Glaurung Chess
(2,848 ratings)
Seller: Tord RomstadCategory: Board
Released on: February 22, 2009
Version: Version: 1.0.1
Size: 4.5 MB
Languages:
Price: Free
Screenshots:
Description:
iPhone version of Glaurung, one of the strongest Mac OS X chess programs, and one of the best and most popular open source chess programs ever.
Features:
* Clearly stronger than Chess Genius 2.0 and t Chess Pro 1.2.0, but free!
* Plays aggressive and dynamic chess, and is not afraid of sacrificing material for initiative or attacking chances.
* Adjustable playing strength: Choose between 100 strength levels.
* Choose between several styles of play: "Passive", "Solid", "Active", "Aggressive" or "Suicidal".
* Big, deep and varied opening book. Choose between three levels of book variety.
* Displays book moves and engine analysis, including search depth, evaluations and main lines.
* Allows you to easily set up board positions.
* Able to think during the opponent's time, for maximum playing strength (disabled by default, in order to save battery life).
* Supports saving and loading games to PGN files, and to send games by e-mail.
* Play against the machine, or play both sides, with or without book moves and engine analysis displayed on the screen.
* Uses convenient finger gestures for taking back and replaying moves.
* Choose from two piece sets and five color schemes.
* Complete source code available under the GNU General Public License.
Features:
* Clearly stronger than Chess Genius 2.0 and t Chess Pro 1.2.0, but free!
* Plays aggressive and dynamic chess, and is not afraid of sacrificing material for initiative or attacking chances.
* Adjustable playing strength: Choose between 100 strength levels.
* Choose between several styles of play: "Passive", "Solid", "Active", "Aggressive" or "Suicidal".
* Big, deep and varied opening book. Choose between three levels of book variety.
* Displays book moves and engine analysis, including search depth, evaluations and main lines.
* Allows you to easily set up board positions.
* Able to think during the opponent's time, for maximum playing strength (disabled by default, in order to save battery life).
* Supports saving and loading games to PGN files, and to send games by e-mail.
* Play against the machine, or play both sides, with or without book moves and engine analysis displayed on the screen.
* Uses convenient finger gestures for taking back and replaying moves.
* Choose from two piece sets and five color schemes.
* Complete source code available under the GNU General Public License.
Recent AppStore Reviews:
Endless fun!
This is a very well written chess program without the bells and whistle. For being a free program, I would give it two thumbs up.
An extremely strong chess engine with a clear interface and free!
It might lack the extra features and slight polish of the more famous engine like Shredder, Hiarcs and Genius but it is superb nevertheless. Do you need to eat a Michelin 3 star meal under chandeliers? No? Then get this app! :-)
Kicks me out
I try to load the app but as soon as i get in it just closes by itself or sometimes it just starts loading then nothing, kicks me back to my iphone menu.
Perfect for tournaments
Now I don't need score sheets anymore, neither do I need a Monroi device. With this great app I can record my moves in a tournament, save them, and email them to me for later review!
As hard as chess genius...petition
The good: Awesome app, as hard level as chess genius, please incorporate easier levels, it is very hard to win to the CPU.
The wrong: Manytimes the app doesn't let you move some pieces, even where you are not in check, so you can't do your best playing, because of this bug (limitation). In other words The app doesn't allow you the possibility of moving some usefull pieces, even when you are NOT in check; it is hard and almost imposible to move some of your desired pieces, please solve this critical issue urgently
Best App I've downloaded
This is the best chess app out there, better than most paid apps. Big thank you to the deva for putting this out there.
Best Chess Application
The strongest, most flexible, bug-free, chess app out there. My favorite application overall.
Awesome
I have a USCF rating of 1837 and this app crushes me every time. I'm amazed at its tactical prowess.
Very Good but with bugs
This is a very good chess application, but i have been repeatedly noticing some of the moves it makes are illegal, making the system advantages. Also makes multiple moves in some cases protecting the system. Hope these issues will be fixed soon.
good , but this is for top notch players only as even lowest levels are very hard to beat.
The Best!
Best Free App.
Suicide
It wont let me play antichess or "suicidal" even when i put it in suicidal mode
OK, I guess
It's very hard, no matter what setting it's on, but the best chess app here.(I should know, 'cause I'm the pro of Riverside County in CA,USA.
The BEST!!!
Congratulations, this chess is amazing. Nice job.
Amazing, get it!
I own shredder and fritz in addition to this program, and while they both have features beyond glaurung's, I still play this one for the ease of analysis, clean interface, fast thinking and animation and stability.
If you want a free chess app, this is the best. If you want to pay for one, you should still get this one first. And don't bother with fritz, it is junk.
Beautiful!
Amazing chess engine, intuitive interface, love it! I haven't had any stability problems with it at all. The engine itself is quite strong. Definitely recommend it!
Favorite free engine
My favorite free chess engine on or off the iPhone. I bought Shredder before this was out, and like the ELO rating engine settings and training modes in that one better. However, this engine is strong and the opening book is a very handy feature. I use both programs about as much, and recommend you try out this excellent engine!
Wonderful
This is a great chess application. I love it.
The bugs are worth it.
It doesn't have the slick UI seen in other chess apps, but the solid engine and features make up for it. It seems to get stuck occasionally, but a quick jump to the home screen and back to the app fixes it. Sometimes traversing the move history can lock your last piece selected. Unlike other free chess apps, this one actually saves your game, so you can pick up where you left off at any time.
I dig the swipe touch for moving forward and backwards through the move history. I'm, always accidentally hitting the Flip or Options button though. Maybe consider moving the toolbar to the top of the screen.
Thank you Tord for your app, I look forward to future updates!
I dig the swipe touch for moving forward and backwards through the move history. I'm, always accidentally hitting the Flip or Options button though. Maybe consider moving the toolbar to the top of the screen.
Thank you Tord for your app, I look forward to future updates!
magnific because it's free
The overall design it's not very good, and usability it's sometimes not the best, but it's free and full of options
best free chess
Full of options. Good analysis and strong chess engine. I would but 5 stars with a better UI.
I can't even believe its free
But it is. Aint nothin out there that can offer you somthing you cant already get in here. excellent in every aspect. My fav. i is be happy
Best chess program for iPhone so far
Strong engine with a good opening book and loaded with features
Tired of Waiting
It's packed full of features I live the openings n the analysis. I just don't like waiting minutes for a move I know is coming. Also u might as well lable the board Its all annotated anways.
It would get a 4 otherwise !!
don't like UI
I don't like the UI, but at least the game is full of options and the engine is quite strong.
A more carefully chosen design and more organized options will make me to put a better rating.
A more carefully chosen design and more organized options will make me to put a better rating.
P [thumbs down]
MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO WIN AGENST COMPUTER! NOTHING BUILDS STRESS MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks!
Head-to-head chess with my friends at the pub, or against the computer while on the bus, it works wonderfully. Thanks so much for a great program that is free! It is BETTER than ones I purchased, should've just got this right off the bat.
Now it just needs to interface with the ICC. ;-)
Now it just needs to interface with the ICC. ;-)
Strong, full featured, and free (and open)
Strong engine, good configurability and features, and very useable interface. I had stability issues once but an uninstall and reinstall seems to have fixed it. In addition to being free in cost (excellent) it makes me like it even more that it's open source. Highly recommended!
Chess
Good stong app
After Many Apps, This Is First Time I Feel Compelled To Write A Review
Playing chess in-person with a friend but run out of time to finish? Glaurung lets you easily enter and save your position: This preserves your position against the possibility of kids knocking it around or spouse cleaning up. It also lets you play that position against Glaurung -- and/or have Glaurung play your position -- to help you think through how to proceed when you resume your game. And Glaurung may play a position differently depending on whether you select for it to play with a passive, solid, active, aggressive, or suicidal approach, and whether you select for it to play with low, medium, or high variety. I've been able to learn to beat Glaurung from certain positions in which I'm already a little ahead, but starting from scratch Glaurung has been too strong for me. You do have an option to select for Glaurung to play at less than its full strength, but I'm more interested in playing and learning from a superior opponent than winning. Other features: If asked, Glaurung will give you a hint on how to proceed, and with each right-to-left sweep of a finger, Glaurung lets you go back a move (which allows you to try different options to see how they turn out). I find this particularly useful in experimenting with different openings. Also, at any point during a game, you can change whether Glaurung plays white or black. The only flaw I can find is that a very few times Glaurung has not let me move a piece that I should be able to move. However, selecting "edit position", taking away and putting back the frozen piece, and then saving the "new" position fixes this problem (which arises only infrequently). Glaurung rules!
This little beast is free?
Looks great, feels great and plays great.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Best program
I have about 20 chess sw. 10 in PC and 10 in itouch 2g. I am not comparing this with any of the PC chess sw, but in itouch, this is one of the best (even compared with the paid ones)! Great speed and great interface. You can save your own games in a single pgn file. It would also show you the main line book moves while you play. I am no IM or GM, but at my level, it is really fun to play and even improve (my estimate of its rating is ~ 2400). Look at your own old games in leisure, or even email it and check it out later. The only thing that I would have liked in this is the automatic classification of the opening by ECO code. But I am far more than satisfied given this is a FREE sw.
Strong chess
(Controls and gameplay)
Well... chess are chess. And don't expect that Glaurung's engine will be weak.
(Graphics)
Clean, basic graphics.
(Music)
Soft sounds for indicating moves.
(Suggestions for updates)
Sounds of real chess? ELO rating?
___ Bottom _ line ___
One of the best chess apps in AppStore. And free! Perfect for playing and analyzing.
Well... chess are chess. And don't expect that Glaurung's engine will be weak.
(Graphics)
Clean, basic graphics.
(Music)
Soft sounds for indicating moves.
(Suggestions for updates)
Sounds of real chess? ELO rating?
___ Bottom _ line ___
One of the best chess apps in AppStore. And free! Perfect for playing and analyzing.
Too unstable to rely on
Yes, it has a great engine, but it crashes at any time. Last time was at startup and I had to do hard reset on iPhone. I'm deleting it.
Good one!
Free, but very powerful chess engine. Very neat
Great!!!!!
Simply fantastic! And it's free. What else can you ask for?..
Chess
Freezes!
Outstanding! 1.01
Way better than all the other free or $5-$7 chess programs. And hold against the $9.99 chessgenius really well in almost every way, is probably stronger in endgames and has more levels. With chessgenius slowly updating, serious players shall really give this program a try. Or consider Shredder Chess. I have seen very limited instabilities in 1.01.
Very great pro quality app!
It is very nice convinient and better than many commercial chess. It is really high class programm
Awesome
This app is only missing one thing: an option to turn off the clock.
A fine chess game
This is a very good chess game with a responsive interface and clean, simple, graphics.
Great off wifi game
Well it's one of the free chess game that you should download. It's free and complete levels without wifi. Thanks I love it. By yuthasin
Solid
So happy to see an iPhone/iPod implementation. This is a great chess app.
Solid app
Great chess app.
Best chess app
The best chess app out rite now, I know masters that wander can a comp play like this
Simply best
So I've tested nearly all the chess apps around, and this is just the best. Don't buy others. Period.
Awsome
Great but needs online and better icon
Awesome! ;) :)
Cha-Ching!!! Best chess app in the app store!!!! And free too!
Can't Beleive its Free
In my opinion the best free Chess app around, really good with alot of features. Great app, never crashed on me. Deserves 5* easilly. Get it if you love Chess.
Only thing I ask is if you can improve the icon, it should look better for a app of this quality!
great app
well engineered, free chess app, fully featured. seriously great.
Very strong AI
I thing this is a great app because you have plenty of options and the interface is nice not to mention the incredible AI, this is a great app for any chess player + it's free!!!!!!!!
Good game
Good
Amazing!!!!!
Well made well balanced.
Great Free Chess App
I had been looking for a serious chess app on the iPod Touch for some time, and had been considering purchasing tChess Pro. I'm glad that I waited. Glaurung is an excellent chess app, and best of all it is free! The engine is strong, the controls are intuitive, and the app includes features you would expect to pay for, like analysis. The export to PGN feature works great as well - I used this at a recent tournament to record my games in between rounds.
I will agree that the earlier version of Glaurung had stablility problems, but these seem to have been resolved with the 1.0.1 update. Great app!
I will agree that the earlier version of Glaurung had stablility problems, but these seem to have been resolved with the 1.0.1 update. Great app!
It me
I think this app is great and it's free
It would be great if it more themes
Also a different logo so it could catch more peoples eye
This would be on of this best apps if it would have online playing
It would have 1000 stars then
Really good app
This is the best free chess app out there. I have tried them all any this app has great options to play, analize or just learn; they have a deep book built in. Highly recommended.
Fantastic
Easily the best chess app in the store, and free to boot.
Not worth it
This game is soooooo bad it shouldnt even b free, apple should pay u money if u get this game. It duznt feel ur finger on the screen and the options dont make sense
My favorite one!
This is my favorite chess application on iTunes. I have played chess for a good time now and I’ve bought tons, almost all of the chess application currently out and this is easy too say it's my favorite. Easy too use and play, only problem is it does crash often and most be deleted and downloaded again. I do recommend if you save any games that you e-mail them right away before playing in case of another crash. Still I have bought almost all of the chess apps and I would gladly say this is the best....... and it's FREE
I'm in love!
I have been using ichess and can definitely say that glaurung is FAR nicer. This app offers an enormous array of options including the ability to save games and set up a position. Plus it has a varied opening repertoire which is awesome. Ichess ALWAYS plays the same opening to whatever opening move you play. I also love that glaurung shows you how far ahead or behind you are. So far it's been easy to beat though, but I'm only playing on setting 60 so hopefully it will be more difficult at higher settings. If you like chess, this is without a doubt a great, free app. Get it NOW!
Meh
Hard even at medium settings and Ive been playing chess for at least 6 years. Other than that everything is ok
Great, free app! Strong chess!
Unlike other reviewer comments, this game has never crashed or frozen on me, and I've NEVER come even close to beating it when set on the highest skill level. A great way to practice on a quick and easy-to-use interface. Love it, and very surprised to find that it is still free.
:/
Gd chess app... But wats the point?? It jams the phone
No longer launched
Was a fantastic app while it was working. However, it now crashes upon launch. A reinstall doesn't fix it. Pity.
Good
I like it. But I would add a way to see which pieces have been taken, like piles on the side of the board.
A good app, but needs a little tweaking...
Works great as a player vs. player and player vs. computer. It's a good teacher for the noobs out there who want to start light and work their strength up. It can also set up the board for those who want to create a "puzzle" situation to try out solutions to. And since it saves games this works for games played on a real board--just enter the positions of the pieces and save it. However, it would be nice if there was an option to turn off the gameclock and also if it gave hints in player vs. player mode. Otherwise a great app.
Crashes occasionally but...
Still a fantastic app for free!
Best free chess app !
I've tried all the free chess apps and one paid app (t chess lite) and in my opinion this app beats them all by miles. It has a very powerful and versatile chess engine. I can beat the t-chess lite 80% of the times, but so far I've been unable to beat this engine even once (at max setting) despite playing for about a week. This has me not feeling very good about my chess skill. ;-( Anyway, thanks to the developer for developing and making this app available for free.
Good, but...
I have enjoyed the game for two days. It is very challenging.
But now the game will not start. I have deleted and reinstalled twice. Also attempted many reboots on the iPod.
No luck.
Five stars if it would run.
Too buggy
I can't seem to go a game without it either crashing or freezing most of my pieces. Fix it and it will be a 5 star game.
Worked once then just crashed
Was good for the one game then it just would not load kept crashing..
Cool!
Very happy.
p.s. i like these chess pieces better than chess genius. :)
Excellent!!
This is one of the best chess apps I have seen for free. The range of difficulty is good, a two player mode is included, the interface is uncluttered, and the the ability to save games is included. I would pay $4.99 for this in a heartbeat. Get it now if you even remotely like chess.
Addressing the freezing problem: if you have other apps running in the background like mail, safari, or music, the chess app will run slowly and close. to avoid this, simply reboot before using it if those backgroud apps are running.
Looks great but very unstable.
Locks up virtually all the time, which makes this otherwise very attractive game completely unplayable. I'd give it only one star but for the promise it shows otherwise. Needs more work and a new version to address the instability before I'll reinstall this again.
The Best
Strong engine, good graphics, lots of options: position editor, analysis, email played games, etc. Get this app - you won't be disappointed.
Awesome but...
It freezes EVERY time on options.I like it but it needs work
Great
By far the best chess app
Locked Up Touch
Completely locked up my iPod Touch.
Awesome
Very polished, tons of advanced options, extremely customizable gameplay and -- FREE. Many thanks to the developer!
Best chess app on iphone
And it is free!! Thanks a lot to the developer.
the best
although i love deep green and tchess pro, i feel this is the best chess app to date for the iphone. I only wish, as a novice, that openings were named.
Great chess app
This is a powerful full-featured chess app for free!! Wish it would have come out sooner--I might have saved a few $$ on for-pay chess apps, although there really are some very nice ones. But this is right up there.
Thank you!! A great contribution to the app store.
Unbelievable
I can't believe this is free.
Great, fast, smart....
...chess program for the Iphone. This is the third chess program I've tried and they all play well. But this one is open source and it rocks for FREE!! Now I can delete the others. Great work...
Free intelligence – it cannot get better than this
I played Glaurung Chess (default settings, iPhone 3G) against Windows Vista Chess Titans (highest settings, PC dual core laptop). Not only Glaurung Chess won, Glaurung also made every move much faster than Chess Titans. It never crashed. Great stuff. Interface is clean, clear and hlepful. A lot of settings to alter the game play. For bringing this game to iPhone - Thank You, for making it free – Bow ;-)
Great
I've been practicing my game with this. Great engine, plays smoothley. Nice that its free. Get it now.
Never thought a chess engine could be this strong!!!
The toughest AI encountered so far for iPhone platform.excellent in every aspect,thanks for giving it free
Fast and free
Worth every penny. Very speedy and strong.
Great chess app!
Very strong engine!
Tough to beat
Great port, great engine.
This moves quickly, even on the hardest setting. The new champion!
Love it!!! Highly recommend it.
'nuff said.
Good
It's a good chess app and it's free, come on download it you're not going to regret
Strong AI you betcha
Ok I've played Cyber Chess against t chess lite and Chess Classics and it destroyed them. So now played Cyber Chess against Glaurung and Glaurung was victorious. Thanks Tord for making a very strong AI game available for free on the iPhone.
와우 이게임 첫리뷰네
그냥 체스게임인데요
무료어플인데도 실망시키지않게 잘 만들었어요 체스 좋아하시는 분들 해보세요
Why not?
It is free, has a good engine, is customizable and has a great interface.
Currently the Best Chess App here.
Interface is good, I haven't had any finger slips to complain of. Shows Analysis, so it is good for going over games quickly. The opening book is quite good. For the price it will quickly become your favorite chess app.
Free chess
I come close to winning on around 80-90, it's damn good. Thank you for making this free. And "pickles" is an absolute moron for his comment and one star. Go back to checkers and connect-4 loser.
keeps crashing
it was good while it lasted now it just crashes. no point I don't even bother. don't waste ur time-I spent 5minutes of my life I will never get back. they owe me 5minutes!!!
Clearly the strongest chess engine for this platform, and it's free!
"Best by test", Bobby Fischer used to say about his favorite e4 opening move. The same thing I can say now about this free app, which was able to trash it's closest competitors ChessGenius by 9-1 (8 wins and 2 draws) and tChess Pro by 10-0. I needed only a blitz game to realize it's better but I wanted to know by how much and the results speak for themselves.
Glaurung has a huge opening database first of all, that's where the 4,5 MB come from. No more boring, repetitive opening variations, the computer will always play a couple of moves that will let you thinking hard for a while. Second, it has a huge depth for a mobile program, it can see by at least 12 moves ahead - once it showed me checkmate in 12 moves, I couldn't believe it. Fritz 11, running on my PC, rarely goes deeper than 18 moves ahead, though it analyzes more than 1 million combinations per second. The playing style (defensive, offensive, etc) can be set from the menu, but it tends to be much more aggressive than the competitors'. I was able to draw quite easily the two softwares mentioned above but not this one, one mistake and you're gonna be punished merciless. I think Glaurung can stand Pocket Fritz and Mobile Hiarcs without a problem.
As about the features, Glaurung can do everything the competitors do (except the "next best move" thing, which is to be added later) and even more than that. You can choose the playing style as I said, set the player's name, and see the percentages for any given next move while still in the opening book. The interface looke almost like ChessGenius', with the same chessmen, color scheme, sounds, etc. By the way, if you want to scroll through the game you only have to slide your finger on the move list, to the right for forward and to the left for backward. Really handy.
The developer responds to emails and likes to receive new ideas for his app. He said he would like to change the logo -- I'd love that too -- but needs someone to help him with the artwork. Unfortunately I'm not the man to do it, but if any of you can it's easy to contact Tord. He also said that he submitted the 1.1 version to Apple, solving the bug problems.
Great app, made for the serious chess player, who needs less fancy graphics and more engine power, plus features. CONGRATULATIONS, TORD from NORWAY!
Glaurung has a huge opening database first of all, that's where the 4,5 MB come from. No more boring, repetitive opening variations, the computer will always play a couple of moves that will let you thinking hard for a while. Second, it has a huge depth for a mobile program, it can see by at least 12 moves ahead - once it showed me checkmate in 12 moves, I couldn't believe it. Fritz 11, running on my PC, rarely goes deeper than 18 moves ahead, though it analyzes more than 1 million combinations per second. The playing style (defensive, offensive, etc) can be set from the menu, but it tends to be much more aggressive than the competitors'. I was able to draw quite easily the two softwares mentioned above but not this one, one mistake and you're gonna be punished merciless. I think Glaurung can stand Pocket Fritz and Mobile Hiarcs without a problem.
As about the features, Glaurung can do everything the competitors do (except the "next best move" thing, which is to be added later) and even more than that. You can choose the playing style as I said, set the player's name, and see the percentages for any given next move while still in the opening book. The interface looke almost like ChessGenius', with the same chessmen, color scheme, sounds, etc. By the way, if you want to scroll through the game you only have to slide your finger on the move list, to the right for forward and to the left for backward. Really handy.
The developer responds to emails and likes to receive new ideas for his app. He said he would like to change the logo -- I'd love that too -- but needs someone to help him with the artwork. Unfortunately I'm not the man to do it, but if any of you can it's easy to contact Tord. He also said that he submitted the 1.1 version to Apple, solving the bug problems.
Great app, made for the serious chess player, who needs less fancy graphics and more engine power, plus features. CONGRATULATIONS, TORD from NORWAY!