What Chess App Do You Currently Have in Your iPhone?

With over 350,000 apps in the Apple iTunes Store, there has got to be some for chess playing iPhone users.

Here's my list of the chess App you'll see in my iPhone:

• Chess.com - of course, for playing correspondence chess;
• Stockfish - nothing beats the free but strong chess playing software. There are lots of features missing, though, as compared to the paid apps, but the quality or the playing strength of the engine is something you shouldn't even let pass;
• tChess Pro - I opted for this one over Shredder Chess and Hiarcs because of the compatibility of the one app for both iPhone/iPod Touch and the iPad, meaning once you purchase one for iPhone, you don't have to repurchase another version for the iPad. Plus, I really liked how you can open PGN files from your email to this program, quite handy if you need a quick analysis of any game you have at your disposal;
• Online Chess - used this to play chess at FICS (freechess.org), but because of the too small interface for rapid and especially blitz games, this isn't just the optimal software and hardware;
• ChessClock - a free app that you can use as a digital chess clock. Quite handy especially if you mind lagging around with your official chess clock. With this app, you always have a chess clock (and digital that is, you can play fischer time with increments, etc.) at your pocket;

What about in my iPad? That's for another post. What about yours? What do you have in your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad so far related to chess?

Game Analysis: Deuts vs. Mozgoved

"This is the first installment for the new chess hive. I met Mozgoved from Playchess.com server. He made a few back-and-forth moves that somehow contributed to his cramped position.

This game was analyzed with ChessProgram12 software, with Fritz12 as the chess engine. Additional commentaries were then added by me.

Note that you can replay through the game using your arrow keys. You can click on the white triangle to play through the variations.

Would love to hear your inputs about this game. Please leave a comment below. We can discuss more variations."

Magnus Carlsen Losing His Magic?

The young Magnus Carlsen finds himself tied at the fourth place after round 4 in the Tal Memorial 2009 tournament.

All games were drawn, except one: Vladimir Kramnik beat Peter Svidler in an Exchange Grünfeld that looked quite effortless on the part of the former World Champion. Magnus Carlsen, it was revealed, is suffering from a throat infection and has played his last three games with A fever. The Norwegian is now on antibiotics.


— Chessbase

Was it really the infection or he's just lost his magic from his super performance at Nanjing?

In the November 2009 Official FIDE Rankings List, Carlsen was No. 2, nine ELO-points behind Veselin Topalov at 2801, already broke the 2800 barrier.

Where is Wesley So?

Apparently Wesley So dropped out of the Top 100 in the November 2009 FIDE List. But he's No. 7 in the Top 20 Juniors. Hoping for a big rebound when the next list will be out.