iPhone · Safari · no download
Play chess by voice on iPhone
Say "knight to f3" and the knight moves. Maneline is a chess app you can play hands-free: your moves, castling, take-backs, questions about the board, signing in, adding friends and the game review all work by voice. Free to start.
How it works, in three steps
Step 1
Open it
Open maneline.ca in Safari. Add it to your Home Screen from the Share menu if you want it to open like an app.
Step 2
Tap the mic
Start a game and tap the gold microphone under the board. Allow the microphone when iPhone asks. The mic keeps listening while you play; a setting closes it after a few seconds of silence if you prefer.
Step 3
Say your move
Piece, then square: "knight to f3". Three pills light up as the piece, the file and the rank are heard, and the move plays when all three lock.
What to say
The parser understands plain chess talk. These all work today:
- "knight to f3"
- moves the knight that can reach f3
- "pawn e4"
- "to" is optional — piece and square is enough
- "bishop takes c6"
- captures are just the target square, "takes" is optional
- "castle kingside" or "short castle"
- castles; "long castle" / "castle queenside" for the other side
- "knight c3" with two knights able
- it asks "Which knight — b1 or e4?" and shows both so you can pick one
- "take back" / "undo"
- reverses the last move pair against the engine
Mishears it corrects on its own
Phone speech recognition has never heard of a chess board. Maneline fixes the common ones before the move is read:
- "night f3" becomes knight f3
- "pond d4" becomes pawn d4
- "bishop before" becomes bishop b4
- "rookie one" becomes rook e1
- "rugby one" becomes rook b1
Everything else you can do by voice
Ask about the board
Eyes off the screen? Ask and she answers out loud.
- "where are the knights"
- "what's on e5"
- "read rank 4"
- "read the board"
- "last move"
- "whose turn"
Get around the app
Turn on voice mode with the gold centre button, then say:
- "play a game"
- "sign in"
- "add a friend"
- "my games"
- "puzzles"
- "story mode"
- "talk to Caïssa"
- "where am I"
- "what can I say"
- "voice off"
Sign in and add friends without the keyboard
Say "sign in", say your email as words ("jane at gmail dot com"), and read back the six-digit code from the email. Say "add a friend" to share your invite link or say a six-digit friend code.
Hear the game reviewed
After a game, Caïssa walks through it move by move in her own voice and rates every move. Signed-in players can ask her about any position, with a few questions a day on the free plan.
Opponents: the engine at any strength, more than thirty house players with real habits, famous-player styles, or a friend, live or by correspondence.
For blind and low-vision players
Everything above was built so a game can be played without looking: every move is spoken, the board can be read back rank by rank, and signing in, adding a friend and picking your colour are done by speaking. The first thing Maneline asks a new player is whether they are blind or visually impaired; answering yes turns all of this on at once.
Honest status: we test on iPhone with VoiceOver and we are still finding gaps. If a step goes quiet or a button is unlabeled, say "help" in the app or write to us from the feedback button, and it gets fixed. No certification is claimed.
Where your voice goes
Your iPhone's own speech recognition turns what you say into text, and Maneline receives the text, never a recording. We do not sell or share your data, and there are no ads and no trackers. The only thing we learn from is misheard chess moves, so the corrections above get better for everyone.
Questions
Do I need to install anything?
No. Maneline runs in Safari on iPhone. Add it to your Home Screen from the Share menu if you want it to open like an app. iPhone asks for the microphone when you first tap it; to stop Safari asking again, tap the aA button, Website Settings, and set Microphone to Allow.
How do I say a move?
Piece then square: "knight to f3", "pawn e4", "queen takes d5". Castling is "castle kingside" or "castle queenside". If two pieces could make the move, it asks which one and shows both.
What if it hears me wrong?
Common mishears are corrected automatically ("night" becomes knight, "pond" becomes pawn, "before" becomes b4). The board shows what was locked in before the move fires, and "take back" undoes it.
Can blind or low-vision players use it?
You can play a full game by voice, ask where the pieces are, hear every move spoken, sign in and add friends without the keyboard. We test with VoiceOver and are still finding gaps — if something breaks, tell us and we fix it.
Where does my voice go?
Your iPhone's own speech recognition turns your words into text; Maneline receives the text, not a recording. We never sell or share your data, there are no ads and no trackers.