VocalChess

Play chess against a chess engine on your iPhone by speaking your moves. Say "knight f3", and the move lands on the board. The engine answers aloud, so you can keep your eyes off the screen.

VocalChess is built for players who want to play hands-free and train blindfold: holding the position in your head.

Say it the way you think it • Pieces: "knight f3", "bishop takes e5", "knight b takes d2". • Pawns: "e4", "e takes d5". When only one move can capture on a square, "takes d5" is enough. • Castling: "castle kingside", "castle queenside". Promotion: "e8 promotes to queen". • Your words appear on screen as you speak, and the app waits while you pause mid-move. • Say "undo" or "take back" to take a move back, or "resign" to end the game. You can also tap the board.

It asks before it guesses • When the app is sure, the move plays at once. • When it isn't, it asks "Did you say …?" and you answer yes or no, by voice or by tap. • When nothing legal matches what it heard, it shows "Say again". It never plays a move you did not say.

Choose your game • Tap the play button for a new game: pick one of six levels, from Novice to Master, and play as White, Black or Random. • Step back through the game with the move buttons, or say "back", "forward", "start" or "latest". Looking back never changes the game. • Close the app mid-game and pick up where you left off.

Hear the game • The engine's reply is read aloud in a natural voice that runs on your iPhone: "Black, knight f6". Check and the result of the game are read too. • Turn on "Speak my moves" to hear your own moves read back as well. • You can talk over the app while it speaks.

Blindfold • Tap the eye to hide the pieces. The squares and coordinates stay; the position lives in your head. • With the board hidden, every move is read aloud, yours included.

Private and offline • Speech recognition, the voice and the chess engine run on your iPhone. After iOS downloads its English speech model once, you can play with no connection. • No account, no ads, no tracking, no in-app purchases. The app collects no data. • It asks for one permission: the microphone.

VocalChess runs on iPhone with iOS 26.5 or later, and hears and speaks moves in English.

The open-source licences of the software the app ships, including the chess engine's source link, are in Settings → Apps → VocalChess → Acknowledgements.

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