# Chess Sudoku — by Cracking the Cryptic > Sudoku puzzles with chess-based movement restrictions. (iPhone/iPad app by Nick Carney.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-sudoku/id1500654482 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Nick Carney](https://appshunter.io/developer/1434235673) - Category: Games, Board, Puzzle - Price: $4.99 - Rating: 4.90/5 from 148 App Store ratings · 64 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 10.0 · 71 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2020-03-02 - Data updated: 2026-09-04 - Monetization: free - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-sudoku/id1500654482/reviews.md ## What is Chess Sudoku? ***** AUGUST UPDATE ***** 15 new King puzzles, all 100 puzzles are out now! ------------------------------------- Presented by Cracking The Cryptic, YouTube’s most popular Sudoku channel, comes a new game that connects two of the world’s biggest mind games: Chess and Sudoku! How does Chess Sudoku work? Well we’ve taken the classic sudoku game everyone knows and loves and created puzzles with chess-related twists! There are three different types of puzzles in the game: Knight Sudoku; King Sudoku and Queen Sudoku. In Knight Sudoku, in addition to the normal rules of sudoku (no repeated digit in a row/column/3x3 box) a digit must not appear a chess knight’s move away from itself. This simple extra restriction introduces lots of clever additional logic that makes the puzzle even more interesting! King Sudoku and Queen Sudoku work the same way: ie it’s always normal sudoku but, in King Sudoku a digit must not be a single diagonal move away from itself; and, in Queen Sudoku, every 9 in the grid acts like a chess Queen and must not be in the same row/column/3x3 box OR diagonal of any other 9! As with their other games (‘Classic Sudoku’ and ‘Sandwich Sudoku’), Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe (the hosts of Cracking The Cryptic) have personally crafted the hints for the puzzles. So you know that every puzzle has been play-tested by a human being to ensure that the sudoku is interesting and fun to solve. In Cracking The Cryptic’s games, players start with zero stars and earn stars by solving puzzles. The more puzzles you solve, the more stars you earn and the more puzzles you get to play. Only the most dedicated (and cleverest) sudoku players will finish all the puzzles. Of course the difficulty is carefully calibrated to ensure lots of puzzles at every level (from easy through to extreme). Anyone familiar with their YouTube channel will know that Simon and Mark take pride in teaching to be better solvers and, with their games, they always craft the puzzles with the mindset of trying to help solvers improve their skills. Mark and Simon have both represented the UK many times at the World Sudoku Championship and you can find more of their puzzles (and lots of others) on the internet’s biggest sudoku channel Cracking The Cryptic. Features: 100 beautiful puzzles from the Knight, King and Queen variants Hints crafted by Simon and Mark! ## Key features - Knight Sudoku puzzles - King Sudoku puzzles - Queen Sudoku puzzles - 100 crafted puzzles - Human-tested hints - Star-based progression ## What do users think of Chess Sudoku? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Great puzzles - 💡 Innovative chess constraints - 👍 Intuitive interface - 👍 Helpful hints - 👍 Smooth gameplay - 👍 Good for learning new logic - 👍 High-quality puzzles - 👍 Well-designed app - 👍 Supports YouTube channel creators **Cons** - 🐛 Queen move puzzles have errors - 🐛 Puzzles lack variety - 🐛 Difficulty ratings are odd - 🐛 App can be boring after finishing puzzles - 🐛 High power consumption - 🐛 Small number buttons - 🐛 Clunky and unintuitive UI - 🐛 Buttons are confusing - 🐛 No cloud saves - 🐛 No landscape mode on iPad (initially) - 🐛 Settings not explanatory - 🐛 Beginner tools enabled by default - 🐛 Lack of colors for painting cells - 🐛 No tutorial option - 🐛 Corner note alignment issues - 🐛 Awkward to refer to hint and board at once - 🐛 Entry modes unclear - 🐛 Can't select non-adjacent cells easily - 🐛 Transparent backgrounds in menus - 🐛 Lack of headers in menus **Commonly reported bugs** - Queen move puzzles have errors/contradictions - Puzzles sometimes have multiple solutions - Queen puzzles sometimes appear as plain sudoku - Queen sudoku has errors forcing restraint breaks - iPad app doesn't allow 180-degree orientation change - iPad app doesn't allow landscape play (initially) - Highlighting colors difficult to toggle - Buttons are too small and confusing - Queen rules not followed in some puzzles - Queen puzzle 1 has incorrect entries/solutions - Queen sudoku has numbers on the same diagonal - Queen sudoku has numbers within a king's move **Most requested features** - Larger number buttons - More puzzle variety - More puzzles overall - Cloud saves - Landscape mode for iPad - More color options for cell painting - Tutorial for notation - Consolidate apps into one with IAP - Remember last opened puzzle - Button to clear markings from selected cells only - Indicator for relevant hint cells - Tool to notice current mode (Knight, King, Queen) - More colors for notation - Option to disable beginner tools - Improved corner note alignment - Option to play horizontally on iPad - Better button optimization based on frequency of use ## Recent user reviews (10 of 64) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-sudoku/id1500654482/reviews.md ### 5/5 — Great Game *2025-12-11* Really nice game ### 4/5 — Bigger number buttons please *2023-08-19* Love Cracking The Cryptic. Watch the channel daily and have other apps. Enjoy Chess Sudoko App BUT one issue. The most important buttons are the number buttons, and they are smallest and hardest to use. Please can you consider the CX; increasing their size and reducing the large buttons for less frequently used functions. I have an iPhone 13, reasonably large screen but keep hitting the wrong number. Thanks ### 4/5 — Chess soduku make less sense, queen moves especially *2023-02-27* I am a chess player so I expected chess soduku to make sense. Queen move ones though clearly have some additional rule. It says no duplicates on the diagonals, but it’s only some diagonals and not the others. For instance in puzzle 2, the 1s x out all the spots in row 5. In puzzle 1, it starts with two fours across the long upper left to lower right diagonal. Huh?! ### 3/5 — One of their weaker apps *2022-12-10* I love the “cracking the cryptic” various apps (and their YouTube channel is brilliant if you haven’t tried it) but honestly this is one of the weaker of their apps. The puzzles don’t offer much variety compared to eg their “miracle sudoku” app, or their new all-in-one app. The difficulty ratings for the puzzles are also a bit odd/wrong with many of the “difficult” queen move puzzles being easier than the “easy” ones for example. Unless you already have all their other apps and are desperate for more sudoku content, I’d get one of their other two apps mentioned above instead ### 4/5 — Very nice sudokus, but high power consumption *2022-02-20* Great solves, very much worth the money. I would love the app to be more power optimized. It uses more battery than apps streaming high resolution videos with sound (iPhone 13, 19% in 1h 13min). There has to be potential to minimize that! ### 3/5 — Queen's Move *2021-11-17* I love Knight's move sudukos. Can't get enough of them. Just started the queen's move section, however, and in the first puzzle there are two given fours on a diagonal from each other. Unless I'm missing something, this seems. Strange. ### 4/5 — More puzzles? *2021-09-30* I love this app!! The chess move limitations add such interesting new patterns and techniques. However, I’ve finished all the knight move puzzles multiple times and am getting bored of them! I’d love to see another update with more puzzles. ### 5/5 — Amazing! *2021-08-22* Love all the CTC apps so far, and I’m enjoying the different types of puzzles they offer as well as the amazingly constructed puzzles in each. ### 5/5 — More puzzles please *2021-04-01, version 1.5* Love this app but no new puzzles were added for a very loong time ### 3/5 — Multiple solutions *2020-12-25, version 1.5* Puzzles number 30 In the knight sudoku has 2 solutions. ## Frequently asked questions about Chess Sudoku ### What is Chess Sudoku? Chess Sudoku is a mobile game that merges the classic Sudoku puzzle with chess-inspired rules. It features three distinct puzzle types: Knight Sudoku, King Sudoku, and Queen Sudoku, each adding unique constraints based on chess piece movements to the traditional Sudoku logic. ### What are the different types of puzzles? The app offers Knight Sudoku, where digits cannot be a knight's move away from themselves; King Sudoku, where digits cannot be a single diagonal move away; and Queen Sudoku, where every '9' acts like a queen and cannot share a row, column, box, or diagonal with any other '9'. ### How does the progression system work? Players start with zero stars and earn them by successfully solving puzzles. The more puzzles you solve, the more stars you accumulate, which in turn unlocks additional puzzles. This system is designed to reward dedicated and skilled solvers. ### Are the puzzles difficult? The difficulty of the puzzles is carefully calibrated to cater to players of all levels, ranging from easy to extreme. The puzzles are crafted by experienced Sudoku solvers and are play-tested to ensure they are both interesting and fun, while also helping players improve their skills. ### Is this app free to play? Yes, the application is free to play. There are no in-app purchases or advertisements mentioned, indicating a completely free experience for users. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.6 — 2021-08-25 15 new King Sudoku puzzles, all 100 puzzles are out now! ### 1.5 — 2020-12-24 15 new knight puzzles! Redesigned level select menu Added continue button to the home menu ### 1.3 — 2020-07-22 5 new King puzzles QoL improvements Fixed Queen Sudoku description in the hint screen New dark mode theme Manual save data sync option in the settings ### 1.2 — 2020-06-30 Queen Sudoku is out now! - Landscape support - New dark mode theme ### 1.1 — 2020-04-28 5 new knight puzzles! Performance settings, choose between High Quality and Battery Saver in Gameplay Settings page 2 Increased number of level select icons per row ## Apps similar to Chess Sudoku | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Chess Clash: Online & Offline](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-clash-online-and-offline/id1543399979) | 4.7 (3,154) | Free | Games | | [Chess for Kids: Learn to Play](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-for-kids-learn-to-play/id629375826) | 4.7 (100,097) | Free | Games | | [Chess ∙](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess/id311395856) | 4.5 (204,953) | Free | Games | | [SocialChess • Online Chess](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/socialchess-online-chess/id442239737) | 4.7 (7,168) | Free | Games | | [Chess.com - Play and Learn](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chesscom-play-and-learn/id329218549) | 4.8 (816,078) | Free | Games | | [Chess](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess/id319305999) | 4.7 (38,795) | Free | Games | ## More apps by Nick Carney - [Achromatic!](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/achromatic/id1434235674) - [Sandwich Sudoku](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sandwich-sudoku/id1476116705) - [Classic Sudoku!](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/classic-sudoku/id1488838275) - [Thermo Sudoku](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/thermo-sudoku/id1513994223) - [Miracle Sudoku](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/miracle-sudoku/id1527363795) All apps by Nick Carney: https://appshunter.io/developer/1434235673 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-04.*