Chess Recorder

Version 1.3

Chess Recorder is an iOS app for recording chess games by voice. Speak your moves in plain language — square names, piece names, captures, castling, and undo — and the app updates the board, builds the move list, and can export games as PGN. Optional on-device engine analysis and background move assessment provide instant feedback while you record and review.

Dictation Example Video

Related project: Also check out CARA — Chess Analysis and Review Application for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Contents: Features · Requirements · Building · Usage · Screenshots · Project layout · License · Contributing · Contact · Acknowledgments

Features

Voice input

• Record moves with the device microphone using Apple’s on-device speech recognition
• Chess-specific language model with common English and German move phrases
• Teach custom phrases and corrections when recognition fails
• Configurable dictation pause before a move is committed
• Live transcript with pause countdown while recording

Board and notation

• Interactive board with optional touch input for entering moves manually
• Move navigation with scrubbing and jump controls
• ECO code and opening name in the toolbar
• Interactive opening book: browse expandable continuations from the current position
• Flip board orientation
• Customizable board colors, coordinates, piece size, and more…
• Multi-Game PGN export

Engine analysis

• Integrated Stockfish analysis via LucidEngine
• Evaluation, win probability, algebraic main line, and best-move arrow (each optional)

Move assessment

• Background Stockfish review of played moves (separate from live analysis)
• Inaccuracy, mistake, blunder, and miss (slower forced mate) marks in the move list and PGN notation
• Optional assessment symbols in exported PGN

Rules and game state

• Move validation and game logic via ChessKit
• Undo, new game, multi-game archive, and session restore

Requirements

• Device: iPhone or iPad running iOS 26.5 or later (see IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET in the Xcode project)
• Development: Xcode with Swift 5 and Swift Package Manager
• Permissions: Microphone and speech recognition (requested at runtime)

Building

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/pguntermann/ChessRecorder
   cd ChessRecorder

2. Download Stockfish NNUE weights (required for engine analysis)

   ./Scripts/fetch-stockfish-nnue.sh

   This places the network files in StockfishNNUE/. If you build from Xcode before the LucidEngine package is resolved, run ./Scripts/prepare-lucid-engine-nnue.sh after a first resolve/build to copy them into the package checkout.

3. Open and build in Xcode

   • Open Chess Recorder.xcodeproj
   • Select the Chess Recorder scheme and a simulator or device
   • Build and run (⌘R)

Swift Package Manager fetches ChessKit and LucidEngine automatically.

Command-line build (optional)

xcodebuild -scheme "Chess Recorder" -destination "platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16" build

Adjust the simulator name to match an installed runtime.

Usage

1. Grant microphone and speech recognition access when prompted.
2. Tap Record and speak a move (e.g. e4, Knight f3, Castle kingside, or German equivalents such as Springer f3, Kurz rochiert).
3. Pause briefly when finished — the app waits for the configured dictation pause, then plays the move.
4. Use Undo by voice or tap pieces when Touch input is enabled in Settings.
5. Export the game from the notation panel via the share button.

In-app help (? in the toolbar) lists supported phrase patterns for English and German.

Settings highlights

• Speech language (English / Deutsch) and dictation pause length
• Engine depth and which analysis overlays to show (including arrow color)
• Move assessment on/off, search depth, and quality colors (including miss)
• Whether assessment symbols are included in PGN export
• Board appearance, piece size, and touch-input highlight color
• Opening name visibility and explorer mini-board size
• Default PGN header fields and learned phrase management

Screenshots

iPad — live recording with engine analysis and move assessment

iPad — interactive opening book with mini-board previews

iPad Pro — game accuracy summary and move-quality breakdown

iPhone — Manual/Touch move entering

Project layout

Path	Purpose
Chess Recorder/	App source (SwiftUI views, speech, game logic, services)
Chess RecorderTests/	Unit tests for game logic, speech, archive, and session
Chess Recorder.xcodeproj	Xcode project and SPM package references
Scripts/	NNUE download and LucidEngine preparation scripts
StockfishNNUE/	Stockfish neural network files (not in git; fetched by script)
LICENSE	GPLv3 license for Chess Recorder
THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md	Third-party software and asset licenses

License

Chess Recorder is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0).

Stockfish is linked into the app for engine analysis, which requires GPL-compatible licensing for distributed binaries. See LICENSE for the full text and THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md for dependency and asset notices.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome on GitHub. Please keep changes focused and include a short description of what you tested.

Contact

Philipp Guntermann — pguntermann@me.com

Privacy Policy: PRIVACY.md

Acknowledgments

Chess Recorder builds on several open-source projects:

• ChessKit — chess rules and move generation (MIT)
• LucidEngine — Swift wrapper around Stockfish (GPL-3.0 engine core)
• Stockfish — chess engine (GPL-3.0)
• eco.json — FEN-based ECO opening name lookup (eco_base, eco_interpolated; MIT)
• lichess chess-openings — ECO opening TSV files used as the authoritative opening data source (CC0)
• cburnett SVG chess pieces — Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0 / GFDL 1.2)

Full license texts and attribution details are in THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md.

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Copyright (C) 2026 Philipp Guntermann

Licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0)