Hi all,

I'm trying to find an app that will let me record chess games I've played/am playing. I want to be able to record different variations as I keep forgetting analysis I've already worked out. Does anyone know if such an app exists?

There are various PGN readers (that's the most common file format for saving chess games) but I can't find any that let you enter your own games.

Thanks

I think that, realistically, this is going to be impossible unless a chess app itself has the facility to record its own games. The problem is that, on the iPad, apps are entirely isolated - Apple calls them 'sandboxed' - which means that it's not possible for one app to interact with another app directly. Only very limited and strictly controlled interaction, via the iPad's operating system iOS, is allowed. This was partly introduced to minimise/eliminate the possibility of virus infection but it has, as a side effect, the unfortunate restriction of the sort of thing that you're looking for, which would require the 'recording' app to be able to interact with the 'playing' app.

Tim

Sorry, maybe I didn't explain myself properly. A chess app that can record its own games is exactly what I'm looking for!

I don't need this app to interact with other apps. I'll describe the sort of thing I'm looking for - it's very simple and I see no reason why it couldn't be implemented even with Apple's restrictions.

On the screen you have a chess board. I can control both black and white. Say I play 10 moves each for black and white. Then I press a back button to go to before white's 8th move and I play a different move. Instead of overwriting the move I played last time, the app starts a new "line" and allows me to continue playing. Now if I scroll back to the beginning and play through the game, when I get to move 8 and press the forward button the app gives me a little menu of which of the two lines to follow.

Ideally I could also enter annotations and save different games too, though just something with the basic functionality I described would be a good start. Quite possibly such an app already exists and I haven't been able to find it, though I have looked.

Edit: apps that let you look at PGN files with variations exist, but I want one that will let me input games on the iPad, not one where I have to make files somewhere else and import them.

OK - apologies for the misunderstanding. I'm sure someone will come along soon with some suggestions.

Tim

You might find what you are looking for if this thread was in our App Section.

Mia culpa - you are so right, sweet Marie...

Tim

Originally Posted by Tim SPRACKLEN

I think that, realistically, this is going to be impossible unless a chess app itself has the facility to record its own games. The problem is that, on the iPad, apps are entirely isolated - Apple calls them 'sandboxed' - which means that it's not possible for one app to interact with another app directly. Only very limited and strictly controlled interaction, via the iPad's operating system iOS, is allowed. This was partly introduced to minimise/eliminate the possibility of virus infection but it has, as a side effect, the unfortunate restriction of the sort of thing that you're looking for, which would require the 'recording' app to be able to interact with the 'playing' app.

Tim

Not actually true. iOs has a protocol for passing info between apps, commonly known as "Open in" protocol. You can see the details at Loading…

Unfortunately Chess apps don't seem to implement this protocol for PGN files. ( If they did then we could pass PGN files around as easy as most Notes apps pass PDF's around ). I have emailed the tech support of the Chess apps I use, asking them to support this protocol. Perhaps if more people did this they would get the message