Review: Glaurung Chess for iPhone & iPod Touch

This is the first in a series of reviews of chess applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The touch screen on these devices is a great interface that really works well for chess. There are a number of chess programs available in the App Store, but today I'm reviewing one of the better options: Glaurung Chess by Tord Romstad.

Glaurung Chess is a port of an open-source chess engine for the Mac. The engine is very strong (about 2700 ELO) and aggressive. Glaurung has most of the features you would expect from a commercial chess package, including analysis, an opening book tree, the ability to setup positions, and the ability to save & e-mail games as Portable Game Notation (PGN) files. This last feature is especially useful. I recently used Glaurung at a chess tournament to record my notation in-between rounds. When I got home, I simply had to e-mail the PGN file to myself to import it into my PC's chess database.



Graphically, Glaurung is a bit plain. It features two piece sets and five board colors. The menu options, while functional, can be a bit confusing to navigate. For example, under the 'Game' menu is an option called 'Level/Game Mode' where you set the players and time control. However, the actual level of computer playing strength is controlled under the 'Options' menu. Glaurung supports both the 'tap-drag' and 'tap-tap' methods of moving pieces, so you can enter moves quite easily.

The best thing about Glaurung is the price. As open-source software, it is available completely free of charge. Other applications with similar features cost $4.99 or more. Given Glaurung's excellent price point, there's no reason not to get this app.

PROS

Strong engine
Analysis
Opening book tree
Ability to setup positions
Ability to save games as PGNs
Free!

CONS

Mediocre graphics
Confusing menus

Overall Rating: 4/5