Received my Square Off board today
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Received my Square Off board today
Board is beautiful and pieces are self-moving quite decently. However, the (Android) application is really a piece of crap.
I hope that they will improve it, or provide the API
-Alain
- Bryan Whitby
- Senior Member
- Posts: 1003
- Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:57 pm
- Location: England
- Bryan Whitby
- Senior Member
- Posts: 1003
- Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:57 pm
- Location: England
-
- Full Member
- Posts: 865
- Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2016 2:24 am
- Location: Kingsport, TN
I exchanged a couple of mails with Square Off team: obviously, they do not understand how poor their application is and how it is definitely a show stopper for their product. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the missing features in my opinion:
- Pause / resume game
- Take back move
- Switch level during game (no possibility to switch side either)
- Setup position
- See the move list
- Export as PGN
Not counting that there is no information about the 20+ levels: the first ones are definitely really weak and seem to be playing randomly, i.e. they do not even grab free pieces, their only strength is that they go for the king, which make Square Off win games against computers such as CC7 which do not see threads on the king.
Here is a game played against CC7:
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Fidelity Chess Challenger 7, lvl 2"]
[Black "Square Off, lvl 4"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[PlyCount "93"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 Bf5 4. Bf4 Nbd7 5. e3 Bg6 6. Bb5 e6 7. O-O Bh5 8.
Qd3 c6 9. Ba4 Bg6 10. Qe2 Nh5 11. Bb3 Nxf4 12. exf4 b5 13. a4 a6 14. Rfe1 b4
15. Na2 Bd6 16. Ne5 c5 17. Nxg6 hxg6 18. Bxd5 Ra7 19. dxc5 Nxc5 20. Nxb4 Bxf4
21. g3 Qb6 22. Bc6+ Kf8 23. gxf4 a5 24. c3 Nb3 25. Qb5 Qd8 26. Rad1 Nd2 27. Nd3
Rh5 28. Re5 Rxe5 29. fxe5 Kg8 30. Re1 g5 31. b4 Kh7 32. Re2 Nb1 33. Qc4 Qe7 34.
Re1 Na3 35. Qb3 Rd7 36. Bxd7 Qxd7 37. Nc5 Qd2 38. Rd1 Qf4 39. Nd3 Qh4 40. bxa5
Nc4 41. a6 Na5 42. Qb4 Nc4 43. Re1 Qg4+ 44. Kh1 Qf3+ 45. Kg1 Qg4+ 46. Kh1 Qf3+
47. Kg1 1/2-1/2
Square Off guy told me that they would eventually release the API / protocol... I definitely think that it's mandatory given the current app, and I would advise against buying the board before.
-Alain
- Pause / resume game
- Take back move
- Switch level during game (no possibility to switch side either)
- Setup position
- See the move list
- Export as PGN
Not counting that there is no information about the 20+ levels: the first ones are definitely really weak and seem to be playing randomly, i.e. they do not even grab free pieces, their only strength is that they go for the king, which make Square Off win games against computers such as CC7 which do not see threads on the king.
Here is a game played against CC7:
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Fidelity Chess Challenger 7, lvl 2"]
[Black "Square Off, lvl 4"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[PlyCount "93"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 Bf5 4. Bf4 Nbd7 5. e3 Bg6 6. Bb5 e6 7. O-O Bh5 8.
Qd3 c6 9. Ba4 Bg6 10. Qe2 Nh5 11. Bb3 Nxf4 12. exf4 b5 13. a4 a6 14. Rfe1 b4
15. Na2 Bd6 16. Ne5 c5 17. Nxg6 hxg6 18. Bxd5 Ra7 19. dxc5 Nxc5 20. Nxb4 Bxf4
21. g3 Qb6 22. Bc6+ Kf8 23. gxf4 a5 24. c3 Nb3 25. Qb5 Qd8 26. Rad1 Nd2 27. Nd3
Rh5 28. Re5 Rxe5 29. fxe5 Kg8 30. Re1 g5 31. b4 Kh7 32. Re2 Nb1 33. Qc4 Qe7 34.
Re1 Na3 35. Qb3 Rd7 36. Bxd7 Qxd7 37. Nc5 Qd2 38. Rd1 Qf4 39. Nd3 Qh4 40. bxa5
Nc4 41. a6 Na5 42. Qb4 Nc4 43. Re1 Qg4+ 44. Kh1 Qf3+ 45. Kg1 Qg4+ 46. Kh1 Qf3+
47. Kg1 1/2-1/2
Square Off guy told me that they would eventually release the API / protocol... I definitely think that it's mandatory given the current app, and I would advise against buying the board before.
-Alain