Chess ∙

Most 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.

I 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.

response required

I 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.

I 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!

response required

I’ve been using this app for a very long time (prob 5-6+ years?), playing almost daily any time i have a few min to kill (or sometimes hours).. BUT recently almost every time i play i get redirected mid-game to Safari web browser to a ‘You won a free iphone!’ page. I ABSOLUTELY HATE THAT! This was a terrible idea, whoever decided to use this scam of an advertising technique. Im fine with the normal ads you’ve always used since it is a free app (1 ad per time the app is opened) but redirecting out of the app to a very sketchy web page? That is beyond maddening. Please, i am begging you guys & gals to change this. I’m going to give it a couple weeks to undo this, bc i genuinely love the game/app, but afterwards i will have to delete it bc i do not want to have an unsafe webpage ad force-opened while playing. Please, please fix this. Other than this, it is a 5 star app (i have rated it 5 stars before and i will again if this is fixed). I really hope someone sees this :/ Thank you in advance. I like, love you, and stuff :-*