Using SmartChess!

SmartChess! puts a vast world of chess knowledge in the palm of your hand. Chess pieces spring into action—accompanied by helpful author comments and explanations—after a simple finger tap on the screen of your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. You can jump directly to any chapter using the always-visible Table of Contents icon and you can easily adjust font size, font color and screen background to suit your reading preferences.

All nested lines and variations are literally at your fingertips—instead of setting up multiple boards to follow the twists and turns of a complex game, just tap your finger to play through each variation at your convenience. You can even play through cited games from start to finish and then return to the main game. Navigation arrows make it easy to “flip” between pages or even to skip pages.

At any point in a SmartChess! book or lesson you can try moves not mentioned by the author. When you are done exploring these alternatives you can return to the main text by simply tapping the action arrow on your screen.

Build your own SmartChess! library using In-App Purchase in the built-in bookstore; our catalog contains classic books written by many legendary Grandmasters, including Capablanca, Lasker, Alekhine and Reti. More titles are continuously being added, so check back frequently. You can also purchase short lessons by popular bloggers and video lecturers.

Opening theory is evolving faster than ever, so be sure to hone your opening repertoire with monthly Opening Updates and Opening eBooks written by famous authors from ChessPublishing.com, a respected source for the latest advances in opening theory.

You can use SmartChess! to train interactively, either against the built-in chess engine (complete with adjustable difficulty settings) or against another human player; a built-in clock with presets for many popular time controls is provided.

SmartChess! is preloaded with two free lessons—The Rules of Chess and Setting up Tactical Combinations—and three free game collections (Fischer-Spassky 1972 Match, Fischer-Spassky 1992 Match and Hastings 1895). More game collections—conveniently organized by players, openings, events and years—are available for purchase through the built-in Bookstore.

Features

Key Elements

  • Interactive chess book reader
  • Choice of board and piece designs
  • Blindfold Chess
  • Position Setup
  • Show Coordinates
  • Highlight Last Move
  • Adjustable Font Size
  • Free updates for life

Books & Lessons

  • Classic books and modern best-selling titles such as Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual and Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, Tal-Botvinnik 1960, and The ChessCafe Puzzle Book 1, 2 & 3
  • New books and lessons released frequently
  • Explore other variations not mentioned by the author
  • Unpublished works by today's leading authors
  • Includes two free lessons: The Rules of Chess (Bruce Pandolfini) and Setting Up Tactical Combinations

Openings Library

  • Learn and play through more than 2,000 computer-verified lines.
  • Complete game scores enable the user to see the connection between the opening moves and subsequent middlegame play

Game Collections

  • By Opening
  • By Players (Kasparov vs Karpov, etc.)
  • By Famous Tournaments (Zurich 1953, Hastings 1895, etc.)
  • By World Championship Matches (Fischer vs Spassky, Tal vs Botvinnik, etc.)
  • By Year
  • Preloaded with Fischer-Spassky 1972 Match, Fischer-Spassky 1992 Match and Hastings 1895

Puzzle Packs

  • Puzzles are drawn from games played since 2010
  • Puzzles include full game scores, placing the tactical motif in context

Chess Engine

  • Standard time controls, Player vs Player, Player vs Engine and Engine vs Player modes
  • Adjustable difficulty levels to suit your playing strength
  • Good sparring partner