These are some relatively easy implements chessup should do as soon as possible.
- More time controls for chess.com
Chessup should be able to play all time controls offered in “more time controls” by chess.com. I love my new board but it is boarderline unplayable in a time scramble. This is unavoidable due to its nature so I should be able to play 10+5 if i want. Seems like an easy fix. This could likely be done in a couple weeks.!Within the next 6 months I’d like to see the ability to go on the app and start a game from there so i could even do custom time controls or even move my game i just started from online to otb.
- OTB (2 player) clock shown on board
Definitely the most glaring and strange issue with the chessup 2 is that when i play a 2 player, i have to put my phone out as a clock. It seems insane that chessup can’t display the time control on the board. I may just not know how to do it but it was not obvious to me. There is even a clock on the screen but it doesn’t show the time. This seems like a fix that could be done by next week. I feel like this is what takes
- Chains of exchanges
This is an issue that i think would require a bit more work but if someone takes my piece i should be able to just recapture quickly without letting their piece sit for a moment. I find if i pick up the piece i’m recaptureing with before making their move the board freaks out. This would be an incredible quality of life fix, if i could pick up both pieces and the board could tell that this is a possible position i meant to achieve.
- Analysis
A larger missing feature that Chessup 2 is starving for is an analysis / study mode. I should be able to have an analysis board up where i can do take backs, have an eval bar on screen, maybe even lines (while sync with the app). This should be recorded in app. To take it a step further the app could give you puzzles to set up and solve otb etc. The study potential is endless and I would be very disappointed if this wasn’t in development sooner or later, although i acknowledge this is a bigger fix. I cannot emphasize enough that this would make the board 10x as valuable and justify the high cost to 10x as many improvers.
I have lots of ideas for the analysis function but the small fixes should come first. 1-3 are basically essential. I love what the company is doing and I think it has the potential to be the greatest tool in chess improvement. I think adding studying functionality and otb functionality would justify the cost to many more chess players, many of whom are very open to spending large sums of money on improving(we spend hundreds of dollars on courses and otb tournaments). If anyone else has ideas I’d like to hear them. I would also love to hear about it if I just am doing something wrong or if these fixes are already out somehow and i missed it.