Chess By Post Premium

The app, overall, is speedy and works as intended. Unfortunately, I see no way to start a rated game that isn’t random. Why can’t we start a rated game against our friends? Also, it’s been like this for years now- the chat deletes apostrophes. It’s the only app I’ve ever seen do that.

This is a great app that allows you up to five days to make your move. It’s not unheard of that anyone takes that long but 95% of moves are transmitted much more quickly, often many moves are exchanged in a single day. It’s just up to each player. Back in olden times moves in postal chess were transmitted via postcard, so this is much better. Opponents are fellow humans of approximately the same rating. When first starting you are paired with lower rated players, and some of them ghost you (which after five days gives you a win on time) but as your rating improves and you are paired against ever stronger players, you’ll practically never get ghosted. The app has a good demonstration board which allows you to try moves and lines before committing, which along with other resources is allowed in postal chess. (Except one should not use a computer engine to suggest moves; note on that below). There’s a note feature to save idea and moves. I’ve had up to ten games going at a time with no problem, and theres no reason you couldn’t have a lot more than that. Notifications tell you when opponent has moved. Countdown of the time left on the “clock” of whoever’s move it is is clearly expressed, at first in terms of days, and then the last 24 hours is expressed in hours. Then the last hour is expressed in minutes. The free version has ads that are very unobtrusive and was completely satisfactory but I paid the modest fee to get rid of ads, mainly to support the developer. The paid version is a overall better experience but not necessary so long as the developer allows th free option . There is room for improvement. 1. The rating system mimics the Elo rating system but gives wildly inflated ratings compared to US Chess Federation or FIDE ratings. I’m a C class OTB player (USCF) but my rating on the app currently would make me a virtual international master. I am nowhere near that strong and it would be preposterous of me to brag that I have a 2400 chess rating, as I currently do on the app. That’s fine because the ratings work well relative to the ratings of others on this same app, and are used only for pairing purposes, but anyone who is inexperienced in chess ratings could easily get a hyper inflated idea of his or her own playing strength. 2. It would be handy if one could simply swipe left on a game to go to the next game instead of going back to the list of games and selecting another game to view. That’s nothing if you only play one or two games but mildly aggravating if you have a dozen games going. 3. There’s a post game analysis button that has a computer engine analyze the game and tally the good and bad moves, etc. But, for example, a blunder that immediately allows a one move mate might not register as either “inaccurate” or “mistake”. I had such a game that showed me as making 100% accurate moves (all “excellent” or “good”) when in fact one move was so fatal that a rank beginner could have checkmated me immediately. But one can easily email the game in PGN format from within the app so that it can be copied into your own engine for analysis. 4. The Windows desktop app looks the same but is different enough from the iPhone and iPad app to occasionally cause confusion if not paying attention. The windows version also exports finished games in non-English pgn which my separate engines do not recognize. I don’t claim English must be the default but it is inconsistent from the Apple store version. 5. The desktop also uses an approach that is inverse from the Apple version when showing differences in material won by the respective sides. I would prefer the app to use the standard material point value system (pawn=1, rook=5, etc) with the side with the material advantage shown as a plus number. E.g. if I’ve won your bishop and knight and you’ve won my bishop and rook, you should be shown as being +2. But it doesn’t give that tally, and even though captured pieces are clearly shown, one really has to do the (simple) math yourself. 6. The chess puzzle feature is ok but again gives inflated rating estimates and does not transfer between apps on different devices. E.g if i do puzzles on iPhone and reach a certain estimated rating, that rating does not show up in puzzles on my iPad. 7. I have occasionally made a move by accident when I would incorrectly believe I’m in demonstration mode but really am not; the button to commit a move when in “live” mode is in the same spot and is same color as the take back button when in demonstration mode. Of course that is user error but when playing many games it is an easy mistake to make. 8. The rules do not clearly state whether chess engines can be used to suggest moves. I don’t know why anyone would use an engine like that but official FIDE postal chess allows engines (USCF forbids them). That said, I do not believe any of my opponents have ever used an engine for assistance. Post game computer analysis almost always reveals inaccuracies on both sides that a computer engine would never miss, and even when a player plays a highly accurate it still looks like human moves. But the rule forbidding engine assistance should be expressed. 9. I mentioned the note feature, but more useful than saving notes would be the ability to save lines that you’ve tried on the demonstration board. In cases where I believe I can force an advantageous line but might not remember all the work that I’ve put into my analysis, I end up taking a series of screen shots of each move as a way of saving the idea. This long list of suggested improvement may give the wrong impression of my opinion of the app. I really do love it and use it every day. That I can make such a detailed list of suggestions proves how much I use this nice app.