# Zapp Chess: Online Chess Game — user reviews > 45 indexed App Store user reviews of Zapp Chess by DAB Games Private Limited, rated 4.30/5 from 214 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/zapp-chess-online-chess-game/id6759085538/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/zapp-chess-online-chess-game/id6759085538.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 149 · 4★ 24 · 3★ 17 · 2★ 9 · 1★ 15 ## Newest reviews (13 of 45) ### 3/5 — Needs work *2026-08-02* Apparently after a recent update, I’ve noticed 2 point leads not being considered stable, but in my opinion, they were. Lost a couple games that should have been mine. **Developer response:** Hi. Please share the game details on in-app support or hello@zappchess.com. We will resolve the issue on priority. ### 4/5 — Great Game!! *2026-07-22* I really enjoy this game when I want to play a quick game of chess and not blitz. I stop playing after the reviews are blocked. It would be cool if I could watch an ad to review or something. I also hope you add an endgame mode. That’s what I need to work on the most. The membership price is a little high, but I’d pay a couple bucks to keep my reviews going on. Maybe a couple more if there a family plan option. Oh! And an AI explanation during the game review would be nice. (I think the membership would be worth it then.) I’d like to know why my move wasn’t the best move, or why the recommended move was. **Developer response:** Hi. Thanks so much for the review. We have a cheaper "Lite" plan for exactly the game review use case, curious if you are aware of it. We are working on AI explanations as we speak, hope to bring them to you soon! Interesting suggestion on endgames - not making any promises but will surely consider it. Thanks again :) ### 3/5 — Fun concept *2026-07-05* Honestly a fun and appealing concept. Ive had a few games where Ive been on wifi or otherwise had a stable connection with streaming videos/shows on other apps/websites but then I join this one and my moves wont go through and I end up losing a lot of time or just running out entirely. Not sure why it wont but it seems like it needs a much stronger connection than youd think. **Developer response:** Thanks for sharing your feedback. So sorry to hear that you are facing these issues. Can you share more details with us at hello@zappchess.com? We will get into the details and try to solve it for you. ### 4/5 — Quick Refreshment *2026-07-03* If you want an instant refreshment from your daily hectic schedule then you MUST play this easy, user friendly, and quick mode chess game. **Developer response:** Thanks so much, that's exactly our intention – to make phone breaks productive. Please share how we can improve further, we would love to earn that 5th star from you. ### 3/5 — Won’t load *2026-06-30* After playing for a few weeks it randomly stopped worked, it does the initial load screen but won’t load more than half way, aside from that great game that truly takes a different level of skill, problem solving and strategy **Developer response:** Really sorry for this. Please share your registered user details with us on hello@zappchess.com, we will solve asap ### 2/5 — Anti theory game *2026-06-18* I’ve played several games where the outcome likely would have been different if the analysis considered longer-term strategic ideas rather than only immediate trades. Many strong chess plans involve preparatory moves like sacrifices to create opportunities for forks, skewers, pins, or other tactical motifs several moves later. Limiting evaluation to short-term consequences can overlook the creative and theoretical aspects of the game, where positional setup and long-range planning are often what determine the best move. **Developer response:** Thanks for the feedback. Could you please share some such instances with us via in-app support or on hello@zappchess.com? We would love to understand this issue better and solve it. The game currently does consider forks, skewers, etc., even if they are several moves later, but we are probably missing your point. ### 3/5 — Nice Start *2026-06-18, version 1.1.53* The concept is interesting and fun. The analysis of games and moves is absolute garbage. ### 3/5 — Up dated review *2026-06-10* I've been using the app since it came out three months ago. It has been very good up until about two or three weeks ago. Now the starting positions look like a five-year-old randomly set up pieces on the chess group. Even though the materials balanced one side has a complete advantage always. After reviewing the positions currently versus when the at first came out two 1400 level we're playing a position/puzzle that was maybe 500 points above them were things were somewhat confusing, but easier to navigate now the position is even though it's equal by stockfish the puzzles at a grand master level. That's great if you have time to figure out the position by this time control. The position should be no more than a 3 to 400 points higher than the people playing it. This is a serious flaw **Developer response:** So sorry for your bad experience. Can you please share the problem cases with us on in-app support or hello@zappchess.com . We will look into it asap, it is most important to us that the starting positions are always fair. ### 3/5 — Good game but bad ad placement *2026-06-09* Love the idea of the game. The only issue is the timing of the ads. I understand as a free app to make money you have to have ads but putting them after the game but before the analysis makes me close the app every single time and not play a second game. I’m not sure where the ads should be but because of the current placement I’m playing 1/10th of the games I would be playing without the ad in the current place. **Developer response:** Thanks a lot for the feedback. We will definitely consider your suggestion on ad placement. You could also consider subscribing to the premium plan – it gives an ad-free experience. If at all, you think a particular type of ad placement might be better, please do share with us! ### 3/5 — Too many ads *2026-06-09* Great game just too many ads like I ain’t buying any product **Developer response:** Thanks for your positive feedback. These ads enable us to keep paying our bills, hope you understand :) ### 3/5 — Had potential *2026-05-31* I've been using the app since it came out three months ago. It has been very good up until about two or three weeks ago. Now the starting positions look like a five-year-old randomly set up pieces on the chess group. Even though the materials balanced one side has a complete advantage always. And the majority of the time decide with the advantage gets the move first if I started playing it now I will give it one star ### 3/5 — Lots of ads *2026-05-25* Ads are ok for unpaid subscribers but they take too long.. is faster to closed app and reopen. **Developer response:** We are sorry for your bad experience. We only show short ads, skippable in 5 seconds, which are standard across most games. Can you please reach out to in-app support, please? we will check your case and fix if there is any issue. ### 2/5 — Pieces *2026-05-23* Every-time I play a round the pieces are always being protected and when i take a piece a piece takes back so I end up with a piece not ending not able to take anything like my chess iq was 915 now its 492 because of the position of the pieces. **Developer response:** So sorry for the bad experience. Can you please reach out on in-app support or hello@zappchess.com? We will fix the issue as fast as we can. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Losing by opinion *2026-08-30* The game is being grossly misstated by your opinionated algorithm by creating a mistake oriented points system. I have been only 1 move away from checkmate several times when your negative points system awards the apponet a win ( and in one case the opponent had no captured pieces). Chess is a tactical game with moves that are based on 1). How the opponent has played and 2). How your next move will bring the game to an end by checkmate. Your idea is good but your obsession with penalties for moves that will ultimately win the game in the time allowed makes the experience frustrating at best. I plan not to participate in the future as your structure is flawed and does not reflect the true structure of the game. **Developer response:** Hello. Thanks for the detailed feedback. Could you please share a few cases where the game wrongly awarded the opponent the win with us on hello@zappchess.com? We will look into it promptly and make sure to address your concerns. ### 1/5 — Ruined with in app purchases *2026-07-07* Used to be a great app. They locked everything behind a paywall now unfortunately. I had an entire chess club using this app. We will no longer be using it. **Developer response:** So sorry to hear you are not having the ideal experience. We would like to understand more – which features being paywalled made you stop playing? We will try to come up with a solution. It would be great if you could write to us at hello@zappchess.com. ### 1/5 — Badly Implemented *2026-06-23* Unfortunately, your opponent can play badly and just take pieces to win. The developers try to make it sound like that’s not possible. But it is. You end up practicing bad chess. **Developer response:** Thanks for the feedback. Excited to know that you liked the concept. Can you please share more on why you are not liking the analysis? You can email us on hello@zappchess.com ### 1/5 — Frustratingly Unstable *2026-06-12* You must play five times to play once… just unacceptably bad. More than once has timed me out of a checkmate when I played immediately. Can’t recommend. As I play more, I encounter more imbalanced starting positions, sometimes gifting white an immediate free piece or putting black under immediate threat where one wrong move ends the game. Once I won with my first move and I don’t believe there was an effective counter; my lead was deemed stable after just two moves total. I wonder if there is even a rigor to creating the starting positions, or if they are generating them with AI. I’ll finish my trial and then delete and I recommend you do the same. Too many negatives and annoyances despite the interesting premise. **Developer response:** So sorry for your bad experience. Can you please share the problem cases with us on in-app support or hello@zappchess.com . We will look into it asap, it is most important to us that the starting positions are always fair. ### 1/5 — Unplayable due to bad servers *2026-06-08* The server response time was so bad my opponent lost on time after 5 moves, we both couldn’t get an immediate response from the server when playing moves. **Developer response:** Sorry for that, we had a technical failure. We have fixed it now, please try again ### 1/5 — Not working at all *2026-05-21* The app says it’s my opponents turn but I never see a move at all then the app says I lost timeout! **Developer response:** Hi, thank you so much for the review. Can you tell more about the issue please? Maybe reach out to us on in app support? We will love to understand the concern better and resolve it ### 2/5 — Bugs everywhere!! *2026-07-20* The game had a great concept but Zapp is virtually unplayable with the screen blacking out mid-game. The screen flashes on and off, the board and the pieces on and off, the pieces and moves are consistently disappearing without touching my phone. A debug update is much needed! **Developer response:** Hi. Thanks for sharing this. Can you please share your registration details and screenshots (if possible) on hello@zappchess.com or via in app support. We will fix the issue asap. ### 2/5 — Way over priced *2026-07-15* Game has a good chess puzzle variant and worth checking out. But then after a week the most annoying commercials I’ve ever seen start. It takes on average 5 minutes of waiting before the cancel button finally appears, most times I just stop and restart app. And then the commercials come every 3-4 puzzles. OMG are they for real?! Obviously this is not sustainable. So you check out the price and the insanity gets worse! These developers think their one-off $4 app is worth $12.99 a month?!!??! Chess.com has like a million more content and is cheaper. I would pay $4 once a year for this. Come on developers, don’t be stupid and annoying. Game also looks vibe-coded by teenagers. What a waste of potential. They need a community and instead chase them away. **Developer response:** Sorry about the bad experience, we completely understand your frustration. We are actively working with our ad partners to fix the long ad issues, it will be fixed within few days, till then we have also put a workaround now. We have also launched discounted annual plans as well as a cheaper lite plan to unlock game reviews. We would absolutely set further lower prices if we could. We request you to give us another shot. Please do share further feedback on hello@zappchess.com , we promise to address your concerns, it helps us be better. Thank you so much. ### 2/5 — Fun game; subscription prices are outrageous *2026-07-04* If you like practicing middle games and tactics against a live (?) player, this is a great app. I’m not convinced that there is a live player on the other end each time. But the subscription model is insane. $13/mo for no ads and game reviews. An insulting $30/month for a premium tier where the only additional benefit is a low stakes mode, and a streak freeze if you care enough about that. There are better apps that don’t cost anywhere near this much. **Developer response:** Thanks for your feedback. We are working on introducing a lighter subscription model as well – hope it helps you. We would like to understand more about which feature in the subscription model made you consider it and also what makes you think there are no live players. Can you please email us at hello@zappchess.com? We would love to have a chat with you. ### 2/5 — Fun but Ads *2026-07-02* Concept is super fun and unique, the issue is that this is a “subscribe for no ads” system. If you don’t pay up, after every single game you will see and ad for some other app (I keep getting polymarket) that is quite long, and then an ad for the premium subscription. Really annoying. The other downfall is that there is no pre-moving like most other chess sites. So if you’re low on time you’re out of luck. **Developer response:** Thanks for your feedback. Sorry to hear about your experience. Running ads helps us pay our operational expenses. Your feedback on pre-move is taken, and we will work on that. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Needs lines review to see moves *2026-08-23* Pretty fun though kinda like puzzle battle **Developer response:** Thanks for your feedback. Glad that you liked the game. Please spread the word with your friends.😊 ### 5/5 — Cool🤩 *2026-08-14* Super **Developer response:** Thanks! Glad you are liking Zapp Chess ### 5/5 — Great Quick Chess *2026-07-17* High replay value, always start in a different position. One interesting quirk about this is that in chess positional play and planning win matches. But in this it’s more about material scoring as fast as possible. Sometimes I forget that and lose on silly mistakes. But overall highly recommend. **Developer response:** Thanks so much for your endorsement, glad you like it. Our aim is to make playing chess possible even in short breaks, hence the tweak in rules. ### 5/5 — Eyes Wide Open *2026-07-11* Fantastic tool to work on not blundering. This app is basically a long version of a chess puzzle. You have to be quick though. It can be a bit stressful; however, your opponent has the same disadvantage as you. Love the app, will keep it on my home screen to play along with Lichess, Chess.com, and Pocket Chess! Play me: Gheebuttersnaps **Developer response:** Thanks for your feedback. It made our day :) Please spread the word about Zapp Chess with your friends! ### 5/5 — Best chess game *2026-07-08* I conducted a tournament in zapp chess it was easy to handle and best app for chess **Developer response:** Thank you so much! That's an interesting use case, please share any improvement suggestions or feedback you might have with us for tournaments. You can use in-app support or email on hello@zappchess.com . We will love to improve the experience further. ### 5/5 — Addictive *2026-06-24* This game is hard to put down. **Developer response:** Thanks for the feedback! Our goal is to make chess the world's default way to use free time ### 5/5 — Great Chess Puzzle App *2026-06-06* It’s not about winning so much as not getting behind… **Developer response:** Hi, really sorry about this. We work with only trusted partners like Google and Meta and actively block such ads, one might have slipped. We ran a full check again after your complaint to block such ads further. Please let us know from in-app support if you are still facing this. ### 5/5 — Loveee *2026-06-02* Just awesome ya know? **Developer response:** Thanks a lot. Glad that you liked Zapp Chess! ### 5/5 — Time *2026-05-17* I hate when you don’t play the game for the three minutes and you lose your turn and game **Developer response:** Hi, thank you so much for the review. Can you tell more about the issue please? Maybe reach out to us on in app support? We will love to understand the concern better and resolve it ### 5/5 — Great format *2026-05-15* Very innovative format to enjoy the game and also learning the nitty gritties **Developer response:** Thank you so much, glad to hear you like our game --- *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 2026-09-08.*