Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
With the World Championship looming over the horizon, and certainly one of the most exciting matchups in a long time, every chess fan is dying to see how the games will go. As reported before, there will be a slew of top notch commentary on Playchess, whether your preference be English, German, French, or Spanish. But what if you are stuck on the road, in an office, or other? Yes, you can sneak a peek at the games, but understanding the elite blow-for-blows might be hard for the majority of chesskind. That is… until now.
In its most recent update, the Playchess app for Android smartphones and tablets now brings engine support, so that while you may not get the wonderful grandmaster commentary, you can still get an opinion from an engine that is second to none. In fact, to put it simply: if you are running it on a strong dual-core or quad-core phone, it is already better than the best humans.
There is one small caveat that needs to be mentioned: in order to enjoy the new engine support in the Playchess app, you do need to have ChessBase for Android purchased and installed. If you do not have it already, just head to the Google Play store and pick it up. Its usefulness goes far beyond this functionality, and any chess fan would be remiss without it.
To use it, login to Playchess...
...and load a game from the broadcasts.
Here we loaded Wang Hao-Fabiano Caruana
Consulting the engine is as easy as a small swipe to the left, switching to the engine pane. Stockfish 4, the default engine, will immediately load and begin to run.
How strong is Stockfish 4? According to CCRL, a top engine testing site, it is the second strongest engine around, just behind Houdini 3.
Just like the desktop, you can have it display the top two or more moves, or just the best. If you swipe back to the notation, it will immediately pause the analysis.
Don’t think the engine analysis is your only tool while following the broadcasts though.
The full online tree is also available for consultation, meaning you can see what the statistics are for the opening moves being played, based on over five million games. To see them, just swipe to the right instead.
All in all, with the Playchess app, you now have all the tools to follow the games in the best conditions possible, whether you are in a car, bus, or train, or just lounging in a café.
To download the free Playchess for Android app, scan the QR code below or just click on it
To purchase ChessBase for Android (required for engine support), scan the QR code below or just click on it
