Well, it’s been a while, so I guess it’s about time I released the features I’ve been hard at work on for the last 15 months!

Download Chess On Ice Version 2.0: http://chessonice.ca/download-chessonice-2-0/

Let’s start by going through the features in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Version 2.0 New Features

Updated Look

The look of the rings has changed to the darker blue and red typically used in curling rinks and arena ice, and the near and far rings have opposite colour schemes so you can tell which ones you’re looking at.

For the colour-blind folks out there, the stones are now easier to distinguish: yellow and blue.

And since this is all the colour scheme of my home rink of East York Curling Club (in Toronto, Ontario, Canada), I couldn’t resist copying a sheet of ice from there. You may be interested to know that this was the birthplace of the World Junior Curling Championships almost 60 years ago!

Laser Beam showing Stone Direction & Distance

Real life provides us with stereo vision and parallax which helps our brains figure out the direction a stone is moving. It’s a bit harder in the app. That’s why I’ve included a “laser beam” which shows the exact direction a stone is moving at any instant.

Real life also provides more sensory feedback to help us “feel” the speed / weight / expected stopping distance of a curling stone. It’s a bit harder in the app. You do have split times to help you, if you use those; if not, it might be frustrating. So I’ve included a feature where the direction “laser beam” ends at the expected stopping distance of the stone, so you can predict when/how to sweep.

I plan to improve this in the future with your “sweepers” giving you weight guesses, and sweeping for weight independently with an accuracy that you can set. As the skip or vice in the house holding the broom, your only responsibility then will be calling the sweepers on or off based on the “line” (the expected sideways movement of the stone). But for now, the end of the laser beam tells you what the final distance of the rock will be if you don’t sweep at all.

See the laser beam examples above in Figure 1, and below in Figures 2 and 3.

Figure 2: “Laser beam” indicator of stopping position while stone is midway down the ice

Figure 3: “Laser beam” indicator of stopping position while stone is entering the house

Time Clocks

There are now four time clocks at the top left:

Yellow team and Blue team each have their own thinking time stopwatch.

There is also a Green total game time stopwatch.

Finally, there is a white clock in case you fullscreen the app and can’t se your clock.

Random Throws

To quickly see what the app can do, you can click the “Random Throw” button underneath the time clocks. This will throw a shot of random line, weight, and handle. The result looks a lot like a game by beginners right after their first Learn To Curl! 😉

Show Labels

As a teaching tool for new curlers, clicking the “Show Labels” button shows labels for all of the elements of a sheet of ice, like the names of the various lines, rings, and the numbering scheme and weight names for different shots. It also lets you know that yellow throws first and blue has the “hammer” (gets to throw the final stone).

See Figures 4, 5, and 6 below.

Figure 4: Helper labels for learning terminology (High Cam view)

Figure 5: Helper labels for learning terminology (Close Cam view of the rings)

Figure 6: Helper labels for learning terminology (House Cam view of the bottom of the sheet)

Ice Settings

Below the time clocks, you can now set the speed of the ice as the time for a mid-game hog-to-hog time for a no-sweep T-Line draw. The default is 14.5 seconds.

You can also set the amount of curl as the feet of curl between the broom position on the T-Line and the stone stopping position on the T-Line for a no-sweep T-Line draw. The default is 5 feet.

Split Times and Hog-to-Hog Times

Just like Version 1.0, there are three stopwatches (now green) above the “SWEEP” button on the right hand side controls, which you can use to gauge the speed of your stone (especially for those stones thrown with some degree of randomness):

On the left, a backline-to-hog split timer.

In the middle, a T-line-to-hog-line split timer.

On the right, a hog-to-hog timer.

Note that hog-to-hog times for each weight of shot are determined by the sheet of ice, whereas the split times depend on a player’s delivery, so you can adjust your split-times as described below in Player Settings.

Player Settings: Split Times & Sweeper Strength

Since players have varying deliveries — with different leg drives, different friction of sliders, rock release points, and pull-backs or extensions — the backline-to-hog and T-line-to-hog split times are only meaningful if you can set them up for that player. If you know what your typical mid-game split time is for a no-sweep draw to the button, you can set that under Player Settings on the left below the Ice Settings. The split times for other types of shots should then still be meaningful as long as you have a similar delivery for those other types of shots.

Different players also have different sweeping ability. You can set yours for a shot to the button. For example, if you can sweep 8 feet that means a stone which would have stopped 8 feet short of the button without any sweeping would instead stop exactly on the button if you swept at full strength the entire length of the ice. (And by the way, sweeping only has any effect after the rock crosses the first hog line because that’s where this simulation assumes that the rock is released.)

Thrower Skill

The final setting is for thrower skill, and is unchanged from Version 1.0: enter the desired variation in weight and direction for the player you are simulating, which is plus or minus some number of inches from the broom and plus or minus some number of feet of “weight” — which should really be called “distance”, but curling has lots of weird and confusing terminology!

Undo & Redo

And lastly, at the bottom of the left settings panel are the UNDO and REDO buttons.

Version 1.0 already had an undo button with an unlimited number of undos possible, but now you can choose to redo a shot exactly, which means whatever error the thrower made (plus or minus on line and plus or minus on weight) will be repeated exactly. This allows you to retry the sweeping on a shot if you want another chance.

Close Cam, Stone Cam, & Sweep View

On the right-hand control panel are the same five views as Version 1.0, except they’ve been moved to the top. There are also three new views:

Close Cam zooms in a bit closer to show just the rings. This can also make it easier to distinguish which stone is closest to the centre.

The old House Cam served two functions: to view the house, and to follow the stone down the ice after it is delivered. This has been separated into the new House Cam (which only moves if you drag it) and the new Stone Cam, which follows the stone down the ice. See Figure 7 below.

Sweep View is like the Stone Cam, except it follows the stone down the ice from the perspective of the sweeper, which can also be helpful for gauging weight. See Figure 8 below.

Figure 7 : Stone Cam (while being delivered at the opposite end of the sheet)

Figure 8: Sweeper view of stone delivery

Slow Motion, Pause, & Fast-Forward

The new Slow Motion mode now slows everything down to one-fifth of regular speed, just like viewing a video in slow motion. The physics is unchanged, but everything (including the time clocks) just go slower. It’s great for watching a complicated shot happen, like a triple-takeout!

Pause is also useful for examining complicated situations, or just talking with someone about a shot while it unfolds. It’s also useful for stopping your thinking time clock if you need to refresh your drink or empty your bladder!

And Fast-Forward lets you move quickly (at five times normal speed) through the long, boring parts of the game, like throwing up a guard when you already know from the split time that it’s got pretty good weight. The stopwatch for the entire end also speeds up, so you can see what the time for the entire end would have been without this magical power to alter the passage of time.

Horizontal Broom Position Inputs

In Version 1.0, the only way to move the broom is by dragging and dropping it. Now you can also set the horizontal broom position exactly using three dropdown menus at the bottom of the right hand control panel: feet, inches, and even tenths-of-an-inch. You may have seen me use this (especially the tenths-of-an-inch adjustment) in my video checking how much room for error there was in one of Koe’s triple-takeout shots for the win versus Team Wildcard in the 2020 Brier, linked below. (Note: this video was filmed using an earlier version of the app, not Version 2.0, but the Horizontal Broom Controls are unchanged.)

Video illustrating the use of the Horizontal Broom Position controls in the bottom right (down to 0.1″)

Other New Features

Automation

Many actions are now automated, such as:

Stones are automatically removed from play when they are out of bounds in any direction.

Stones are highlighted if they are in the Free Guard Zone while the Five Rock Rule is active (meaning it is illegal for the opposing team to remove them from play using a Takeout shot).

If the opposing team illegally removes a stone in the Free Guard Zone with one of the first five throws of the end, then the stones are automatically returned to their original position and the offending thrown stone is removed from play (and highlighted red).

See what the free guards look like below, in Figure 9. Notice that the yellow and blue guards are highlighted, and the yellow and blue draws are not.

Figure 9: Stones In or Near the Free Guard Zone during the Five Rock Rule

Hog-to-Hog Times listed in Weights Dropdown Input

Typical hog-to-hog times are now listed in the Weights dropdown input (immediately underneath the “THROW” button), along with the weight name and number. These times all correspond to ice that has a hog-to-hog time of 14.5 seconds for a mid-game no-sweep T-line weight (button) draw shot, which is commonly seen on arena ice in televised competitions and also conveniently on my home rink.

If you’ve changed the Ice Settings to a different hog-to-hog time for T-line draws, the times described in the weights dropdown menu won’t change, sorry. (Though the actual hog-to-hog times of those shots obviously will change!)

Physics Accuracy Improvements

There have also been some physics accuracy improvements, but it’s not completely there yet. There are still some hacks in place which I intend to replace with the real physics (and/or better hacks!) in the future.

And last, but definitely not least…

Keyboard Shortcuts!

If you’re like me and want to be able to set up shots more quickly and use the simulator more efficiently, you’ll love the fact that almost all operations now have keyboard shortcuts.

Arrow Keys to move the broom

Left, right, up, and down arrow move the broom fairly quickly in those directions.

Also holding down Control or Command (on a Mac) moves the broom more slowly.

Notice the feet and inches numbers in the Horizontal Broom Position dropdown inputs change when the broom moves.

Angle Brackets to choose your handle

‘<‘ = Counter-clockwise handle (out-turn for right-handed throwers)

‘>’ = Clockwise handle (in-turn for right-handed throwers)

NOTE: Curling Canada now recommends against using the terms “in-turn” and “out-turn”, and instead recommends using “clockwise” and “counter-clockwise” when teaching new curlers. I always hated the in/out-turn terminology — especially since it reverses for left-handed throwers (!) — so now that Curling Canada is on my side, I refuse to use it in my ChessOnIce app. 🙂

Weights for guards & draws using the number keys

Hit ‘1’ for a long guard, ‘7’ for a T-line draw, and so on, using the numbered weights system pioneered by Team Ferbey in the 1990s. A ’10’ is the ‘0’ key.

If you want halfway between two weights, hold the shift key also, e.g. a 3/4 biting the top 12′ would be 3+ or “Shift+3”, and backline weight is 10+ or “Shift+Zero”.

Weights for Takeouts using symbol keys or letters

Continue using the keys to the right of the ‘0’ key for takeouts:

‘-‘ is “Backline/Hack” weight; ‘Shift+dash’ is “Hack weight”.

‘=’ is “Board” weight; ‘+’ is “Board-Up” weight.

is “Board” weight; is “Board-Up” weight. ‘[‘ is “Control” weight (11 seconds hog-to-hog); ‘{‘ is “Normal” weight (10 seconds).

is “Control” weight (11 seconds hog-to-hog); is “Normal” weight (10 seconds). ‘]’ is “Firm” weight (9s Peel); ‘}’ is “Peel” weight (8s Peel).

is “Firm” weight (9s Peel); is “Peel” weight (8s Peel). ‘\’ is 7s Peel; ‘|’ is 6s Peel.

Or, use the letter of the common names for takeouts:

L = back- L ine weight (13.5 s)

ine weight (13.5 s) H = H ack weight (12.9 s)

ack weight (12.9 s) B = B oard weight (12.4 s)

oard weight (12.4 s) U = board- U p weight (11.8 s) — very common in this year’s Brier, I noticed…

p weight (11.8 s) — very common in this year’s Brier, I noticed… C = C ontrol weight (11 s)

ontrol weight (11 s) N = N ormal weight (10 s)

ormal weight (10 s) Shift+P = firm weight (9 s)

P = P eel weight (8 s)

eel weight (8 s) R = 7 s peel weight (a R ocket!)

ocket!) O = 6 s peel weight (to O rbit!)

rbit!) M = 5 s peel weight (to the Moon!)

Throw (deliver) & Sweep the stone

Return = THROW / deliver the stone

Space bar = SWEEP the stone (you need to hold it down continuously)

Slow motion, Pause, and Fast-forward using the neighbouring S/D/F keys

S = Slow motion

D = Pause (because it’s between the S for slow and F for fast keys)

F = Fast-forward

Shift+Arrow Keys to move between camera views

e.g. ‘Shift+Left’ changes from “Gallery View” to “High Cam”

e.g. ‘Shift+Up’ changes from “Gallery View” to “Sweep View”

Undo & Redo the usual way

Undo = ‘Control-Z’ (and Command-Z on a Mac)

Redo = ‘Control-Y’ (and Command-Y on a Mac)

Conclusion

Whew, that’s finally everything. It’s a lot more than I had realized, and I guess maybe I should have released a previous version earlier with some of these features. 😛

If you have questions, comments, suggestions, you can leave me a comment below, reply to the reddit post that I made in http://www.reddit.com/r/Curling, or go to http://www.reddit.com/r/ChessOnIce which is the main support forum for this app.

I hope you enjoy!

Download Chess On Ice Version 2.0: http://chessonice.ca/download-chessonice-2-0/