Really Bad Chess vs AI Satranç

Really Bad Chess is just like chess, but with totally random pieces. Try 8 Knights, 4 Bishops, and 3 pawns — why not? As heard on NPR's Weekend Edition 5 out of 5 Stars "An essential puzzle experience for anyone even remotely interested in strategy games" - TouchArcade Whether you play chess daily, or quit just after learning the rules, this small twist will open the door to an entire new world of chess. ------WHATS IN THE “BOX”? The free version of Really Bad Chess lets you compete vs. an AI in Ranked, Daily, or Weekly Challenges. Improve your skills using the included Freeplay mode. A single in-app purchase unlocks Versus Mode so you can compete against your friends locally! It also removes ads, displays captured pieces, and adds soothing alternate color-palettes to choose from. ------REALLY BAD PRESS "Makes chess fun even if you’re really bad" - The Verge "Feels more modern than chess has ever felt" - Applenapps "Really Bad Chess takes a really bad idea and somehow manages to make it a lot of fun." - Pocket Gamer "Really good fun" - MacLife ------A WORD FROM THE DEVELOPER Chess is one of those games I always wished I enjoyed, but its commitment to beauty, elegance, and perfect balance always turned me away. Really Bad Chess removes these boring restrictions and flips chess on its head. As much as random pieces change the game in some ways, I was really surprised to notice how much the game remains the same, and how powerful some pieces are — you've never truly struggled against a pawn until you've struggled against a pawn in the back row. For chess pros, Really Bad Chess will give you a new type of challenge — the pieces & the moves are the same, but you'll have to throw out your openings and your understanding of normal patterns of play. For novice chess players (like most of us), Really Bad Chess greatly opens up the game. Instead of starting by studying openings, in your first games you'll get to discover the joy (and challenge!) of learning how to checkmate. I hope you have as much fun with Really Bad Chess as much as I did making it. -zach

This chess app doesn't know chess. Yet. Most chess apps ship with a ready-made, unbeatable engine. AI Satranç doesn't. The AI was born with a brain made of nothing but random numbers, knowing no chess at all. It knows the rules, but it is still learning to play well; today it is still a beginner. And it keeps learning. From your games, from every player's games, right in front of you. ◆ A REAL AI THAT REALLY LEARNS The method of the open-source Leela Chess Zero (Lc0) project: a neural network paired with Monte Carlo tree search. The AI sees the last 8 positions together; before every move it plays out hundreds of possible continuations in its head and predicts the chances of a win, draw or loss and how long the game will last. In the games it plays against itself, it learns to replace its first intuition with the move it found by thinking deeply. There is no built-in chess engine and no model brought in from outside: everything it knows, it learned from games played in the app. ◆ MEET ITS BRAIN • The collective brain's version: every new version reaches everyone's device • This device's contribution: the games you play and the ones it plays in training • "What it's thinking": the candidates it considered most on each move, and its winning chances • A live evaluation bar above the board ◆ SELF-TRAINING Open the Training tab, tap Start Training and watch the AI play against itself live. Like Leela Chess Zero's volunteer computers, the training data of every game goes to the collective brain, which is trained on it. One day it will beat you. The only question is when. ◆ ONE BRAIN, RAISED TOGETHER Training happens in one place, with every player's data: every game you play goes to the collective brain and its positions join training after being re-thought; your moves aren't copied, so a bad move can't spoil the brain. When a new version is ready it reaches everyone's device. What is sent is games' moves, results and training data — not your name, your account or any personal data. ◆ WHILE YOU PLAY • Drag or tap, both work • Four difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, Master • Hint arrow: what would the AI play here? • Four board themes, light and dark appearance • A game in progress is never lost; pick up where you left off • Undo, resign, play as white, black or random • Every game archived, replayable move by move and shareable as PGN • Castling, en passant, promotion, threefold repetition, the 50-move rule: every rule ◆ ALL YOURS No account, no sign-in, no ads, no in-app purchases, no tracking. Plays offline; your games reach the collective brain once you're online. On iPhone, iPad and Mac. A small warning: this is not a "strong opponent out of the box" app. The AI starts weak, on purpose. The point is to raise it. Watching how it learns is far more exciting than watching it win.