This App solves checkmate in "N" number of moves problems/puzzles. The puzzles can be selected from "Canned" Puzzles that come with the MateFind App or from puzzles the user creates and enters through the operator interface of the App. The user created puzzles are stored with the "Canned" puzzles and are saved when the App is exited. A list of the puzzles is available in two forms: 1. Ordered by puzzle number, or, 2. Ordered by number of moves for checkmate. Each user entered puzzle can be given a user description that is saved with the user generated puzzle. The description is written to the screen when the saved puzzle is loaded.
The MateFind App allows quick setup of the pieces and allows the first move by either white or black. The number of moves must be entered for any user generated puzzles. Any user generated puzzle that has been saved can also be removed. The MateFind "Canned" puzzles cannot be removed by the user.
Manual Set Up:
When setting up the board to create a new puzzle, white is always at the bottom moving towards the top and Black is always starting at the top moving down.
Select mate-in-N-moves using the top slider of the two sliders. The minimum is 1.
Place pieces on the board by selecting a piece and then selecting a square, or multiple squares, on the board where you want the piece(s) to be placed. If you make a piece placement mistake, fix it by selecting the blank square (to the right of the white pieces) and then touching the square where the bad piece placement is. The blank square works on both white and black squares.
Select whether white or black moves first using the WHITE/BLACK button, initially set to WHITE. Note, the background color will show the color of the side to move first. Press START to begin. The solution will be displayed in this text area, below, and will also be animated on the chess board, one move every 2 seconds. The elapsed time and number of moves considered for each level is also displayed.
Select RESET to clear the board and begin another chess problem setup, or to stop a game in progress.
Using "Canned" Problems:
Use the bottom slider to select the problem number, then press LOAD. The pieces, starting color, and number of moves are automatically setup. Just press START to begin. The solution will be displayed in this text area, below, and will also be animated on the chess board, one move every 2 seconds. The elapsed time and number of moves considered for each level is also displayed. To go back to "Manual" setup, press RESET. Any setup, either manual or canned, can be re-setup by pressing RE-SETUP following a completed run.
Saving Puzzles:
Any manually setup puzzle can be saved to the puzzle file by pushing the "SAVE" button after setup is complete.
Removing Puzzles:
Puzzles can also be removed from the puzzle file by selecting the puzzle number using the lower slider and then pushing the red "Trash" Icon button at the bottom of the screen. Only puzzles created by the user may be removed from the puzzle file.
List of Puzzles:
For a list of the puzzles, press the "List" button from the main view. You will be taken to a new List View with four buttons. Select how you would like the puzzles listed:
1. List all puzzles (canned & user entered), ordered by puzzle number
2. List all puzzles (canned & user entered), ordered by number of moves
3. List only user entered puzzles, ordered by puzzle number
4. List only user entered puzzles, ordered by number of moves
Reset:
The RESET button can be used to clear any setup currently on the board or to stop the App from searching for a solution of the current puzzle.
Creating puzzle descriptions:
You can create and save puzzle descriptions for any user created puzzle. From the Main View, press the List Button and then from the List View select the "Next" button. From the new view, select the puzzle number you would like to create a description for. Note, you can only write descriptions for user saved puzzles. Write the description in the text area. When the text is ready, press the "Save Text" button.
Tips:
1. These instructions can be displayed at anytime by pressing the reset button.
2. The App uses a "brute-force" algorithm to search for checkmate, i.e., it searches all the possible moves for the number of levels (moves) selected by the user. This means that if you have a large number of pieces on the board and the number of moves 3 or above, it may search for a very long time due to the extremely large number of moves it has to search through. If a puzzle that you have set up is taking too long to find a solution, press RESET.
3. The sensitivity of the puzzle selector slider has been increased by splitting the number of puzzles into 3 chunks. For example, assume 300 puzzles. Initially, you will be able to move the selector only between 1 and 100. If you want to go to a higher numbered puzzle, hold the selector against the right side and it will jump into the next chunk from 100 to 200. Repeat for the third chunk from 200 to 300. It works the same way coming back down to 1 but holding the selector against the low end of the selector range.
Images of the MateFind App...Click on an image to enlarge or
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