Diamond Chess Online

Category

Description of App

Play chess online at FICS or ICC, play the Pulsar Chess Engine on or offline with chess and variants like Chess960 with levels, and use the Openings Explorer with an opening tree book based on 345,000 over the board games and analysis which also works offline. There is In-App help. For online play, if no account, use the Connect as Guest button to play unrated. FICS accounts are life time free accounts. Diamond Chess supports Dark Mode and has no ads.
Diamond Chess seeks to be a complete chess app, not just online play. All games are logged that are played, and there is the ability to load and examine them with engine analysis to study and learn from last games. The Watch Game Board option watches a high rated game which is also designed as a way to improve in chess by watching. On FICS the Find a Game Board Option has a Training tab for endgame and puzzle studies that both guests and members can use.
The Explorer Tab which works offline or online with certain restrictions while playing, offers an Opening Tree based on 345K over the board games were both players are rated over 2300. The move table view can be toggled to show analysis and PGN games including the players log file can be loaded. The chess opening name is also given after a few moves are made. There are 10 PGN game collections available in app that include Morphy 1858, Fischer’s best games, a Capablanca and Kasparov collection, and a range of game collections from classical too modern to be viewed with the opening book and analysis, on and offline.
There is an on board multi level chess program that plays chess, chess960, a form of shuffle chess, and a few variants such as Crazyhouse, Atomic Chess and Loser's Chess. The engine option on the connect tab is available on and off line. On ICC there is an option for members to play 50 Chess Videos in app which trials can access too.
As a guest by moving between ICC and FICS users can experience two different playing pools. Guests on FICS can observe high rated games on FICS, and view theirs or other players recent games. On ICC guests can use the Play Bots option to play tactical and endgame bots, play other players, view games that are finished from important relays with Broadcast option, and view their recent games by the open log file option.
The Diamond Chess board features engine analysis with one click when observing a chess game or examining one. Diamond also has a load PGN option and logs all played games to PGN. Multiple games can be up at once and users click the next or previous buttons to move between them.
Diamond Chess supports both chess and the server's variants such as Crazyhouse, Losers, Atomic Chess, Giveaway or Suicide Chess.
Diamond has an accessible board to use with Voice Over for the visually impaired. On the settings tab in the Voice Over section, there is Voice Over help available with commands that can be used from the console.
Members can join channels and chat in the Diamond Chess console or if the users is familiar with them issue server commands.
ICC, Internet Chess Club, has free levels and free guest access. FICS, Free Internet Chess Server, is entirely free.

Version

1.30

Free or Paid

Free

Version Of macOS App Was Tested On

12.1

Accessibility Comments

From the app:
cmd or ctrl + 1...5 will switch to that tab;
cmd or ctrl + l: announces last move if possible;
cmd or ctrl + b: announces blacks clock if possible;
cmd or ctrl + o: announces whites clock if possible;
cmd or ctrl + y: changes voice overs auto focus policy or toggles it. Default is typing area loses focus on typing enter;
Commands for quickly read the console output:
opt + 0...9: announce the last tells in console of that number;
Commands to type directly within the input field:
/.r: calls process blind rating. It should gives both white and blacks ratings;
/.m: reports the material balance;
Chessboard inspection (These next two, inspection by row or column, will always be a 3 characters length)
/.a: gives the pieces on column a on chessboard. It goes a through h;
/.1: gives row 1 pieces. It goes 1 through 8;
pieces inspection (four characters commands)
/.[NameColor]: reports the position of searched piece;
piece's name are k q b n r and p;
colors are w or b
so /.bk searches for black king, /.wq for white queen and /.bn for black knights.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Recommendations

1 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Val Sedai 2 years 11 months ago

Options