Fast Queen Promotion

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Many users of Chess for Android use the combination of an electronic chessboard (Certabo, DGT, or Millennium) and online play, where making moves quickly can make the difference between winning or losing. In the past, I have made improvements that enabled quicker castling and taking en-passant. However, one request for quicker promotions was still pending.

When using the electronic chessboard, there were two ways to promote a pawn. One way is to make the move with the pawn first, then use the popup window in the GUI to select the promotion piece, and finally replace the pawn with the piece on the electronic board. The second way is to remove the promoting pawn from the electronic board first, and then place the promotion piece on the board thereafter. Either way registers the promotion correctly, both for regular or minor promotion.

However, during rapid games, even this simple procedure may be a bit cumbersome. Therefore I added an extra option to Chess for Android. While setting up the electronic chessboard, you can now also select the "Always Queen Promotion" option. With this option, moving just the pawn will register the promotion into a queen right away (and send the move to the online server when connected). This enables players to replace the pawn with the queen outside their own time. Minor promotions are still possible with this new option, but require the second way described above.

The new feature will be available soon on Google Play!






 

Comments

Aart Bik said…
This feature is now available from Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Aart+Bik
October 17, 2019 at 5:38 PM
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