good app but needs fixing for accessibility, board not accessible to voiceover users
I'm a blind chess player. I just purchaced chess score pad on the ios app-store. So far i'm liking it, however I did come across a major bug for blind voiceover, apple's screenreader, users such as myself. When it comes time to write the notation of the game; this is not possible, as voiceover doesn't read the board at all, making it impossible to enter notation or moves. Would it be possible to make this part of the app accessible, weather by making the board accessible with voiceover, or by allowing moves to be entered via notation, i.e, e4 e5 nf3 etc?
This seems like a really useful app for blind players but if the board accessibility could be improved I'd greatly appreciate it. Personally from experiense at least for blind players, having the ability to enter the moves via notation would be easier and faster.
If you want to take a look at how this works, go into lichess.org, enable the blind mode and try entering moves by not ation.
Looking forward to your reply.
Aditionally your contact option in your site is broken. I've tried sending this via the contact us, form in your site, and I keep getting email couldn't be delivered.
good app but needs fixing for accessibility, board not accessible to voiceover users
I'm a blind chess player. I just purchaced chess score pad on the ios app-store. So far i'm liking it, however I did come across a major bug for blind voiceover, apple's screenreader, users such as myself. When it comes time to write the notation of the game; this is not possible, as voiceover doesn't read the board at all, making it impossible to enter notation or moves. Would it be possible to make this part of the app accessible, weather by making the board accessible with voiceover, or by allowing moves to be entered via notation, i.e, e4 e5 nf3 etc?
This seems like a really useful app for blind players but if the board accessibility could be improved I'd greatly appreciate it. Personally from experiense at least for blind players, having the ability to enter the moves via notation would be easier and faster.
If you want to take a look at how this works, go into lichess.org, enable the blind mode and try entering moves by notation.
Looking forward to your reply.
Aditionally your contact option in your site is broken. I've tried sending this via the contact us, form in your site, and I keep getting email couldn't be delivered.
Great App for Over the board chess!
Just use paper.
Response from developer
Hi there — Chess Score Pad is designed as a electronic scoresheet for recording games and exporting PGNs. If there’s a specific feature you were expecting, I’d appreciate hearing more — please reach out through the Contact page on our website.
Flaky screen controls
Response from developer
Thank you for your feedback. We're sorry to hear about your experience with Chess Score Pad. We'd like to address a few points: 1. iPad Support: The app is indeed designed for iPad, and we have a video overview demonstrating its use on an iPad. 2. Screen Controls: There should be no need to interact with menus during a game. Moves can be entered by either dragging or tapping pieces, with both options always available. 3. Move Entry: The app is designed for quick and easy move entry to avoid distracting players from their game. 4. Tournament Use: Many players successfully use Chess Score Pad in tournaments. We'd be interested in more details about the specific issues you encountered. We encourage you to watch our video overview, which demonstrates the app's functionality. If you're still experiencing problems, please contact our support team with specific details so we can assist you further. We're committed to providing a reliable tool for chess players and would appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns.
Nice little app!
Response from developer
Thank you for your kind review of Chess Score Pad! We're delighted to hear that you find the app useful and appreciate its simple design. We've aimed to create a straightforward, effective tool for chess players, and it's gratifying to know it meets your needs. The app has been carefully designed to include essential features for electronic scorekeeping without unnecessary complications. We remain committed to maintaining Chess Score Pad to ensure it continues to work well for our users. We'll address any critical updates needed to keep the app running smoothly on current devices and operating systems. Thank you for your support, and we hope Chess Score Pad continues to serve you well in your chess games!
Clunky and not intuitive
Response from developer
Thank you for your feedback on Chess Score Pad. We appreciate your candid review and recognize that you found the app useful despite some challenges. Regarding your comments about the app being "clunky and not intuitive": 1. Intuitive Design: The app was designed by an experienced chess player to be straightforward and minimize distractions during play. However, we understand that user experiences can vary. 2. Ease of Use: We offer a video overview that demonstrates the app's functionality, which might help clarify some features you found unintuitive. 3. Functionality: Chess Score Pad allows for move entry by either dragging or tapping pieces, with both options always available to suit different preferences. We're continuously working to improve user experience. Could you share specific aspects you found clunky or unintuitive? Your insights would be invaluable for our future updates. We're committed to making Chess Score Pad the best tool possible for chess players. Please feel free to contact our support team with any specific suggestions or features you'd like to see. Thank you for using Chess Score Pad, and we hope to make your experience smoother in future updates.
Electronic Chess Score Pad
Can we get different board colors
Response from developer
An option for a wooden chess board was added in Version 1.90 The dark squares on the wooden board are lighter and so there is more contrast for the black pieces. Other users have mentioned this issue. Thanks for the feedback!
Great for postal tournaments!
Best App for Scoring Games
App is great.
Love this app!
Needs Cloud support.
ICloud support = *****
Response from developer
Chess Score Pad allows exporting of games to iCloud where they can be imported into an analysis apps. Please keep in mind that Chess Score Pad is an electronic score sheet and not an analysis app. It is designed for manual entry of moves during a games. Afterwords, the PGN of the games can be exported into a chess PGN database for analysis.
How do you enter moves?
Response from developer
If you have a question the best place is the "Web Site" option from the main menu of the app. The video overview (1:47) covers most topics. There is also the User Guide. If that doesn't answer your questions there is the "Contact" link to send a question.
Looks good so far
1. I couldn’t use ‘Save to Files’ in iPad if the result is draw (1/2).
2. Didn’t see the option to load a game.
Response from developer
The 'Save to Files' if a draw was fixed in version 1.71.
Needs work
It does not show when I check my opponent’s King.
Response from developer
What you are describing is not allowed for an electronic scoresheet. An electronic scoresheet cannot give a player an advantage over a paper scoresheet by providing information that the paper scoresheet can not. I'm not sure of what you mean by "my own pieces checking my own King." If you will contact me I'm sure I can help you. As for "It does not show when I check my opponent’s King."; automatically showing the "+" would be providing information that a paper scoresheet cannot provide. The check mark needs to be entered by the player.
Email works
Response from developer
Chess Score Pad is an electronic score sheet that is designed to be used to record moves during an over the board game. Per USCF rules, an electronic score sheet should not even alert the player if an illegal move has been made. So there never will be a chess analysis engine as part of this app. If you have a chess analysis app like HIARCS, you can use the share action button to send 1 or more games recorded with Chess Score Pad directly to HIARCS. After a game at my chess club last week I used AirDrop to send our game to my opponent and it opened directly in his HIARCS app. Another opponent who used a paper score sheet asked me to send the PGN file to him using the Message app. It is not unusual for users to compare Chess Score Pad to chess engine apps. An electronic score sheet simply cannot have the analysis features of a chess engine app. With Chess Score Pad I focus on making it easy to add, record and then share your games to an app of the users choice that is designed to be a chess game database. Thank for taking the time to write a review!
Application Review
1. It would be great to be able to save games in .pgn format automatically.
1. See if you can get this app approved for USCF tournaments.
Response from developer
Thanks for taking the time to post a review! I'm not quite sure want you are expecting in your suggestion about saving the PGN automatically. Chess Score Pad uses standard iOS sharing to give the user choices to share/save/print/PDF the PGN or a scoresheet. Message, Mail, Notes, ... Please contact me from the "Contact" page on the web site if you have something else in mind. It is good to get feedback from users. As for the USCF certification. There is a page on the website about certification. I had a separate "Tournament Edition" of the app that was submitted and not certified. I believe that iPhone and iPad apps can be limited with the iOS Guided Access so cheating is not an issue. If the USCF ever comes out with a specification for iPhones and iPads, I will create a version to meet that specification. From my web site: By allowing a player to use Chess Score Pad you know that their device will be on the playing table in Airplane Mode, in plain sight. Not allowing honest players to use their iPad, iPod or iPhone as an electronic scoresheet will not stop the dishonest player from using them to cheat.
Needs iCloud
Response from developer
Done! With version 1.6 you can now save the PGN files to your iCloud drive. You can save individual games or multiple games in a file.
