# Chess Sudoku — user reviews > 64 indexed App Store user reviews of Chess Sudoku by Nick Carney, rated 4.90/5 from 148 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-sudoku/id1500654482/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-sudoku/id1500654482.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 136 · 4★ 8 · 3★ 3 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 0 ## 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 ## Newest reviews (14 of 64) ### 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?! ### 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! ### 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. ### 4/5 — Awesome game but Queen Sudoku needs work. *2020-11-11* Enjoying both king and knight sudoku, top rating for that, but the first puzzle on Queen puzzle has an error as the game right answer for some entries in puzzle 1 are not correct. Haven’t moved on as there may be more.. ### 5/5 — Great App *2020-08-15* This is a fantastic app. The puzzles are good, and train you to work your way up to the hardest ones. The variants add a tremendous amount of fun. There are three different types of puzzles, queen restriction, knight restriction, and king restriction. The solving interface is also fantastic. I highly recommend it, and I look forward to trying CTC’s other apps. ### 5/5 — Amazing App (and Amazing Channel) *2020-07-13* This app is amazing. The rules are interesting. The puzzles are engaging. The creators are awesome. I’ve got hours of fun out of this, and for $5, it’s easily worth it. If I had any feedback, it would be that I’d love more puzzles in the current categories, especially more difficult ones. I love the challenge of the most difficult puzzles of the app, but crave more. (though to be fair I have yet to finish the Queen Puzzles, so perhaps I shouldn’t complain). ### 5/5 — Solid app *2020-07-04* Absolutely brilliant, takes sudoku to a whole new level ### 5/5 — Perfect *2020-07-04* This app works so well, it is really smooth compare to other sudoku apps. I really like it. The variant chess sudoku is my favorite. The only thing I wish was different is the corner notation for the 5 cause they go to the middle which can be confusing, but this is really nitpicking. Great app!! ### 4/5 — Comment on hints *2020-07-03, version 1.2* I tried Queen sudoku today and for games 2 and 3 Queen rules do not seem to be followed in the final solution. ### 5/5 — Queen? *2020-07-03, version 1.2* Love the app, but the first Queen puzzle seems to be just plain old sudoku ### 5/5 — Knights version is my fave of all your apps *2020-07-03* I have all of your apps and love them! Thank you Mark and Simon! ### 5/5 — Love the app but.... *2020-07-02, version 1.2* The queen sudoku has errors forcing you to break the queen restraint. ### 5/5 — iPad App *2020-07-02* Previously left a 4 star review due to no Landscape mode on IPad up, and it appears that has been updated along with addition of Queen Sudoku. A+ guys, thanks! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work in landscape on iPad *2020-06-13* Which makes it pretty impossible to use for me. ### 1/5 — Love the puzzles, not the app. *2020-05-30* The app itself lacks polishing. The options in the settings aren’t very explanatory and difficult to read at start. For £5 I would’ve expected the entire sudoku collection together, not as separate apps, but that’s just an opinion. I have still very happily paid for it because I love the YouTube channel and I really enjoy the chess sudoku. Another gripe of mine is that this app doesn’t offer cloud saves. I cannot go from my phone to my iPad. I have invested a lot of time on my iPad that I cannot continue on my phone, which is pretty annoying. Not the end of the world. My iPad app is also disappointing. It does not allow you to change orientation 180 degrees, so I cannot charge my iPad while standing it up. You also cannot play this app horizontally. There’s definitely a lot of space on the screen for all of the tools. There should be more colours, like their website. Might be nitpicking at this point, but I would have also preferred to have not had all of the assistant options enabled. My first game I accidentally placed a number in the wrong cell and it told me it was wrong. It then enabled me to solve the puzzle as I knew where that number could not have go. Pros: - Amazing puzzles. - Great tools for beginners. - Mimics the website in a lot of ways. - Hours of fun. - Gameplay has a good interface. Cons: - No cloud saves. - Beginners tools are enabled by default. - Lack of colours for painting cells. - No tutorial option. - App doesn’t feel polished. - Settings aren’t explanatory. Overall I’m happy with the game, being the only app to offer these puzzles, but it definitely requires a lot of updating for it to be worth £5 and also a 5-star rating. ### 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 ### 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. ### 3/5 — Multiple solutions *2020-12-25, version 1.5* Puzzles number 30 In the knight sudoku has 2 solutions. ### 3/5 — App is okay but it gets boring *2020-12-14, version 1.3* The app is okay, but there’s nothing to do after finishing all the puzzles. We need the new ones! ### 3/5 — Queen’s move errors *2020-11-30* Several other reviews have stated it already, but the puzzles don’t seem to follow the queen’s move restrictions very well. One review listed a few and the very first one had multiple contradictions. I love the app but the devs should probably take a look at this. ### 3/5 — Queen sodoku not working? *2020-10-16* Is me that does not understand it or is the queen sodoku not working? There is several numbers coming in the same diagonal, sometimes event within a kings moove! ### 3/5 — Very Frustrating Buttons *2020-06-24* I got this app because I play on the web version all the time and wanted one for my phone rather than just my computer. The user interface on the app is very frustrating. It’s virtually impossible to toggle between highlighting colors unless you hit them just right. Buttons are too small and confusing. ### 3/5 — Great puzzles, horrible app *2020-05-07* I’ve been enjoying the YouTube channel and I like the puzzles but oh dear, the app is awful. I don’t know where to start. It’s clunky, unintuitive and pretty amateur. Such a let down. I’m still happy to have the puzzles but I wish I could port them to a better app to play them. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Great Game *2025-12-11* Really nice game ### 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 ### 5/5 — Amazing sudoku app *2020-12-09* I really enjoy all the puzzles available in this app. The difficulty increases steadily and i love that i can customize the grid to not give me any help (like highlighting same numbers, or telling me the number i entered is wrong : these make solving too easy and are often an obligation in other apps). Everything you can do like center notations and coloring squares is really so practical i love it! Can’t wait to try all the other apps in this series for more fun handmade puzzles. ### 5/5 — Great Software and Top Notch Challenge *2020-11-24, version 1.3* After discovering CTC from YouTube, its safe to say I knew this app would be worth the price. The mechanics of center and corner notes, coloring, and multiple cell selection makes playing these intricate puzzles so much smoother. Not to brag but the easy puzzles were a breeze, as they should be. The hard ones definitely stumped me multiple times. Some I broke free after a couple hours but others I needed to use the hints which are very helpful. I recommend watching their videos if hesitant on the purchase, but be warned you will be a sudokuholic after! ### 5/5 — A must buy! *2020-11-22* I would highly recommend this app for anyone who has ever liked sudoku. Personally I was very into sudoku many years ago but admittedly got a tad bit bored of it. These puzzles offer a very fresh and interesting twist on classic sudoku puzzles that has rekindled my interest in sudoku. ### 5/5 — Great app. Need more puzzles! *2020-09-17, version 1.3* It’s been more than 1 month since any puzzle was added. When should we expect new puzzles? ### 5/5 — Amazing! *2020-09-01* Having done all the puzzles on the Classic Sudoku app, this was my next stop. The chess constraints make these even more fun, and I love how each variation (there are 3) forces you to think slightly differently. I actually found it very frustrating returning to normal sudoku, having loved these so much. The app itself is great, it’s intuitive design (highlighting, double notation) make the logic clearer. This means the process of solving these puzzles feels more natural and seamless than on any other app (or on paper). You can tell the creators know their stuff. The clues too are much better than those on other apps, which tend to just give you a number and let you continue. Here, the next stage of the solution is carefully deconstructed, and if you only want to know where to look, it’s easy to stop reading before too much is revealed. Even when you’re being told the answer, you still get the thrill of solving these wonderful puzzles! ### 5/5 — Absolutely Awesome Stuff *2020-08-23* It’s completely amazing how quickly I found myself picking up the concept. After years of being practically addicted to Sudoku, solving puzzles in my dreams and on every app I could find while awake but I never imagined Sudoku could be this fun! Only the second game I’ve ever spent money on and 100% worth it to support a truly amazing duo. I’m so close to finishing all the puzzles, I’m scared to open the app, I don’t know what I’ll do when I run out of puzzles to solve haha. Can’t wait for more updates, thank you Simon and Mark for this easy to navigate, riveting app that has me waking up in excitement at the prospect of my morning coffee and Knights Sudoku, 100% satisfied customer :) ### 5/5 — Fun! *2020-08-16* I have finally finished all the puzzles! This kept me entertained for many hours of breaks at work. The signature double pencil markings and colouring features are very useful. I will definitely be buying the other apps. This is now the gold standard of sudoku apps! --- *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.*