Change Log

2.1: 2026-08-11

Added

  • Liquid Glass design and new app icon on iOS 26 and later
  • Dedicated Deep Green menu bar on iPadOS 26 and later
  • Multiple windows on iPad: open a game in its own window
    • with game state kept in sync across windows
  • Opening a game zooms the board from its Game List cell into the game (iOS 18 and later)
    • interactive in both directions
  • Import games from PGN or FEN files:
    • from the new Import from File option in New Game,
    • the File menu on iPadOS,
    • by dragging files onto the Game List, or
    • by AirDropping or opening files from the Files app
  • Deep Green now registers as a handler for PGN and FEN files
  • Quick Look previews and thumbnails of PGN and FEN files show the position in Deep Green’s board style (e.g., in the Files app)
  • Copying or sharing a game or position now also includes an image of the board
  • Tips introducing game screen features (iOS 17 and later)
  • Variations are marked with a filled Step Forward button in the toolbar
    • press and hold to pick one (also in the Navigate menu on iPadOS)
  • Stalemate ends the game in a draw, highlighting the stalemated king in orange
  • Squares highlight when hovering over the board with trackpad, mouse, or Apple Pencil, and while dragging, the square underneath tints green or red for legal/illegal drops
  • Press and hold a piece to preview its legal destination squares
  • Pick the engine’s search depth for Suggest Move by pressing and holding its button; the choice is persisted
  • New Deep Green and Steampunk symbols throughout
    • Steampunk’s rotates while the engine is thinking
  • Tweaked tint colour
  • German, UK English, and Danish localisations

Changed

  • Refreshed piece glyphs in the Game List and board images
  • Game List footer now reads “White to move”, “Black won”, etc. instead of “? vs. ?”
  • Game view shows the game’s title and subtitle
  • Better suggested filename when saving a game to Files
  • Suggest Move is now available on earlier positions and finished games, and disabled when there are no legal moves
  • Modernised welcome sheet, with access to this full change log from What’s New
  • Now requires iOS 16.4 or newer

Fixed

  • A dragged piece lifts above the board and no longer clips through other pieces
  • Toggling Flipped Pieces and Humane Placement in Settings is now reflected live in the shown game
  • Navigating in and out of variations could crash or confuse the board
  • Rating prompt is no longer requested too often
  • Checkmark animation bug in the Over the Board cell
  • Clicking a selected piece with trackpad or mouse now deselects it

2.0.3: 2025-06-09

Fixed

  • Moved to scene-based life cycle to comply with upcoming iOS requirements
  • Cleaned up and smoothed launch sequence
  • “No Games” placeholder is now vertically centred on screen
  • Reduced binary app size by more than a megabyte

2.0.2: 2025-01-31

Added

  • You can now Share to Deep Green directly from within the Files app and other apps that can share PGN content

Fixed

  • Engine could crash while making a move right after opening a game (thanks Richard!)
  • The king now shows resignation when the player resigns after being checked, instead of just flashing and going back to normal
  • E-mails to support@deepgreen.app sent from within the app are now plain text, not HTML – unless you specifically apply rich content

2.0.1: 2025-01-06

Added

  • Dark and Tinted app icons on iOS 18, refreshed light mode icon
  • Copy Position (FEN), in addition to Copy Game (PGN), in the Game List contextual menu

Fixed

  • Capturing a rook on its start position did not update state correctly, causing the engine to crash
  • Tapping New Game could cause the app to freeze when the device’s Text Size was set to more than 100%
  • Empty Game List graphic looked like it could be tapped to create a new game
  • Status bar appearance glitch when presenting What’s New after first launch
  • Animating between two non-adjacent positions could move pieces in a way they were not played in the game
  • King highlighting between certain states made it appear almost flashing
  • King highlighting in a drawn game was done in grey (is now yellow)
  • Colours have been adjusted to improve contrast (still some way to go on the board scene in general)
  • Board selection colour is now more subdued

2.0: 2023-04-24

Added

  • Refreshed UI and graphics updated to latest iOS look and feel
  • Third generation Deep Green chess piece design in both 2D and 3D
  • High-resolution 3D game rendering based on SceneKit
  • Fluid animations and subtle touches during gameplay
  • System sharing, copy/paste, import/export of games in PGN format
  • Depth-based strength configuration of Steampunk (original chess engine)
  • Humane placement of pieces on the board (like in real life)
  • Rewritten from scratch in Swift and modern app architecture
  • Still no ads, no tracking, no analytics, no-nonsense

1.2.3: 2016-01-24

Fixed

  • Highlight views wouldn’t disappear when moving pieces via tap/tap moves, rendering the pieces below them untouchable

1.2.2: 2015-10-31

Fixed

  • Updated app icon in the About view
  • Tapping the colour toggle in the Piece Drawer no longer crashes the app
  • Did away with the most frequently occurring crash bugs

1.2.1: 2014-12-21

Added

  • Support for all current iPhone screen sizes
  • Some Accessibility support
  • Tweaked About view
  • Now requires iOS 7

Fixed

  • Several minor bugs

1.2: 2011-04-11

Added

  • New high-res graphics, supporting iPad
  • Support for multiple themes (Default, Classic), selectable in Settings
  • Settings changes update live in the running app
  • Now requires iPhone OS 3.1.3
  • Dropped support for Deep Green Lite and iPhone OS 2.2.x

Fixed

  • Swapping sides now animates

1.1.4: 2010-07-01

Added

  • Support for fast app switching

Fixed

  • Slow engine thinking bug

1.1.3: 2009-07-17

Fixed

  • No longer crashes when going to and back from engine settings in Game Info

1.1.2: 2009-06-18

Fixed

  • Board no longer jumps when switching game modes
  • Now requires iPhone OS 2.2.1 (to solve the above)
  • Help no longer opens behind Game Info in certain cases
  • Board, shadow, and piece rotation glitch

1.1.1: 2009-05-17

Fixed

  • Alerts if Vibration is turned on on an iPod touch (as per App Store Review requirement)

1.1: 2009-05-03

Added

  • Sounds, can be toggled in Settings
  • Help function
  • New colour indicators in Piece Drawer
  • Board Coordinates can be toggled in Settings
  • Game Info colour indicator animations (Swap Colours, Colour to Move)
  • Setting to prevent the device from going to sleep
  • Updated app icons
  • Displays logo view on backside when there are no captured pieces
  • Animations for checkmate, stalemate and check
  • Announce move in Playback mode (non-autoplay)
  • Deep Green Lite target added
  • Buy Deep Green button added to Lite About view
  • Displays Deep Green engine level in Game Info
  • New factory user defaults enabling: Callouts, Sound, and Auto-rotation
  • Auto-rotation

Fixed

  • Buttons in About view now work
  • Lowered auto-playback speed
  • Winner message
  • Game Info no longer reloads data when tapping buttons

1.0.2: 2009-01-05

Fixed

  • Slider position error when pressing VCR button during auto-playback
  • Only flips board when dragging on an empty square
  • No vibration by default
  • Correct position validation allowing a maximum of 16 pieces
  • Error with wrong number of kings (trying to validate a nil position, caused by setting up a standard position in Setup Mode)
  • Error where a Human/Human game was missing its engine after relaunching

1.0.1: 2008-12-22

Fixed

  • Engine validation now accepts several pieces
  • Restores game state and game result when going back from Setup Mode without changes to the position
  • Changed player labels to Top, Bottom in Game Info
  • Castling state is now correctly set when capturing a rook
  • Starting a fourth DG/DG game no longer crashes the app
  • Spelling error

1.0: 2008-12-07

  • First App Store release