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MatPlus.Net Forum General Chess composition app for smartphones
 
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(1) Posted by Eric Huber [Saturday, Nov 23, 2013 09:07]

Chess composition app for smartphones


Diyan Kostadinov has just announced it on Facebook: "The first app for chess composing on smartphone is here"!

http://kobulchess.com/en/news/7-2011-07-31-17-09-09/402-chess-composition-app-smartphone-chess-composer.html

The light version of the app ChessComposer v.1.0 is free, the price of the full version is 10 EUR.

Congratulations to the project team:
Diyan Kostadinov - Project manager
Dimitar Ivanov - Programmer
Shankar Ram - Operating support
Petya Badjaklieva - Designer
 
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(2) Posted by shankar ram [Saturday, Nov 23, 2013 09:44]

I had asked about such an app in this forum about 3 years back: http://www.matplus.net/start.php?px=1385195858&app=forum&act=posts&fid=it&tid=854

Diyan did it finally..

Was happy to help out with testing..
 
 
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(3) Posted by Kostas Prentos [Sunday, Nov 24, 2013 01:29]; edited by Kostas Prentos [13-11-24]

Very good idea and it will be much better when solving becomes possible. Cell phones are faster now than computers were a few years ago and the future is open for further progress.
There is one thought I had when I read the news, which is unrelated to this nice effort, but it is something we may need to worry in the future: Cheating in quick solving competitions. Cheating has become a serious problem in tournament chess, probably the most serious threat the game ever faced, and we may want to start thinking about anti-cheating measures in solving events. Problemists are respectable people, but so are chess players in general, and we have seen some cheating in that field.
 
   
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(4) Posted by shankar ram [Sunday, Nov 24, 2013 05:17]

I did think it would be difficult to fit a solving app into a smartphone.. was satisfied with just a position creating, editing, saving and retrieving tool..

But such is the pace of progress in the smartphone field that i did a re-think..
Kostas is right.. Today's smartphones pack more processing power, memory and screen resolution than the PCs of some years back.. i think i tried an early version of popeye on what was called a PC/XT back in '89..:-P

Both android and iOS have a linux/unix back end.. so theoretically it should be possible to compile popeye to run on both.. If any of the popeye developers are reading this, then maybe they can comment.. and more importantly, attempt a port..! :-)

Regarding cheating in solving competitions.. is there really so much at stake to do such a thing..? and as far as i can make out from photos of such events, the participants seem to be closely monitored..

But this may well be true in the informal solving competitions of many magazines.. (do they still exist..? :-P) Here, a solver may possibly be popeye/alybadix/winchloe/gustav in disguise..! :-)
 
   
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(5) Posted by Dmitri Turevski [Sunday, Nov 24, 2013 07:49]

Popeye is distributed under the GNU General Public License. Re-distributing it via the App Store could be legally tricky (and may be against the spirit of Popeye?)

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/09/the-gpl-the-app-store-and-you/
 
   
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(6) Posted by Diyan Kostadinov [Sunday, Nov 24, 2013 17:09]; edited by Diyan Kostadinov [13-11-24]

Now we started working on 2nd updated and improved version with more useful functions (will present them later). Of course if the app have solving option this will be great to all composers, but this should be discussed.

I saw some opinions against the price of the app, so I should explain that we not sell it because want to become rich. All of us know that we are very small community so nobody can not make profit with this. The only reason to sell the full version is to collect some money and to pay with them to the programmers for continued working on more improved versions of the app. I think that if we have useful chess composing tool for smartphones will be good for all of us. But to create it is too expensive to a single person like me, so that's why I decide to put it with price. Actually I think that 10 Eur is not so expensive (this is cost of one normal chess set, or book).
 
 
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(7) Posted by shankar ram [Monday, Nov 25, 2013 06:26]

I have seen several linux utilities as paid apps in google play..
e.g: busybox, vnc server..
the authors just add an android front end..
so somebody can try an Apwin like project..
 
   
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(8) Posted by Sven Hendrik Lossin [Monday, Nov 25, 2013 09:29]

Did you ask Olaf Jenkner to participate? He has one of the best solving engines. I would pay even 20 bucks to have Gustav in my pocket ;)
 
   
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(9) Posted by Steven Dowd [Monday, Nov 25, 2013 20:04]

I've never owned any sort of smartphone and probably never will, but I suppose something that could serve as a shell to multiple engines would be great. Isn't there some way the program could access a running engine on something like a Wi-Fi connected PC?
 
   
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(10) Posted by Olaf Jenkner [Monday, Nov 25, 2013 20:39]

Sorry, I have no time to do the job.
 
   
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(11) Posted by Neal Turner [Tuesday, Nov 26, 2013 19:43]

Does it work on tablets?
 
   
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(12) Posted by Olaf Jenkner [Tuesday, Nov 26, 2013 22:50]

No, it runs only at Windows for personal computers.
Linux users can use Wine to run Gustav.
 
   
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(13) Posted by shankar ram [Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 08:12]; edited by shankar ram [13-11-27]

some confusion here..!

If Mr Turner's asking about the smartphone app (which seems likely), then the answer is yes.. but it may appear a bit oversized..

Since there are windows tablets too, then Gustav should run on them at least..

On Linux, a better alternative to Wine is Virtualbox..
 
   
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(14) Posted by Andrew Buchanan [Sunday, Dec 1, 2013 01:37]

Only Android at the moment, according to Kobulchess. Any plans to port to iPhone?
 
   
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(15) Posted by Diyan Kostadinov [Friday, Dec 6, 2013 01:32]; edited by Diyan Kostadinov [13-12-06]

The app is working on Android OS smarphones. Now we preparing new version with some improvements and more options (better view of buttons, diagram, option for saving and presenting solutions with active pieces on the board etc.). After that we will think about iOS.

About the solving option - actually it is possible the app to be prepared as Popeye shell and to send generated Input files and receive the solution via internet, but we do not planing to make it for now (because of several reasons).

So the app is independent and the main idea of it is to be used as an electronic chess set with many fairy pieces and functions as database, sharing and presentation of problems on smartphones.
 
   
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(16) Posted by Diyan Kostadinov [Sunday, Dec 29, 2013 03:07]

A new version 2.3 of the app is now available. There is also a freeware link for download of the light version:

http://kobulchess.com/en/news/7-2011-07-31-17-09-09/430-chess-composer-23-freeware.html
 
 
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MatPlus.Net Forum General Chess composition app for smartphones