Finally: PicoChess in 16 shades of grey (or even in e-ink color)!

[Dirk]

Hello fellow e-ink knights of PicoChess,

turns out chess programs like PicoChess don’t really care about fast refresh rates – which makes them a surprisingly good fit for e-ink devices.

I tried it on a Kindle Paperwhite: looks nice, but you only get the chessboard squeezed onto the screen. No real interaction there (the Kindle’s browser is super basic, so don’t expect the full PicoChess webserver magic).

On the other hand, the BOOX Air Note 4C – a full-color e-ink tablet running Android – gives you the completeexperience. Full board, full menus, full functionality. And the cool part: you still get that comfy, paper-like display instead of staring into a glowing LCD. Perfect for some long, relaxed chess sessions without frying your eyes.

By the way: The new eBoard I use is the Chessnut Go - a really handy and ultra thin eBoard running well together with PicoChess.

Anyone else here tried running PicoChess (or other chess GUIs like Gerhard cool Chess Dojo and PGN Master android apps).

Happy checkmating – without burning your retinas!

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

Nice. Maybe try switching the Kindle Paperwhite to Landscape mode?

Randy

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[Dirk]

Nope - the Kindle does not offer landscape mode (only within the reader app when  sett the layout to double page if I remember...)

But: good news:

I just did an update stop the Kindle Paperwhite software and hurray:

(now the complete portrait view is displayed and you can scroll (that wasn't possible before the update).

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

I wonder if this would work?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4188284&postcount=8

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[Dirk]

I’d rather leave that to others. I’ll be over here just giving my eyes a well-deserved e-ink-holiday. 😉

RandyR schrieb am Donnerstag, 4. September 2025 um 22:18:55 UTC+2:

I wonder if this would work?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4188284&postcount=8

[Johan Sjöblom]

Wow. I did not know that here were Android based e-readers. Its like best of both worlds. I am seriously thinking about ordering a BOOX Air Note 4C. Not only for playing chess, but for having a more "serious" e-book reader that could be used with standard Android apps.

[Dirk]

Yes, that was the reason I ordered the Boox Air Note: best of both worlds although I must admit that now after some weeks with the color e-ink display I would rather have  a monochrome display because the color is really kind of washed out (that would be fine) but the display of normal book writings is not so good like on a monochrome kindle (eg. less resolution, lower contrast) and way darker so you need the additional display lighting all the time (which increases power consumption). 

But for playing chess it is really cool!

As always: it is a compromise....

Dirk

Here you see the same "e-comic" on iPad and the boox note: