# Noctie Chess Trainer — user reviews > 38 indexed App Store user reviews of Noctie Chess Trainer by Noctie AB, rated 4.70/5 from 611 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/noctie-chess-trainer/id6444289077/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/noctie-chess-trainer/id6444289077.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 513 · 4★ 56 · 3★ 19 · 2★ 7 · 1★ 16 ## What do users think of Noctie Chess Trainer? Overall sentiment: mixed **Pros** - 👍 Great for learning chess - 💡 Realistic time management simulation - 🚀 Improves chess skills quickly - 💡 Human-like play style - 💡 Flashcard system for mistakes - 💡 Responsive developer team - 👍 Excellent training platform - 👍 Useful for reaching higher ratings - 👍 Good for building opening repertoire - 👍 Immediate feedback after moves - 👍 Supports eBoards and Chessnut Evo - 👍 Encourages serious chess improvement **Cons** - 👎 Blunders mislabeled - 👎 Subscription required for themes - 👎 Limited free content - 👎 Puzzles are basic - 👎 AI doesn't coach - 👎 Update caused data loss - 👎 Poor navigation after update - 👎 AI plays at same level - 👎 Analysis feature needs improvement - 👎 Guided demo needed - 👎 Default to blitz mode is annoying - 👎 Weak in analysis - 👎 Inaccurate Elo evaluation - 👎 Flashcard implementation is bad - 👎 Unforgiving at lowest difficulty - 👎 AI strength not aligned with rating - 👎 Inaccurate hints/feedback - 👎 Opening hints too short - 👎 Cannot play specific branches on mobile - 👎 Game reviews lack detailed analysis - 👎 Portrait mode layout issue on iPad **Commonly reported bugs** - Lost opening library and progress after update - User flow to rebuild opening library is terrible - Material difference calculation breaks with promoted queens - Layout cuts off chessboard in portrait mode on iPad - AI doesn't adjust strength based on user rating - Hints and feedback can be inaccurate **Most requested features** - Lifetime tier option - Realistic time management for bots - Dark mode - Choice of colors and chessboards - Import games from Lichess/Chess.com for flashcards - More moves in opening hints - Ability to play specific opening branches on mobile - Detailed computer analysis in game reviews - Guided demo for new users - Option to open PGN on Lichess from review page - Export PGN after game ## Newest reviews (10 of 38) ### 4/5 — Good, but 1 recommendation *2026-05-09* 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. ### 4/5 — What happened with update? *2026-02-26* 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. **Developer response:** 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! ### 4/5 — Great app with lots of potential *2025-02-13* 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. ### 5/5 — Awesome app *2025-01-12* Great tips thank you , viva chess ### 5/5 — Dr. Wolf vs Noctie *2024-12-21* Similar apps. Which is better and why? ### 5/5 — Manque le mode sombre *2024-12-14* Manque le mode sombre et le choix des couleurs et échiquiers ### 5/5 — I liked *2024-11-07* I liked my game I was played even though I lost and I liked the game Challenger. especially when they gave me no slack on the main tactic, I have learned to use my plain, family and friends in real life to normally win. ### 5/5 — Fantastic! But… *2024-08-16* Can we please get a dark mode appearance? ### 4/5 — Great practise, the analysis could be better. *2024-07-15* I have really enjoyed using this app to practise chess, the ai does feel like playing a human, and on the most the part the live feedback and analysis is correct. I have noticed a few occasions were the ‘hints’ given by the app were actually inaccurate, or moves that I was told were “good” were also inaccurate. I feel like the ai is great for playing against but the engine used to determine which move is good/bad isn’t perfect. It’s very handy that you can export the PGN very easily to lichess to do your own analysis and find the best moves in positions were you were a bit stuck. ### 5/5 — Love It *2024-07-11* I love the app. Strikes me as the most efficient way to improve your game. Devs are super responsive too! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Clutch *2026-06-14* Downloaded have 10 credits started game and nothing happened tried again now down to 9 credits made move and nothing again… **Developer response:** 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. ### 1/5 — Everything is a blunder *2026-04-19* 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. ### 1/5 — Not a chess trainer *2026-02-25* 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. **Developer response:** 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. ### 1/5 — Needs a lot of improvement! *2026-02-14* 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. **Developer response:** 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 ### 1/5 — What happened with update? *2026-01-30* 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. **Developer response:** 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! ### 1/5 — annoying it defaults to blitz mode *2025-12-19* why tf would i play that way by default when i’m still learning and now i’ve wasted a premium game **Developer response:** 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. ### 1/5 — Weak in every aspect *2025-11-06* 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. **Developer response:** 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! ### 1/5 — I’m not this bad *2025-03-02* 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. ### 2/5 — Weak *2024-08-10* Noctie doesn’t play you at a strength that makes sense for your rating. The “AI” appears to be nothing other than your typical engine that will pick the best movies. I like that I can choose what opening I want to play. ### 4/5 — Fantastic app *2026-08-10* Really annoying about pestering you for a review though ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Educational *2026-07-27* I’m loving it ### 5/5 — Bet Trainer I’ve Used *2026-07-12* I want to preface this post by saying I suck at chess. While I’ve known the basics for a long time, I didn’t fall in love with Chess until recently. My chess.com games were about 50/50 on Blitz. Using this program helped me see my mistakes immediately and I was able to see other options that would have been better. After a game I’m able to analyze my mistakes and actually given the opportunity to replay those exact same scenarios. I actually cancelled two other programs because of Noctie. I’m about an 80% win rate right now on chess.com. Maybe I’m just getting lucky… but I don’t think that is the case! At least try the free version it’s worth it. ### 5/5 — Great app *2026-05-29* Very convenient app especially for those who just starting learning chess. Many practical tasks helping improve ### 5/5 — Amazing *2026-04-13* Amazing app wish there was a lifetime tier. **Developer response:** 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 ### 5/5 — Exactly What I Need to Reach an Expert Rating *2026-02-21* 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. **Developer response:** 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 ### 5/5 — Great for improving fast! *2026-02-21* 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 **Developer response:** Thanks for the kind words and for providing such high-quality feedback! ### 5/5 — Exactly what I need *2026-02-08* 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. ### 5/5 — What we’ve all been waiting for *2025-08-14* A chess engine that plays AND talks like a human. This will be the ultimate tool for practice and play without a doubt. ### 5/5 — Excellent Training Platform *2025-04-01* 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. ### 5/5 — Code Problem *2025-02-25* 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 **Developer response:** 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? --- *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 2026-09-01.*