Chess

Perhaps the best chess app we've found so far.

Chess. Mental fencing, willpower warfare, the triumph of mind over matter, or those little wooden pieces on a board that elder carry every other morning to the park. No matter how you call it, it should be on your mobile. Of course, there are a lot of very fun little games perfectly fitted to waste your time, but none of them is chess.
We believe that this app has some interesting features that differentiate it from many others we've seen so far. First at all, there are written, easily explained, the game rules, so this app's suitable for those who want to learn nearly from the very beginning. En passant capture and castling will be no more esoteric concepts.

The first thing that catches our attention of this app is that just as it's launched there's a small intro, where we see the machine play against itself. It's a nice touch.

There are ten difficulty levels, three boards and three piece sets. There should be tens of them, but it's true that the strangest sets would slow down too much the game. In lower difficulty levels, the IA is weaker but not stupid and does not commit inexplicable failures (at least, not too often), so the experience for the beginner is optimal. At the end of the game, the match can be reviewed. This option is useful to learn how to write matches down, but it's a pity that transcripts can't be shared or saved. Of course, games can be saved and resumed later. On the other hand, the pros will be satisfied with the option to see what action is evaluating the machine before moving.

There's a hot seat option to play with a friend. If it would be available to play with a friend online, we ought to give the fifth star. This paid version has no ads, but doesn't have any extra features.