Noctie Chess Trainer User Reviews

What users say

Top reviews

Clutch

Downloaded have 10 credits started game and nothing happened tried again now down to 9 credits made move and nothing again…

Response from developer

Hi, Sorry for the bad first experience. We had a temporary server issue on June 14th which probably is what you encountered. Thanks for giving Noctie a try and for leaving feedback.

Great app

Very convenient app especially for those who just starting learning chess. Many practical tasks helping improve

Good, but 1 recommendation

Noctie is very good for many reasons, but everyone else has already said those reasons and it’s pretty obvious why it’s really good. However, one key thing that playing bots on any site does not include is realistic time management. When playing timed games, I would recommend that noctie spends a realistic amount of time like a human would, even if they have already decided on a move. For example, if it is the opening, noctie would play faster. If it is in a tense position with lots of dynamics, it will think longer like a normal person. This is key because it simulates real games, and lets you think and calculate when it’s your opponents are making a move. This would take noctie from good to great, and I would love it.
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Everything is a blunder

So when I do mistake it’s a blunder, do you know what a blunder is????
You need SUBSCRIPTION so you can change the theme.

Would not recommend just get chess.com it’s just better, and you don’t have to pay to change the theme, and everything isn’t a blunder.

Sadly I can’t give zero stars.

Amazing

Amazing app wish there was a lifetime tier.

Response from developer

Hi, thanks a lot for your feedback! We actually do have a lifetime tier, even though it's hidden at the moment. Feel free to contact me at andy@noctie.ai if you want help to transition. Cheers! /Andy

What happened with update?

UPDATE: Thank you for returning the line selection feature - much improved.

Original : I recently started using and bought a subscription. Things were going great until the recent update. After the update I lost all of my opening library and progress. Compounding that it’s really not clear how to navigate to rebuild that. The user flow to start practice sessions and select specific openings is TERRIBLE. As an example, I found only black opening library. There appears to be no way to find and load specific openings other than starting with the list in alphabetical order and working your way through. Im bummed - it was good and now this sucks.
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Response from developer

Thanks for the review and I'm very sorry that your experience was worse after the update. We made a significant change to our openings feature to adress some limitations, but this meant that the new user interface wasn't fully matching the old one, and much less usable as you experienced. We've put back the old feature of searching for specific opening lines, without having to create an opening book – this is available in the last release of the app. We also have a release coming out tomorrow, where we've made it one step less – you can search directly in the new game dialog, like you could before. I'd love to know if these changes adress the issues you've felt since the last release. Our ambition was to make the opening feature more powerful, not less usable, so it's very important for me that users like you are satisfied. We can stay in touch at support@noctie.ai if you'd like to give more feedback!

Not a chess trainer

Claims to be a chess trainer, but it literally doesn’t coach you through anything unless you pay money. You get like 2 free matches and that’s it. Otherwise, it’s just one free puzzle every day and one free puzzle every week. They’re dumb puzzles too. It just says (win this position) gives you a dumb position and if you reset and try the same moves the ai does something different every time. It doesn’t tell you like mate in two or three or even tell you where you messed up. Chess.com is better and it’s not even a coaching app.
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Response from developer

Hi, thanks for trying Noctie and leaving feedback. I just wanted to explain that the weekly position isn't a puzzle, it's a scenario where you start from an imbalanced position and try to win the game, so the idea is that the AI plays humanlike moves, which may differ between between games. The daily puzzle on the other hand is an actual puzzle, like mate in 3, and the AI will always play the same responses. You can currently play 10 games with premium features for free. You can still play against the humanlike AI as much as you want afterwards, but the automatic puzzle from mistakes and AI color feedback features are indeed premium features after the trial games.

Exactly What I Need to Reach an Expert Rating

I updated my review after receiving an impressive and thoughtful response from the developer. I’m currently rated around 1900 ELO, and I subscribed to this app—alongside other tools—as part of my journey toward an Expert rating.

At the club level, real improvement comes from building a solid opening repertoire, strengthening the middlegame (for example through works like Silman’s How to Reassess Your Chess), sharpening endgame skills, and—most importantly—practicing these openings against stronger opposition. This is precisely where Noctie AI stands out, and the team behind it deserves real credit.

I genuinely believe Noctie AI will continue to grow and attract more serious players. I also plan to remain an active contributor, because a committed community of improving players will only make the platform stronger. The developer appears highly dedicated and consistently works on improving both the mobile app and the desktop version.

That said, the analysis feature still needs significant improvement, and I hope future updates focus on expanding and refining it. A guided demo would also be extremely helpful, as the app offers many features that new users may not immediately discover. For example, players might become frustrated if the AI seems stuck at one level without realizing they can manually adjust the strength—from Pawn 1 up to Queen 4.

With these improvements, this app could become indispensable not only for club players but even for aspiring experts. I strongly recommend it to anyone serious about improving their chess and working toward mastery. It’s a shame more players haven’t discovered it yet—the developer may want to promote it more aggressively.
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Response from developer

Thank you for the candid review! As a fellow 1900 Elo I share your ambition to reach expert level 😊 You can select individual opening lines to play, both as standalone lines, and also when using an opening book you can use the Bookmark feature (target symbol) to train a specific subset of the opening book. Feel free to drop an email to support@noctie.ai if you run into issues using these functions. You're right that the game review is currently limited to just the move quality color feedback and the automatic puzzles. We share your vision of a better game review and this is something we're currently working on to be launched later this year. A huge benefit of using Noctie compared to playing a branch against a normal computer, is that Noctie selects the most humanlike replies so that you get practical experience in the opening. You can pick a difficulty between ~600 Elo (Pawn 1) and ~2700 Elo (Queen 4) and Noctie will play like a human at that level. I'd love to talk more to you about how we can improve the app for players of your strength. If you're up for it, reach out at support@noctie.ai / Samuel

Great for improving fast!

The immediate feedback after each move is enormously helpful. I’d say I’m advanced beginner/low intermediate level, and this is the most fun, stress-free way I’ve found to improve. The flashcard system for practicing the best moves in the situations where I made big mistakes in the games with Noctie is also great. The Noctie team is also very responsive in their discord channel
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Response from developer

Thanks for the kind words and for providing such high-quality feedback!

Needs a lot of improvement!

I am giving this a single star because of lack of response. I am curtly a 1900 ELO, and I thought I would this to help my tool to get to Expert. Thank you to the team that put this app together. However, this app needs a lot of improvement to become a great resource for club players. This way, it will continue to grow and attract more subscribers. Otherwise, anyone can use the analysis option in Lichess to set an opening branch, determine the level to play against and go from there. Please do not tell about the AI thing. It continues to play at the same level it chose no matter one’s go up or down in their rating against it. Two more suggestions to improve it: 1) It does not seem one can play the exact branch I want, e.g., Caro Kann exchange variation or Sicilian Hyper Accelerated Dragon unless one access the desktop application. Most people like to play from their smart phones and tablets and apparently this is a limitation. Also, game reviews are just the moves played and does not provide detailed computer analysis. This is misleading as it is limited to reviewing some blunders in the game and ignore the inaccuracies. If these improvements can be adopted, it might become a decent app to recommend to anyone, especially club players who seriously seek to improve their game towards mastery. However, at this point, it does not measure to this and deserves the one stat given above.
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Response from developer

Thank you for the candid review! As a fellow 1900 Elo I share your ambition to reach expert level 😊 You can select individual opening lines to play, both as standalone lines, and also when using an opening book you can use the Bookmark feature (target symbol) to train a specific subset of the opening book. Feel free to drop an email to support@noctie.ai if you run into issues using these functions. You're right that the game review is currently limited to just the move quality color feedback and the automatic puzzles. We share your vision of a better game review and this is something we're currently working on to be launched later this year. A huge benefit of using Noctie compared to playing a branch against a normal computer, is that Noctie selects the most humanlike replies so that you get practical experience in the opening. You can pick a difficulty between ~600 Elo (Pawn 1) and ~2700 Elo (Queen 4) and Noctie will play like a human at that level. I'd love to talk more to you about how we can improve the app for players of your strength. If you're up for it, reach out at support@noctie.ai / Samuel

Exactly what I need

I am curtly a 1900 ELO, and this is my tool to get to Expert, hopefully. Kudos to the team that put this app together. It will continue to grow and attract more subscribers. However, I have two suggestions to improve it: 1) It does not seem I can play the exact branch I want, e.g., Caro Kan exchange variation or Sicilian Hyper Accelerated Dragon unless I access the desktop application. Also, game reviews are just the moves played and does not provide detailed computer analysis. Despite these two observations, this is an amazing app. I recommend to anyone, especially club players who seriously seek to improve their game towards mastery.
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What happened with update?

I recently started using and bought a subscription. Things were going great until the recent update. After the update I lost all of my opening library and progress. Compounding that it’s really not clear how to navigate to rebuild that. The user flow to start practice sessions and select specific openings is TERRIBLE. As an example, I found only black opening library. There appears to be no way to find and load specific openings other than starting with the list in alphabetical order and working your way through. Im bummed - it was good and now this sucks.
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Response from developer

Thanks for the review and I'm very sorry that your experience was worse after the update. We made a significant change to our openings feature to adress some limitations, but this meant that the new user interface wasn't fully matching the old one, and much less usable as you experienced. We've put back the old feature of searching for specific opening lines, without having to create an opening book – this is available in the last release of the app. We also have a release coming out tomorrow, where we've made it one step less – you can search directly in the new game dialog, like you could before. I'd love to know if these changes adress the issues you've felt since the last release. Our ambition was to make the opening feature more powerful, not less usable, so it's very important for me that users like you are satisfied. We can stay in touch at support@noctie.ai if you'd like to give more feedback!

annoying it defaults to blitz mode

why tf would i play that way by default when i’m still learning and now i’ve wasted a premium game

Response from developer

Hi! Sorry for that, I'll look at changing the default to a longer time control. You can contact us at contact@noctie.ai and I can reset your premium games if you want to try more. Thanks for giving Noctie a try.

Weak in every aspect

The post game analysis is bad. Better review the whole game with an engine move by move. Even chess.com game review is better. Elo evaluation is just terribly wrong got 2400 elo and I am a 1400 player. Flash card idea is interesting but bad implementation. Does not worth your time nor your money.

Response from developer

Hi! You're right, the post-game review is very barebones today, and it makes sense to complement with engine review. Right now the app is more focused on the playing experience against a humanlike bot, picking what opening to play, getting puzzles from your mistakes, etc. However we're working on a greatly improved review experience that we think will be an upgrade compared to alternatives. Thanks for trying Noctie!

What we’ve all been waiting for

A chess engine that plays AND talks like a human. This will be the ultimate tool for practice and play without a doubt.

Excellent Training Platform

Noctie is excellent. It plays in a very human style compared to traditional engines making it a much better training tool. You can save sparring positions to practice and can also upload your repertoires to get feedback during games. The system creates flashcards from the games you play so you can go back and train on opening, tactic, and endgame mistakes based on your games. The team puts out training scenarios which are challenging. I should also note the web version supports Chessconnect to use eBoards and the app works well with my Chessnut Evo. They are a small and responsive dev team that makes improvements based on user feedback.
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I’m not this bad

For a coach app it is extremely unforgiving. I am a 1500 elo player but I get defeated in every game at the lowest difficulty. It’s hard to get into a game if you are doomed to lose.

Code Problem

I did the survey and didn’t get the code, is it because I signed with Apple, if you send me a discount code how do I use it I don’t see where can be applied in the app. Thanks

Response from developer

Hi, yes there might be an issue with the Apple relay e-mail blocking our e-mails. Can you mail us at contact@noctie.ai with your regular e-mail and I'll send you the code?

Great app with lots of potential

I think the basic concept works very well. Noctie feels a bit more human than regular chess engines and coloured move reviews and hints are very helpful. I quite enjoy playing and training with it.
However I think opening hints could use a few more moves.. knowing only first two three moves barely helps understand the concept behind an opening. Also it would be great if we could import our games from lichess/chess.com and get flashcards based on them.
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Awesome app

Great tips thank you , viva chess