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SmallFish Chess for Stockfish

Stockfish Chess

Ratings

Age

4+

Category

Board

Languages

English

Tips & Walkthrough

Gameplays

Screenshot

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Q&A

Ratings & Reviews

One of the best!
Wed Dec 14 2022 meta732

As good as if not better than almost everything out there regardless of platform. I use this to analyze all of my games whether OTB or online. I love that it shows multiple lines with each move. Trust me when I say that it's hard to find anything as robust and user-friendly on PC (eg, Lucas Chess can run Stockfish but I haven't been able to configure the settings to display multiple lines during analysis). And hats off for an exceptional (and appropriate) privacy policy! This app is a gem and must-have for chess enthusiasts of every level. Not convinced by my endorsement? SmallFish is recommended by the Stockfish team via the official website. -14 Pro Max on iOS 16.1.x

Outstanding Tool
Mon Feb 13 2023 AjedrezSobrio

This thing is simply amazing! A must-have for any serious or aspiring Chess player. It used to be, in my experience, that a phone app couldn't match up to a program on a computer. I have this app on my lap(tablet)top and on my phone and it performs just the same. Extremely strong! You can see several lines simultaneously. Truest a great study/strengthening tool. The fact that it's free, well, it's just outstanding...!

Buggy, but gets the job done
Mon May 20 2024 aknva01

This chess game provides a list of customization features, which I love. One problem, sometimes, it won’t let me move my pieces. Right when the opposing opponent is done, I try to move a piece, but it wouldn’t let me. I could only move my king, making me watch all of my other pieces soon disappear and leave my king all alone. One time, it froze completely and left me just staring at my screen for a good twenty seconds. At least it provides opportunities for settings for newer players, such as showing legal moves and difficulty modes.

Opponent always runs out of time.
Tue Mar 02 2021 Fprwsl

No matter what I do in the options, I always win because my opponent runs out of time. The game continues, however, even though the clock is 0.00 so that’s a good thing. This issue starts immediately: playing white pieces, I play 1. d4, black always immediately plays either d5 or f6; I play 2. c4 . . . . black “thinks” 20-40 seconds before making a second move, usually c5. Really? As long as 40 seconds to make the second move. And that “thinking” exists throughout the game. For instance, black offers a queen trade: I accept. Then black deliberates 20, 30, etc. seconds whether or not to capture my queen when there is obvious nothing to deliberate. Hardly a realistic or enjoyable scenario.

Well designed app - update
Thu Jul 23 2020 ifla01

After updating to ios13.6, it seems that there are graphic issues (piece alignment to the board, coordinates alignment to the board). None of these are impediments to using it, but are annoying. Please update! *Having tried many chess apps, I consider this app to be excellent! Most chess enthusiasts say that the only decent chess games were developed for PC. Until finding this app I thought that was true. My preferred choice has been Chess Master- Grandmaster edition (pc version), which I used for more than 10 years. This app is certainly the best contender yet!

Free
Thu Jul 05 2018 richerchess

I find SmallFish difficult to navigate(the HIARCS app is very intuitive but not free of charge). Also I believe SmallFish does not display number of positions looked at per second as the regular Stockfish app does. Stockfish is free and easy to use. Another issue is that I can’t see whether the endgame tablebase I downloaded is installed on SmallFish, or how to verify that SmallFish is using them( I think a red TB is displayed WHILE the table base is in use). But If true that it’s Elo ~3300 on iphones, that’s pretty cool. If u mostly need the very strongest app, at the cost of some features smallfish is the one to get.

Crashes often
Thu Feb 25 2021 Samthelamanite

Running on an iPhone 11 using iOS 14.4 and it crashes almost every time I use it. Crashes when I manually set up a board to play out or when I'm adjusting settings. I love this app and would love it to work seamlessly. The crashing is unfortunate so I can do anything to reduce the crashing, let me know. Love the board setup option, option to play as black or white, the two or three move recommendations. I would love if it told you the opening you were playing as you chose the moves.

Needs work
Sun Jun 08 2025 Stephen Loft

Stockfish 17 is real strong, tables bases are welcome but opening book is almost worthless as silly opening moves abound. Takes an inordinate amount of time to make opening moves. Analysis function works well and playing strength is easy to adjust. I find myself using HAIRCS chess explorer more often for the reason that your opening book is so damaged. Use them both and like them both however. With a stronger opening book this will be a 5 star chess app.

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