Category: followchess

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android followchess

What’s new in Follow Chess Android v3.6


Follow Chess Android v3.6 was released yesterday.

WHATS NEW

* Remember when you would open the App and sometimes find that the status of the event is showing LIVE even if the event is NOT or the event may have started but it shows the next round time instead of LIVE? Some very important changes under the hood to provide accurate status of tournaments.
Well thats fixed.

* Sometime back, one Twitter user had mentioned this:


https://twitter.com/zeverzak90/status/1172136358565031936

And this was always a dilemma for us. Whether to have quick access to standings as soon as you open the app, or only from within the Event stream. Why not both?
Now its easy to view standings and all games from the multi-board screen. Just swipe right-to-left!


* Other improvements to the Chat to make it more social.

These changes will soon be coming over to iOS.

Categories
android followchess ios

Follow Chess – From floating board to China mode

New update to Follow Chess Android and iOS apps is now available.

WHATS NEW

Floating Board (Android 8.0+ only)

Imagine you are following an interesting game and wish to keep an eye on it while you use other apps [well you just don’t know when the players are going to make a move! 😉 ]
Now with the Floating Board feature, just press the Home button in the Analysis Board screen!
So whichever LIVE game you have in front of you in the Analysis Board screen, will be displayed in a small board window! How magical!

  • This feature is only on Android OS running 8.0 or above
  • The board will appear on top of any apps that you use
  • The live moves will automatically update inside the floating board!
  • To quickly dismiss the board, just swipe/flick down the bottom edge of your screen

Team Results (Android & iOS)

For quite some time, we had received your feedback, on how difficult it is to understand the Team composition during a Team event. Especially for events like the Bundesliga or Turkish Super League, where it is not easy to know which player is part of which team. If Vishy is playing in Bundesliga, which team is he part of? Who are his team-mates?
Not anymore!

Now, you will be able to view the Team Results for the current round from the Multi-board screen, see their head to head score for the current round, and tap on any of the game to analyze it! (At the moment, this only works for the current active round which you have in the Multi-board screen. In the future, we can extend this feature for previous rounds too. But hey, please drop us an email (App – Menu – About – Feedback) to let us know if you think its useful, so we can prioritize it!)

China Mode (Android & iOS)

No doubt, China is one of the world’s Chess super-power! But when it comes to Apps, social networks etc, they have their own ecosystem and restrictions. Because of the Great Chinese Firewall, the Follow Chess app doesnt work if you were based out of China.
Several Follow Chess users told us how difficult it is, to use essential Apps and resorting to a VPN can be a headache.

What should I do if I am accessing Follow Chess from China?
1. By default, no change is required. The App has a bit of smartness and it should just work. However, if you are in China, and the app is unable to show you the list of recent events, or does not show you the round schedule or multi-board games, then just enable the China mode option from the App settings!

NOTE:

  • Some features like the WatchList and Live moves in Analysis Board screen may not work.
  • Please let us know your feedback and if there is demand for it, we will surely work on it.

Other improvements (Android & iOS)

There are also some other improvements under the hood.

  

Categories
android followchess ichess ios

What’s new in MyChessApps!!?

Its been a while we posted a new blog, but new App updates kept rolling.
Recently we released new updates to Follow Chess & iChess apps on both iOS and Android.

1. Backup and Restore (Scorecard, Bird View)

We had many requests in the past to allow backing up puzzle details, or atleast the scorecard, so that you don’t lose what you have achieved, in case you switch over to a new device.

Now, happy to say, that just login, and your Scorecard and the Bird View (puzzle progress) will be backed up everytime you solve. So when you get a new device, or reinstall the App, your last progress will be restored back!

Likewise, on Follow Chess, your favorite games are now synced across devices and Android/iOS, so you never have to lose track of games that you have carefully added to your favorite collection!

2. Sync your purchases

Similarly, because there were two different versions of iChess app on Android (Free and Pro), sometimes users would get confused and they would not be able to see their purchases from one app to another. Likewise, if you had purchased some puzzle from our Store on Android, you wouldn’t be able to use it on iOS and would need to re-purchase it.
Worry not, we have got your covered! Now you buy once, and the puzzle can be re-downloaded for free on the other OS! So no worry if you need to switch between Android <-> iOS
Please note, you need to sign-in to the App for these features to work.

3. Accessibility improvements

One thing that makes chess unique is that anybody can play chess, even without a board (or in some unfortunate cases, without a sight). So over the past few months, we took up the challenge to make all our Apps blind-friendly.
Soundarya Pradhan, member of Indian chess team (blind) using Follow Chess app on his way to Europe.
The fruit of the work is that, ALL our important apps (Follow Chess, iChess, Analyze This  , Chess Moves   ) are now blind friendly (and on both Android as well as iOS!!! Yup that calls for a 👏👏). So EVERYBODY can now play chess, train and analyze with the engines, save games, solve puzzles, and follow live games!

4. Miscellaneous

As always, we take your feedback seriously. So with the last few versions, we have fixed some puzzles, made slight tweaks to how the scoring works and improved things under the hood! (Apologies to the iChess Pro users on Android who had to face constant crashes in our last app update. Just one line of code did that! :/)

More things to come! 🙂
Categories
android followchess

Follow Chess v3.0 for Android released on its 3rd birthday!!

Its a memorable day for Follow Chess. 3 years back this day we rolled out the first version to the Android Play Store! And today, on its 3rd birthday, we are releasing a BIG update, v3.0! (Nice coincidence!). The update will be rolling out in a staged manner, so some will receive the update sooner than others.

In fact, even before the 1st official version of Follow Chess released, a simple version ONLY to follow the Candidates 2014 was released in March 2014.

Basic single-screen App to follow Candidates 2014!

Ha, look how v1.0 looked back then! Dubai Open 2014-2017!

Follow Chess has come a long way since then, and used by World Champions, top GMs, rated players and chess fans world-wide! After weeks of Beta testing, we feel the time has come for v3.0 to be released publicly!




v3.0 with the new sliding drawer menu (Events | WatchList | Favorites | Recently Viewed etc)

WHATS NEWS IN v3.0


Faster Move Updates

We have changed the underlying technology, which means move updates in Multi board and Analysis board screens will be super-fast & real-time. 

Mark Favorite

So many chess games get played every day. And some of them are truly beautiful and worth keeping for future reference. With this in mind, you can now add games to your Favorites list. You can even tag the game ex: “Attack” “Upset” “Repertoire” etc. There is no limit on the number of games that can be added to favorites (even for Free users). 
Add Favorite + add tags to the game for future reference
The games can later be accessed from the drawer menu -> Favorites
All your favorites in one screen!

Recent Games

Sometimes you view a game and later a need arises to show the game to your friend or quickly reference it. With “Recently Viewed”, your 10 most recent games are available for quick access (from the left sliding drawer).

Login

We are slowly rolling out the ability of account-based access. This means your purchases can be shared between Android & iOS devices (already functional. Just login with your Google account!). Your existing purchases will automatically get synced and convert to Pro. In the future, we will also add the ability to sync your favorites, preferences etc.
For now, Login only works with Google accounts.

Upcoming Events

You can now also view details of upcoming events, so you know when your favorite player plays next. Tapping on the event will show the list of registered players and the schedule of the event.

Interviews

From time to time, we publish interviews of Players, Tournament Organizers & people who matter to the chess worls. Now all these interviews published on Follow Chess blog are now at your finger tips! They are worth reading and very inspiring!

Gift a Friend

You can now gift Follow Chess app (for 1 month, 1 year or lifetime) to your friend and family! Let it be a nice chess surprise to them! Just login to your Google account, if not already, then enter your friend’s email address. Complete the payment and thats all! Just share the details with your friend. Once your friend logs-in with his/her Google account, he/she will have access to all the awesome Pro features.
Or next time you see somebody with no credit card to purchase the App, you can purchase on their behalf and let him take you out for a cup of coffee!

New Board Themes

In this release, we have added 12 new board themes! Not just that, you can also now choose how the piece movement is highlighted on the board, either with the rectangular frame or an arrow!
NOTE: Only the default wood theme is available to non-pro users. Rest of the board themes are exclusively for Pro users!

Fan of Ironman!? So are we!

and more…

♞ Overall the UI and Animation is different. Some screens load faster than before
♞ You can directly open the Events/Favorites/Recents screens from anywhere, even if you are in the Analysis Board Screen (just slide the menu out)
♞ Add current game from Analysis board directly to WatchList (menu – Add to Watchlist)

Many people helped in testing this App (Sathish, Srinath, Shijith, Hardik, Follow Chess team and many others). And we are thankful to all of them for reporting the bugs and making suggestions.

We have tested the App to the best of our ability. But as always, a change of this magnitude could inadvertently introduce some bugs or crashes. If you face any of them, please send an email (pereira.asim (a) gmail.com)!

Categories
android followchess

Live chess on the web has a new address!

Last week was amazingly busy. We released updates to several Apps:


♞ Analyze This iOS got improved support for annotated games and several bug fixes. ♞ Analyze This Android got critical bug/crash fixes related to game saving.

♞ Follow Chess iOS had a bug related to multi board refresh which went unseen for a while. We fixed that too!
♞ Chess Book Study iOS got support for loading your own PGN files! (finally!) So now its easy to study Chess books and magazines.
♞ Your Move app which is currently on Android, will also be coming to iOS (its with Apple for approval…sshh)!

But the most exciting and well received, was the news about Follow Chess (Beta) on ANY browser!
Just type live.followchess.com in your browser and enjoy live games from top tournaments in a mobile/tablet friendly manner.

Currently its a “lite” version and does not have all the bells and whistles of the Android & iOS Apps. But its a big step for us as well, since its our first product to be publicly available via a Browser!
Any hey, like all our products, its just a matter of time and even this “lite” will get new features and updates!

titbit: This project was conceived as part of our “Tech Tuesday”, where we work on some different challenging ideas every Tuesdays!

I am personally very happy to see a side-project become something more. But what excites me more is the potential it has to further improve how we all experience Chess.

Categories
followchess ichess

Fixed – InApp purchase issue in My Chess Apps

Today we learnt about a critical issue with In-App purchases.

Issue: Users attempting to purchase an In-App item (ex in iChess) or Subscription (ex in Follow Chess) saw a failure message, even though the actual transaction was successful.
Due to this the In-App item may not have been immediately available. (it works if the App/Screen is closed and re-opened, and in some cases can be downloaded again)

Do I need to do anything? No
This issue has since been fixed and all purchases should proceed normally. The Apps don’t need to be updated since this issue was on the Server.

We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused and are putting measures to ensure this does not happen again.

* If the In-App purchase was for App Upgrade, and the App still hasnt been upgraded -> Please restart your device once.

* If the In-App purchase was for a puzzle or extra item, please visit the App’s Store and the App should allow you to download at no additional cost.

Please write to us if you face any issue.

Categories
android followchess ios

Issue with Subscriptions on Follow Chess iOS v2.0

Today (Mar 28) we came to know of a critical bug in the v2.0 of Follow Chess iOS App.

Issue: Existing active Subscriptions (monthly & yearly) ceased to work after upgrading to 2.0 and the App was working as a Free version (showing Ads and restricting features).
I apologize for this.

Re-installing the App or restoring the purchase does not help and the only solution is to wait for the new App update.

We have already fixed the issue and we are waiting for Apple’s approval (in times like these, I miss Google/Android’s ability to release a new App update in couple of hours!). We have also requested Apple for an expedited App review (normal App reviews take about 5-7 days).

Thanks for your patience and kind understanding.

PS : Once the new App update is available, please try the RESTORE option from the Pro Screen to restore your subscription, in case it does not automatically do it.

Update (Mar 29) : The expedite review process did work and Apple approved the bug-fix v2.0.1 within a day!
So with the latest version now available in the App Store, the issue is fixed.

Categories
android followchess ios

Follow Chess v2.0 for iOS now available!!

Follow Chess v2.0 for iOS is right in time for the final 2 rounds of the Candidates 2016 games!
This is a major update and has lots of features (which the Android version received few weeks back)

What’s new in v2.0?

  • New Tourney Notifications – Now you will receive notifications when new tournaments are added to the App! By default, the App will only try to notify you of tournaments which may be of interest to you (Setting – Tourney Notification – Smart). However, if you wish to receive notifications for ALL tourney, please change the aforementioned setting to ALL
  • Watch List – You can choose to watch any live game from different tournaments, all in a single screen!

  • Thinking time per move – App now shows clock time per move, which provides a better insight into the game and the player’s thinking/strategy.

  • Engine Analysis – Just like on Android, you can now analyze the current game/position with help of a Chess engine. Its a separate App (a basic version of Analyze This App), which can be installed for free from the App Store. More features will be added to Analyze This App in due course of time.
  • Live Video – You can also watch live video commentary for tournaments which are broadcast via YouTube.
  • Search Games – You can now search for games of a Player or opening or result in the All Games screen

  • Tap player name in Standings screen to directly load all his/her games
  • And bug fixes and improvements!
Categories
followchess

Follow Chess – Help, FAQs & Terms of Use

  • How to Turn/Flip the Board?

          Just swipe the board!

    • Swipe back and forth through the moves in a game
    Or you can use the good old arrow buttons underneath the board!
    • How to quickly launch Analyze This app?

              Tap the board twice (so you dont have to reach out for the icon on the top right)!


    • Quick search games in All Games screen

              Type “Anand” to search all games of Anand. Similarly to view only White wins, type 1-0 or 0-1 (for Black wins). You can even search based on opening ECO codes.

    • View all games of a player from Standings screen

              Tap the player name in the Standings screen and it should show all the games of that player!


    • How to remove some games from Watch List screen

              Touch and hold any board. This should allow multiple selections. Then you can proceed to select other boards and then tap the “Delete” icon on the top right of your screen.




    iOS TERMS OF USE (SUBSCRIPTIONS)
    – Follow Chess Go Pro Subscription
    – The subscription can be either for a month or year or lifetime
    – Price:- Monthly ($0.99), Yearly ($5.99), Lifetime ($19.99)
    – Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase
    – Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period
    – Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal
    – Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user’s Account Settings after purchase
    – Links to Your Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

    – Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable

    Privacy Policy

    Categories
    android followchess ios

    Follow Chess App is now on iOS!!

    After a long wait (and some anxious moments with Apple [read at the bottom of this post!]), Follow Chess is finally on iOS!
    I am personally pleased and happy with the End product.

    The Story!

    On Android, the App received a very warm response and I have loved reading the kind feedback and suggestions from everybody. It was also personally very satisfying, since I could learn lots of new Technologies along the way and do some cool things. But what could be more gratifying than a Tweet from your Chess idol!!?

    @asimpereira will do.. use your app a lot almost the best way to follow chess

    — Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) November 2, 2014

    Consequently I started receiving more and more responses for an iOS version! Then began the hunt for a iOS Developer who could help! In fact I even received some cheeky remarks from Android fans, that the App be kept exclusive to Android, since thats one thing which the iOS guys would not be able to enjoy!

    The iOS project which started with one developer in Q2 of this year, ended with another Developer completing it couple of weeks back (Developer #1 quit in between!)! It was a very interesting journey and I couldn’t have been more happy to see the App finally on iDevices!

    What’s in v1.0?

    Many Live tournaments – Follow Chess aims to cover as many top international (and National) tournaments as possible! So besides the mega European Team & Showdown in Saint Louis, it also covers the Indian Women’s Premiere, MaxEuwe Matches (ft veterans vs young guns) & TCEC Superfinal (Komodo vs Stockfish)

     And ofcourse, there are many other tournament games to follow; tourneys which got over in the recent past or as old as the 2014 World Rapid and Blitz!

    • Multi-boards in the same screen – With Follow Chess, you can keep a tap on all the LIVE games of a tournament, on a single screen! So you don’t need to keep changing the boards or screens!         

    • Make your own moves – When you choose any individual game to view, you can even play out your own moves in a sub-variation to understand what could have happened if the player had chosen a different path (in the same screen!) And not just that, the App is smart enough to know when an actual move is made in the Live game and gently inform you, so you can get back to following the action! Now what better way to learn from the Masters!!
    • Follow your country-men (women) – Follow Chess was really built with the intention of making it easy to follow and watch games that you may like. So if you choose your country (in the first popup or via Settings), Follow Chess will smartly show games of your country men on top! So you don’t have to scroll down looking for them.
    • Standings | All Games – Ofcourse there are lots of things you can do with Follow Chess. The App can show you the latest standings (and even highlight where your country-men is placed!). You can also play through games from the Previous rounds and all the old tourneys available in the App! (Sorry some features are PRO only)
    • You also get to see when the next round of each Tourney starts, in your local time!

    However, this is only the first version and many exciting features (some of which are already in the Android version), will be added soon (but definitely at a much faster rate than what I have been able to do with iChess for iOS & Chess Book Study for iOS). Yes, but all Apps will get their due share of Upgrades and features which the Android counter parts have been enjoying all these years!

    Go download now or tell your Chess buddy! Please do leave your feedback in the App Store, or drop me an email with your suggestions/feedback!




    PS. Why I dislike Apple!

    The App should have been available 7 days ago, but for Apple’s difficult-to-comprehend App Approval process. They wanted that the App Description in the App Store should have the below lines related to Subscriptions, which I think not many users would really bother to read anyways. But hey, please please read this, for Apple’s sake!!

    AUTO-RENEWING SUBSCRIPTIONS:

    You can purchase the Pro version of the App with a monthly or yearly Subscription. This entitles you to the current PRO features (View All games from previous rounds, Remove Ads, View All Standings) as well as any PRO features that may be added in the future.

    – Subscription can be for a Month or Year
    – Price (USD 0.99 for a Month, USD 5.99 for a Year). Local price may vary
    – Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period
    – Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period (USD 0.99 every month & USD 5.99 every year. Local prices may vary)
    – You can manage the Subscriptions and turn-off auto-renewal by going to the Account Settings after purchase
    – You will not be able to cancel the current subscription during the active subscription period

    Privacy policy : http://chess32.in/privacy_policy_followchess.html