How to install Komodo 8 in Android

Komodo 8 runs on 32-bit Android systems. The Android version supports multicore devices and the full set of UCI options (including Syzygy tablebases, if you have them installed on your phone! [see Note #1 below]).

This document describes installation of 'komodo-8-android'. [see Note #2 below]

Step 1: Copy komodo-8-android to your device

You must copy komodo-8-android to your device. There are a number of ways to accomplish this:

• Dropbox
• Google Drive
• Android File Transfer (for OSX)
• File transfering software included on your device, such as the Sony Bridge software for Xperia devices

The Dropbox case is typical:

• Put komodo-8-android into your computer's Dropbox folder
• Open the Dropbox app on your device and navigate to komodo-8-android
• Click the arrow to the right side of the file and choose "Export"
• The first item in the Export menu allows you to export the file to your device's file system. Choose that and navigate to a location you'll remember, such as your Download folder
• You'll get a confirmation that the export was successful
• komodo-8-android is now on your device. Congratulations, that was the hardest part of the installation!

Step 2: Adding Komodo to an Android chess GUI

Installing the engine into an Android chess GUI is fairly straightforward. Let's take the case of Chess for Android from Aart Bik:

Chess for Android

• Press and hold your finger in the empty black space below or to the right of the chessboard (depending on your device orientation).
• When a menu pops up, tap on the "UCI and XBoard" option.
• Tap "Install Engine from SD".
• When a pseudo-file dialog/menu widget appears, navigate to the location of the komodo-8-android file you saved in the previous step and tap it. Note that the top entry in the menu, "<..>", can be used to navigate up a level in the folder hierarchy.
• You should see a confirmation in the Chess for Android window: "Engine Installed".

Other apps work similarly, although each app has its own peculiarities. Let's stay in Chess for Android for a moment to select and configure Komodo 8.

• Press and hold your finger in the empty black space again.
• When a menu pops up, tap on the "UCI and XBoard" option (again).
• Tap "Import Engine".
• You should see an entry called "komodo-8-android". Tap it.
• When a menu appears, choose "UCI" (not "XBoard") to specify the UCI communication protocol for Komodo.
• You should see a confirmation of your license in the Chess for Android window, and an options dialog will appear with the engine information at the top.
• Chess for Android only permits a setting couple of UCI options: Hash ('Hash Table' in the dialog) and Threads ('CPUs'). Choose a desired Hash Table size (the default of 128MB is probably more than adequate for an Android device) and the number of cores which Komodo should use.
  • If you have a 4-core Android device, set this to 3 or 4. Just like on a desktop computer, don't select more CPUs than you have physical cores.
  • Note that the Tablebases menu is for GUI tablebases -- you cannot configure Komodo's Syzygy tablebase support in Chess for Android at the time of this writing.
• Tap "Done" when you're finished. Komodo should start right up, calculating the position on the board. You'll see a line of engine output at the bottom of the notation display, just above the navigation buttons.

Done!

It would be impossible to exhaustively describe this process for every available Android chess GUI, but you'll find help for a couple more popular apps described below. In general, you should consult the documentation for your app of choice to learn about the installation options available.

Scid on the Go

Scid on the Go is a little different than most Android GUIs in that the engine file has to reside in a particular location on your SD card. Repeat the first step, copying the engine file to your device, but navigate to the path /sdcard/scid/. You'll export/save the engine there (saving a second copy). Then:

• From Scid on the Go's menu, choose "Manage UCI Engines".
• When a menu appears, choose "Add engine".
• The "Add engine" screen will be displayed and you should see the komodo-8-android file in the list under "Executable". Tap the file in the list.
• Scid on the Go will automatically generate a name for the engine, but you can change it if you like.
• When you're done, make sure that "Make this the current analysis engine" is selected, and click the Add button.
• You're done, Scid on the Go will use Komodo 8 for analysis.

Analyze This

• From the menu, choose "Manage Engines".
• Tap the button on the top-right of the screen labeled "Install Engine".
• Navigate to the location where you saved the komodo-8-android file in the first step and select it.
• On the "Manage Engines" screen, Komodo 8 should have appeared (as "Komodo 8 32-bit"). Ensure that the check box on the same line as Komodo 8 is enabled in order to use it for analysis.

Chess PGN Master

• From the menu, choose "Preferences".
• Scroll down the preferences list and tap on "UCI engine".
• From the "UCI engine" screen, click the "Add" button.
• When the file selector opens, navigate to the location where you saved the komodo-8-android file in the first step and select it. You should see a confirmation that the engines has been loaded and the radio button next to the engine's name in the list should be enabled.
• Click "OK" to return to the preferences screen. You are done, but read on...

Chess PGN master supports the full spectrum of UCI options. From the preferences screen, choose "Engine options" to get the full list. Komodo 8 for Android can take advantage of all UCI options available to the desktop version of the engine, including Syzygy tablebases.

NOTES

1. UCI option support depends on the GUI app you are using. At the time of this writing, only Chess PGN Master supports Komodo's full range of UCI options.

2. There are two versions of Komodo 8 for Android available, the executable delivered with the Komodo 8 release package, and a special version available from the Google Play Store (must be purchased separately). Although this document is not about installation of the Play Store version, that version is required in order to use Komodo in ChessBase's "ChessBase Online" app, and offers improved ease of installation with other Android apps, such as Chess for Android or Chess PGN Master.