This is the second installment of our QuicklyBored Guide to Mobile Chess. This time we are pitting ChessGenius against our friend Deep Fritz in an all out chess battle. The name ChessGenius immediately gives me the impression that this is going to be a good fight; unless of course the name is a total misnomer.
The first thing I notice when the game starts is that the menu screen is a little hidden, you need to press the soft keys to get to it. Once you get to the menu, the options are much more plentiful than ZingMagic’s chess. There are many great game options to choose from. You can play a variety of game types such as 1P, 2P or watch the ChessGenius engine play itself.
One of my biggest pet peeves in chess games is the inability to quickly move your piece to the desired space on the board. In this respect, ChessGenius was better than ZingMagic’s chess. There is an option in ChessGenius where it will show you the available spaces and this helps a little when navigating. Sometimes it takes a little while to scroll around the available spots to the one you want to move to; this can be frustrating.
Also of note, there is a lot of white space in game layout. I personally like to have well-defined game pieces and this game really skimped out on the board size. On the upside, it gives you some details about the game that weren’t revealed in previous games such as the moves. Still, mobile phone screens are small enough so we need to optimize not reduce the screen usage.
ChessGenius claims to have an ELO rating of 2795, which would make it on par with Garry Kasparov and close to the Hydra supercomputer. Its site also claims to have beaten Novag Star Diamond, a chess engine with a rating of around 2500. Our rating was considerably less but there is the potential for deflated ratings.
The chess engine is better than ZingMagic but it’s still not great. With an ELO of 2072, ChessGenius is in the “Expert” class of ELO ratings. Considering this game costs $20 it should have a chess engine that can play chess with you while giving your neck a sensual massage. Chess engines should be in the GrandMaster levels because otherwise they are not worth playing.
I am still not sure how far up the ELO scale these games will climb, but I do believe we can do better than this. Our next review will be of Medieval Kings Chess 2.
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