get better in the time I have available. This means that I can only review a Chess app from the point of view of an amateur so I drafted in the help of a colleague at work called Gavin.
Gavin translates Russian Chess books in his spare time and has also played in the British Chess Championship a number of times. I first played Gavin a few years ago on a train heading to a meeting in London. I had a Chess game loaded up on my Palm T3 and cheated by using the top computer level for my moves- he beat me within 5 minutes. We then had another game, but did not have time to finish it- 6 months later we were travelling to another meeting and I mentioned that I wish I had saved the game we did not finish. He remembered where every piece was and set up the game accordingly! I guess that is something very good Chess players can do, but he still proceeded to beat me quickly again despite my still proceeding to cheat again.
A week ago I lent him my iPhone for a couple of hours and asked for his opinion of Mastersoft Chess. Three hours passed and I went to find my iPhone- with his head bowed down he was staring intently at the screen with the force of Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon and was completely oblivious to my presence. I asked him what he thought of the game and without removing his gaze from the screen, he simply said ‘Awesome.”
Gavin had not beaten the game and had apparently only played the one game in all of that time. He said afterwards that he never plays computer Chess games because they are not challenging enough, and now he is buying an iPod Touch. That says more than I ever could about the power of this game.
From my lowly perspective I find the interface of Mastersoft Chess to be appealing because it does away with all of the fancy 3D Chess boards that often make the current position harder to view than it need be. It still offers the customisation of the pieces and boards and this is more than enough to satisfy my need for a personal look, but to still have a playing area which is as clear as it could be. At no point could I not comprehend the entire situation I was in and this matters a lot to the novice player.
You can save and load games and also set up the board in specific positions if you wish to try to solve a classic situation from some of the great players. The difficulty levels range from novice to infinite with thinking times from 1 second to 1 minute per move in between. There is a coach who can warn you when you make an error and this helped me to learn more than anything else- I have definitely seen an improvement in the short time I have been playing this game. Also, the sound effects are strangely realistic and add a small touch of realism to the game play.
A game history option is built in if you understand the notational side of Chess with information, comments and lines all included for complete reference. There are over 23,000 opening moves and full chess rules built in (enpassant, castling and the like) plus all of this is managed in a small amount of memory. It is highly efficient and super smooth to play which only adds to the enjoyment.
One thing I would like to see is some stats for the player so that I can track my progress over time. Maybe I have missed them, but if I have they need to be shown a bit more clearly. That is the only minor issue I can find with Mastersoft Chess.
It would be easy to say that this game reaches its full potential in the hands of a player who is capable enough to challenge it, but that would be missing the point. It seems to me that Mastersoft Chess reaches its full potential whether you are a skilled Chess player, an amateur or a complete numpty like me. It truly is close to flawless and is by far the best mobile Chess game I have played on any platform.
Gonna get this. thanks for the review- most iPhone chess games are poor
Loving it so far. A real challenge!
Hi nice review, I also like this game but can’t find instructions on how to castle. I’ve tried doing it different but it never works and the help menu doesn’t explain how to do it. I have it on iPhone 3gs if you can tell me what buttons to press I’d appreciate it. Cheers, Jacob
I have had Mastersoft Chess for around 2 months on my iphone 3gs. I am playing it predominantly on 30 secs a move. I have a fair number of wins and several draws and numerous losses, am scoring about 40%. At 60 seconds I have had some close games but all losses.
Good points, easy to fire up and bang a game out with. X seconds a move is ideal as I use it at airports, on planes or hotel bars travelling on business. Good quality and no crashes or hangs.
Weaknesses.
It can get it spectacularly wrong. I have a miniture where it could have resigned on move 19 but I did not mate it until move 26 as it insisted on giving all its pieces away to delay mate. I also muffed a winning position and adopted a desperation tactic which included sacking rook to stop a pawn, leaving me with two connected passed pawns on the 5th (not 6th) with my king nearer, this it failed solve and I got away with it.
Tendancy for early draws by repetition. One as early as move 11, i had no choice and proved this later by replaying and making the only move open to me, which as I had judged resulted in my position collapsing. Another on move 17 should have continued with black playing Nc6 (afterwards I found 130 games in my DB with Nc6) but it just repeated (admittedly a GM and IM who obviously wanted to get to the bar early agreed a draw is this position back in 1996). Most of my games however last the typical 40 to 60 moves and I have had one marathon win in 95 moves. It is not a shock or failing that it is not as strong as my Deep Rybika running on a quad core, it seems to be evenly matched against Glaurung (except my 3gs has 50% more processor speed and 100% more ram than my wifes 3g) it is stronger over several games than the 2120 rated dedicated tabletop computer I have.
Weird opening book, rarely plays the mainstream and bread and butter openings one needs in tournament or team matches, especially as white. One rarely, if ever, gets into meaty lines of the sicilian or kings indian etc whether white or black. Plays g3, b3, f5 or nc3 way way way too often. Has a disproportionate tendency to play the Benoni against d4.
Style of play is like that of a social player, in terms of openings and tends to throw out ugly pawn moves infront of its king, it loves throw g5 infront of a castled king or even uncastled king.
I acquired the program as I am planning a return to competitive play after a 15 year lay off (I peaked at 2000 even longer ago) targeting my first tournament at Easter 2010 and wanted to practise whilst travelling on business or fishing. I use Chess Assistant and Deep Rybika which I also acquired at the same time or my dedicated table top Mephisto Master Chess, recently extracted from the loft and dusted off, at home. Due to the weird opening book it is really not suited to tournament prep and hence does not meet my objectives, I will be replacing it on my Iphone 3GS with something more appropriate to what I want, either Glaurung which my wife has on her 3g or HIARCS 12.1.
It is great for just banging a game out anywhere and for some will be the perfect travelling partner. Seems tuned to social players and plays like a very very strong one,(or it thinks it is Bent Larson(grin)) but social players do not need the 30 and 60 second levels. I have not tried anything lower than 30 seconds personally.
Castling works the same way as every other program/computer i have used. Just put the king onto its new square, the rook will move automatically as castling is the only time it is legal for a king to move two squares. It will not work if in that position castling is not a legal move. i.e. already in check, or the king moves onto or over a square attacked by an enemy piece.
BTW: had two more very early repetition draws. In different positions but with Mastersoft as black and as white in a Russian system against the Grunfeld.
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