Chess for Android
[edit] Contact Information
See Aart Bik's Home Page and Blog.
Aart also wrote Reversi for Android and Checkers for Android.
[edit] Description
Chess for Android, written by Aart Bik, is a simple standalone chess application for Android. The application is available for free at the Android Market and consists of a chess engine (a Java version derived from the UCI engine BikJump that is written in C++) together with a GUI. The application accepts moves through the touch screen, the trackball, or through the keyboard (viz. e2e4 pushes the king pawn, e1g1 castles king side, etc.). An optional "move coach" highlights valid user moves during input as well as the last played engine move. A pawn promotion prompts the user to define the desired destination piece. The application supports full game navigation buttons to correct mistakes or analyze earlier played games. Games can be exported as FEN/PGN to the clipboard or saved and loaded as files by long-pressing the notation window. A game in progress is also automatically saved on exit. A draw by stale-mate, insufficient material, the fifty move rule, or threefold repetition is recognized. The engine plays at various levels (including random, against itself in auto-play, or free-play, where the game can be used as a "magnetic chessboard"). The user can play either side and, independently, view the board from the perspective of white or black.
The application supports the Universal Chess Interface (UCI) and Chess Engine Communication Protocol (WinBoard and XBoard), which allows users to play against more powerful third party engines or even play tournaments between engines. Details can be found at UCI and XBoard Protocols for Android.
Screenshot of latest version
Screenshot of older G1 version
[edit] Source Code
Closed source.
