The static website won’t cut it.
After a few positive correspondences with Chess Arsenal users I see definite potential in community sharing about how we use the app. Hearing your feedback is also vital to steering Arsenal in useful directions for all its users. Please chime in with your suggestions, what you’re using, etc. Are you filling the app with every variation you can conceivably encounter? Do you drill lines during study time or is more of a time-killer on the bus?
Stay tuned for updates on the app and — who knows? — maybe anecdotes from my own chess prep adventures.
Reblogged this on Chess Musings and commented:
Chess Arsenal looks like a great opening training tool. I need to check it out and do a review soon.
Love the app. I’m using it to store and drill every variation I might run into, and it’s become a really efficient way to track all those lines.
So far, I input lines while I study and drill them later to kill time. Works great.
Some more board/piece options eventually would be fun.
Thanks for the app!
Love the app. I’m using it to drill every variation I might run into, and it’s become a really efficient way to keep track of all those lines.
So far, I input variations while I study and drill them later to kill time. Works great.
A few more board/piece options eventually would be fun.
Thanks for the app!
Glad to hear you’re finding it useful, Michael! I’ve added your board/piece suggestion to the task log. I’d definitely like to change a few look-and-feel items. Currently working on PGN import which doubles as a way to do backups so look for that in a couple weeks!
Sounds great! I was wondering about backup options.
One other question – will the quiz selection always be random, or will it eventually incorporate some kind of spaced repetition targeting weak areas?
Quiz selection uses a priority order:
1. Positions you’ve never tested are most likely.
2. Don’t repeat a quiz you just took.
3. Prioritize positions with lower test scores.
4. All else equal, prioritize positions you haven’t seen in a while.
Even given that list, there’s weighted randomness to mix things up.
That’s pretty funny about the 20-move deep lines. Maybe I should add to the list above: prioritize shorter lines!
Thought of one more feature suggestion (hope that’s okay).
In the training area, it would help to be able to limit the depth of the variations tested by selecting the maximum number of moves in the test.
I just entered some new variations and the first few random positions tested were 15-20 moves deep, which I’m obviously not ready for. If I could start by testing positions after “5 moves or less”, then 6, then 7, it would be more useful.
Thanks!
That’s great to know about the training prioritization and the upcoming pgn import!
In addition to adding a preference for shorter variations, it would be great if you could add a manual option for variation length in the training filter page as well.
Right now, I’d love to just drill the first 5/6 moves of my openings and slowly increase the depth as I feel ready. Since I keep running into long variations, I’m not finding the training feature as useful as it could be.
Michael
Ok it’s a really great app potentially. I heard about it from Greg Shahade, he mentioned it on his YouTube channal. But there is one major problem, there’s no ability to castle and that’s majorly applicable to opening theory!!! Other then that I’m pretty happy so far. 🙂 hope to see this app go far. Best of luck with it.
Hi! I’m a big fan of Greg’s videos. Not knowing them personally, I played him and his sister at the World Open several years ago; fun people! Do you have a link to his review?
That stinks about castling not working! I have an update in progress that will fix a castling bug: the castling rights are sometimes dropped when backing up through a game past a castling move. Then that gets saved. I should do a post on the planned update.
Thanks.
Just what I’ve been looking for! An app that lets you keep track of your own personal opening repertoire! Now I’m entering my lines and learning the ropes of the app. Thanks!
A note: though the app recognizes a transposing move when you enter it, it would be nice if the app could show (in another color?) a move you haven’t entered yet which would transpose into lines that you already have. This could show you possible transpositions that you hadn’t considered.
Also, the preferred way of naming isn’t always clear. I found that when you transpose that the line’s name sometimes doesn’t change. You can change it yourself, but then here’s more than one consideration here (filtering for training, recognizing what you’ve transposed to, etc.) so I’ll have to give this more thought.
Thanks again for an app that was really badly needed!
Hi Bob. Thanks, and I hope the app helps your studies.
Yeah, transpositions have been my bane on this project. The plan for a basic interface with a single line leading to the current position is upended whenever there are two paths, especially if they have different names. It’s hard to show all the names without cluttering the screen. What you’ll see in training is the app picking a random line from the possible transpositions to arrive at the current board.
E.g., two separate lines:
1. e4 (name “KP”) Nf6 2. d4 (key move)
1. d4 (name “QP”) Nf6 2. e4 (key move)
If you filter for just “KP” you might get the second line (“QP”). They’re the same quiz position, but it picks a random path to get you there.
I’m currently cleaning this up on the Results screen, somewhat for clarity but mostly motivated by slowness on my iPhone 4S with 500+ positions. Eventually those fixes could be drawn over into Training for less transposition weirdness.
I’m interested in real-life transpositions you’re using. My own openings don’t have many except my 1. e4 against the French and Caro.. I always play 2. d4. But I never open 1. d4 so no transposition is saved.
Oops — correcting my example to be the same position for black’s move 2…
1. e4 (name “KP”) Nf6 2. d4 g6 (key move)
1. d4 (name “QP”) Nf6 2. e4 g6 (key move)
Hi, one very important feature that will make it useful for strong players….you must be able to weight variations. Maybe from a scale of 1-3. Right now whenever I enter random sidelines, they show up as tests with the same frequency as main lines. This is a major problem and a gigantic time waster that makes the process relatively useless for me (I’m an IM). Instead I have to use manual methods to ensure that I see the more important lines more frequently.
So my advice: Weight each line on a scale from 1-3 or 1-5. 1 will be tested 2x as often as 2. 2 will be tested 2x as often as 3. 1 will be tested 4x as often as 3, and so on. This way I’m free to put in silly rare lines, without knowing that I’ll be tested on them with the same frequency as lines that I actually really have to know. Just like in a tournament, they will pop up from time to time, but it will be rare. This is the same way they should be studied.
Hi, Brian. Thanks for this wonderful app, it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. I was building up my repertoire using pen and paper. but it was so time consuming.
This seems ideal, to store all the lines along with annotations, and the actual board.
The problem I’m having is with it allowing only portrait–it seems–and I understand it was created mainly for the iPhone, but you know what the problem is with that: the screen size. In fact, you can’t find it from an iPad, where the default mode is iPad only, so you’ll have to switch to iPhone only in order to find it to begin with.
In fact, I’ve purchased it on my iPhone and then the iPad got it as well.
So there is this little problem: now that I can enjoy the bigger screen of the iPad Pro, I would like to be able to use the Apple keyboard.
Which, obviously can only be used in landscape, because of the position of the Smart Connectors, so if the app doesn’t support landscape, you cannot use the Apple keyboard.
I don’t have a problem with the moves, since the app types them automatically, which is wonderful, but a big chunk is the annotations to each move, which are invaluable, and that needs a lot of typing. Even the Apple keyboard used as a stand, works best with landscape.
Is there any chance, even a small one, that in the future this great app can be used in landscape as well? It’s a pity, since about the last version 1.5, which I probably got since I’ve only had it for a week or so, it is stated that it’s compatible with the iPad as well, so why not take advantage of the full features of an iPad and make it usable in landscape as well?
That would be awesome!
Hi Bruce, thanks for all the insightful feedback, and I’m glad you’re enjoying the app! While I’m trying to bring the app down to minimal bug fix support only — job, family, etc. commitments; the same as anyone — I do hear you on the iPad support and ordering of moves.
Greg Shahade, in another post, also requested a move ordering mechanism based on likelihood of the response being played.
Similarly desirable, perhaps more so, is the iPad support, which I’ve wanted to add from the beginning but never had an iPad and wanted to do a good job of it, so it hasn’t happened yet. It may yet! Would it be sufficient to provide a basic and landscape only design? I’m thinking the board at right and move list or menu at left.
Please don’t hold your breath because I don’t want to deprive anyone of oxygen, but I’ll see what I can do on at least one of these the next time there’s a crash fix. There needs to be one soon: something’s up with PGN imports.
Thanks for answering, Obliviax. The problem with the IPad Pro is that I really want to purchase the Smart Keyboard, for I have quite a lot of annotations to write in the comments box. But obviously it cannot be done in portrait, due to the position of the Smart Connectors.
A solution is to purchase a very cheap universal keyboard, and then connect it through Bluetooth, while using the IPad any way I please. But it’s not the same, plus I’d have one more device to charge and, of course, the quality of the keyboard, while very cheap, wouldn’t quite be the same.
So instead of purchasing that keyboard I’ve decided to first contact the developer and see if a landscape would be possible in the future.
Most of the work I do on this IPad is on Chess Arsenal, every single day. So buying a good keyboard that doesn’t work with what I mostly do on it makes little sense. And yet it feels that it’s incomplete without using it with a real keyboard, IPad Pro, that is. I’m already using the Apple Pencil to store the actual moves, since for this particular ‘job’ it’s better than the finger, so if I could also use their Smart Keyboard it would be awesome.
It’s by far the best App of its kind in IOS–I haven’t checked google play since I don’t have any androids, although it’s hard to imagine something better–and maybe one day, as you say, we’ll be able to use it in landscape as well, so we can also use a normal keyboard. I mean, just to be given a choice, and then anyone can use it as they please.
Thanks for listening.
Oh, and another thing about the Smsrt Keyboard. You see, it can also be used as a stand, which is great (and as a Smart Cover as well–the iPad goes to sleep when you cover the screen with it and wakes up when you lift the cover–), but as a stand it cannot be used to support the portrait viewing angle, which means one has to simply use another type of cover, which is frustrating to switch back and forth between the two!
As for the design itself, yeah, simple would be fine–at least until you find ways of making it even better, but to start almost anything would be fine.
However, since you asked and suggested one way of implementing this, I was thinking the opposite! Like the board to the left, the logic being that the first thing we see( in this culture at least!) is what’s on the left; so to see a bunch of moves first is a bit illogical; the board would come first, and then the moves, which are an explanation of the board and/or a way to proceed from that central, basic position. At least that’s how my brain works.
As for ordering moves for training purposes, so as to get odd lines less often during quizzes, for me, personally, it’s not important: I can quiz myself. You see, during such quizzes by the app there is room for weakness for us humans. Because the quiz gives a certain line up to a point, which assumes we’re ok with the moves leading up to the ‘key’ move. But that may cover up an oblivion to other moves, which again we may take ( falsely) for granted.
I think that anyway the app questions you on the key moves only, which in my case it wouldn’t even work, since I use the key symbol in order to identify mostly weak moves(!) so they can be placed on top, because like I said earlier I follow the ECO and NCO ( and ICO, for that matter) progression ( and not MCO, for instance), because that’s the natural progression, from weak to strong, and being on top those moves are spotted first.
So I’d rather quiz myself the whole line, not missing anything. And perhaps, yes, on top of that I can occasionally let myself be quizzed, although perhaps when the key symbol wouldn’t force me to use it the way I do now. Which again, in my case, it would make my memory mark the weak moves!
Either way, Chess Arsenal is the best of its kind–we’re only trying to approach perfection, that’s all!
Thanks for listening.
By the way, one great thing about the app is that transpositions cover the comments’ section as well! So if you leave a comment on a position and then the same position is being reached from another line one doesn’t have to re-write the comment: it’s already there!!
By the way, one great thing about the app is that transpositions cover the comments’ section as well! So if you leave a comment on a position and then the same position is being reached from another line one doesn’t have to re-write the comment: it’s already there!!
Also, there is no way to rearrange the replies to a certain move, it seems. It goes alphabetically. Except by using the key symbol. So if I use the key–intended as a preferred move–it will jump up to the top. But to separate further between moves–stronger or weaker–is not possible, so one can only hope that the alphabet won’t separate them the wrong way. The right way being from the weakest to the strongest and vice-versa.
So I simply wish there were additional tools to help order the moves according to their perceived strength.
By the way, I am using the order of the moves as ECO and NCO use it: weakest on top, strongest at the bottom. So the weakest moves tend to have the key symbol attached to them( to separate them from the strongest), which is not how it( the key symbol) was intended to be used…
Oh, one more thing, Brian. Maybe I don’t know where they are, but it seems that your excellent app has no chess symbols, so I’m struggling to explain in words evaluations after each line, or use( at best) signs like plus before equal, instead of plus over equal, or minus before plus instead of minus over plus. If they exist somewhere maybe you can point me in the right direction.
And earlier you were talking about problems importing PGN files–I’m having problems with updating the content on the iPhone, after, say, one day working on the iPad, obviously trying to avoid re-writing the additions on the iPhone as well.
I email it to myself, open it in iPhone, then open it in Arsenal, but it’s the exact same content as before, no matter what I tap, update or replace; I even tried to erase the whole thing on the iPhone and then import everything from the iPad–but still, it imports the same old file, which doesn’t include the updates.
I guess it is here that I’m stuck: I don’t know how to one, create a new file and two, erase the old one, because if I could erase the old one then when I’d try to export it to the iPhone a new file would be created by the app, which would include the new updates that I made on that particular day.
I’m still educating myself about how it works–one day I’ll get it!
Nothing new, Brian? Regarding the landscape option, that is. I mean, is it even possible to make it work in landscape, it its whole design was for portrait? If it’s physically possible—without starting over the whole thing —then there is hope.
I’m on the verge of getting a keyboard, so I can either get the Apple Magic Keyboard ( if it’s gonna be Portrait for a while) or the Smart Keyboard (if there is a chance for the Landscdpe in the near future).
I’d appreciate your attention to this matter. Thank you.
Bruce, I wish I could give you a satisfactory answer but I estimate a proper portrait redesign of the app to take between 40 and 120 hours, while finding even a half hour for hobbies has not happened in a couple months. After March I may have enough professional and personal stuff resolved to pay it proper mind. I’m sorry I can’t roll out a landscape mode at this time. – Brian
Thanks, Brian, for your prompt answer. So it IS possible, after all. Ok, that changes everyone, because I will purchase the Smart Keyboard( which doesn’t have Bluetooth and so cannot be used in portrait) and just wait for the change, maybe next month, as you say. I mean, I’m in the Apple Store right now!
Thanks again.
Correction: I meant, AFTER March, ‘as you say.’
Nevermind my earlier question on move limit. I see I can change it in the import settings. Thanks!
Hi,
I went down the path of saving my repertoire in different files. French, English, etc. I find that works well except that the study positions are not saved when I delete/import a new file. Is there a solution – do I have to keep everything in a single file and never do the database reset?
Hey Mike! Are you exporting each one to PGN file? I would expect that to work. If you’d like to send me your files at ChessArsenal [at] gmail.com, I can see if something went wrong. Each study position should be saved with a marker on it: off the top of my head, the marker is *My Move*. When you import it back in and go to the Repertoire screen, each position following a study move should have the key symbol highlighted.
Hey, Brian. Still waiting for that promised landscape option…C’mon, man, iOS11 is coming next month, most chess apps come with the landscape option—for some it’s the only option!—what are we waiting for?!
After all, an iPad is much better to use for this scope than a smalller iPhone. Let’s make it iPad-friendly! Pretty please?!
Hi Bruce, we’re waiting for life to deliver free time for stuff like app development! 🙂 I’m glad to say I’ve put in several days of work, rewritten most of the layout, and it’s about 90% there. The iPad design isn’t quite what I wanted and I’m afraid that by putting this out, it will invite more requests, but I have to put a limit on it so I can be done with it.
Current state: all screens done except the training screen… update to follow.
Thanks so much, Brian, that’s really good news, now I’ll finally be able to use the Smart Keybiard without twisting my neck like in landscape mode, but with the app in portrait! If it were up to me, I’d roll it out like that, without the training screen, as long as the study positions screen works.
And I don’t quite understand what else can anybody else ask for? The app is perfect as it is, it only needed a landscape option, which might even look better on a 5.5 or the anticipated 5.8 screens.
I understand you created this for the iPhone, but being on the go with a cellular iPad is even better. The iPad really is a powerful device in general, and particularly when it comes to chess.
Thank you so much for the good news!
Oh, probably you meant people asking for various uses of the the Apple Pencil within the app…Don’t worry, just the option to use it in landscape is good enough. The only thing is that now Apple is gonna take its time to green light it, another few months…Bummer,
The other thing is that sometimes the app doesn’t remember the position for too long. Maybe half an hour, but then it’s back to the initial position. I was wondering why. I mean good thing with the ‘study positions’, so you can bypass a lot of moves, but still, the question remains.
Oh, by the way, I guess another thing people might ask for
with its use on an iPad—landscape or portrait—might be the ability to split the screen. Like when you read annotations from an ebook, and want to input the moves as well as commentaries, where a split screen lets you see both, rather than switching back and forth between the ebook and the app a hundred times!
The other solution is to buy another iPad and use one for readin and the other for inputting the moves…
Either way, just making it available for iPads in landscape is awesome!
Hey, Brian, I apologize in advance, as my question concerns another app, which I know you are using, though: Chessbase.
Firstly, is it possible to annotate in Chessbase on an iPhone or iPad? I mean inserting text, words, not just new moves. I know it’s possible on Androids, but what about iPhones and iPads? For the life of me, I can’t get an answer to this, and I thought you might have an one.
Secondly, if I’m sending the whole repertoire (Chess Arsaenal) from my iPad to my iPhone, it crashes and won’t transfer. Am I doing something wrong? It seems to be working with much smaller files…
And finally, is it possible to transfer back and forth between Chess Arsenal and Chessbase?
Sorry, never used Chessbase products on a mobile device. If Arsenal is crashing, feel free to send any files to me at ChessArsenal gmail.com and let me know if it fails on the export or import. Exported PGNs should import correctly into Chessbase; if not, I’ll try it on the PC version and see if there’s a bug.
BTW, the iPad/landscape update will go to app store as soon as I’m back home. Should be early this week, then ~2 days for Apple review.
Happy tactics,
Brian
Thanks, Brian for the answer. Never used Chessbase on a mobil device, huh? Ok, then it’s like nobody knows—I even emailed Chessbase support twice and they’ve never responded…
Thanks so much for the landscape option, and the reason I said above that it takes a couple of months for Apple to review it is because I was trying to get another chess app which allows practicing the moves you read from a book purchased from them—here endings work better than openings since you don’t have to make a repertoire for endings—and they kept telling me it’s up for Apple review, literally for a couple of months!
As for the files, I will be getting the newest iPad, since probably I still can’t use the split screen fully, even in landscape, so that I can input annotations from various materials, without switching apps every 5 seconds (!) ( you said no more requests will be honored), so I’ll see if they keep crashing.
The other situations (apart from Chess Arsenal to Chessbase) is when I leave it open in one position—it doesn’t matter what I’m working on—if I leave it there, go to other apps and later come back, I have to start from scratch—but not always, most of the times but not always! Which is annoying because I don’t understand the pattern.
Thanks again for your hard work to make the landscape option possible!
Oh, I just got my first glimpse at the landscape!! For some reason I’ve got iOS11 since yesterday ( while on the iPhones it was still 10.3.3 the latest available), installed it today and it only goes to landscape if I choose, say, iBooks to split the screen with. When I remove the iBooks, it goes back to portrait.
The problem is that there is no room left for the moves that were stored. The iBooks covers the right part, and when I remove it, it goes blank for a second and then goes back to portrait. But with iBooks alongside it stays in landscape forever!
I’m sure it will fix itself once Apple introduces your version of landscape.
Hi Bruce, I just wanted to check if the landscape is working okay for you. I have an update to make before iPhone X comes along. Thanks for all the input to date.
Hmm.. also I should look into a message board instead of this ultra-long message chain.
Hi, Brian! No updates at all?! Like the ability to zoom in on the annotations with your fingers—a very important feature…or the use of the Apple Pencil? Just wondering what”s in store, if anything…
By the way,
I haven’t realized until recently that we can change the order of the candidates as we please now, so I’m glad that you took care of that, which implied getting rid of the use for the key feature, which I was previously using to rearrange that order to some degree, thus misusing it.
Waiting for an answer when you have a chance. Thanks.
Any new features in the future?
As you already know, Brian, this is my favorite chess ap. Now that I’ve become a more proficient player thanks to it and to you, I’d like to be able to train variations starting e.g. from the study list without having to go through the initial moves. Have a great 2020! Mike Horne
Hi Mike, happy 2020! Good suggestion, and important. I’ll see what I can do.