Pulsar includes levels for all its games and the rules of Chess and
each variant are included as well. It's add free. It defaults to
chess at Easy(which is about 1200 rating so not entirely novice) if
the users just starts playing otherwise go to the game button and
choose new game to configure a more specific game. Last game type
played is saved on restart of the app. There are some choices for
board colors and chess pieces as well as the apps background color.
This is the same Pulsar chess program that I started for computers
beginning in 1998.
Pulsar started as a chess program and over time learned variants.
It remains an interesting chess only program if the users it not
interested in variants and I tend to just play chess. I ran it
extensively on two chess servers testing the app against strong
players and also testing how to handicap it on handicapped computer
bots. The ratings that appear on the board when selecting from the
first 8 difficulty levels are estimates based on what I saw running
it at various strengths.
Pulsar does not read game files but it does save all games in a PGN
game format. There's an option on the game menu to manage the log
file and export it out as an email attachment or delete it
preferably only after exporting but up to the user. After a game
finishes the user can also just mail their last game.
On game / new game if play vs the computer is unchecked the user
can play in two person mode which I've found useful when I have a
device and want to play a chess game but no chess board with
another person who is present.
The Atomic Chess variant in Pulsar follows ICC rules and has no
concept of check and king can castle in check. In Crazyhouse the
user can use a turn to drop on board any of the pieces they have
captured and the piece palette with the drop pieces appears to
right of board. So if you try to the app to play chess(main thing I
play) or Crazyhouse or play Atomic or any of the other chess
variants like Loser's Chess enjoy the app and the game play and
feel free to let us know what you think if you want. We are new to
Android but have been on another mobile OS and the Android version
should be a fairly exact copy of the other app with some
improvements.