Lucid Chess vs Zenmate
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lucid Chess
Engage in a focused single-player chess experience with AI opponents. Analyze your games with move-quality feedback and compare candidate moves highlighted by color. Customize your play with various themes and helpful controls.
- AI opponent levels 1-9
- Lucid Lens candidate move highlighting
- Recent game review panel
- Move-quality feedback
- Multiple board themes
- Undo and hint controls
- Blunder alerts
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Lucid Chess is a focused single-player chess game built for mobile play. Choose white or black, set the AI level from 1 to 9, and start a match on a clear 8x8 board. When you select a piece, Lucid Lens marks candidate moves with colors so you can compare good, stable, and risky options before moving. The recent game panel lets you replay the latest saved move record in a read-only review mode and check accuracy with move-quality feedback. The game also includes Classic, Ocean, Forest, and Mono board themes, plus new game, undo, hint, and blunder alert controls.
Zenmate
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Zenmate is a calm, beautifully designed chess app built for focused play. Play a quiet game against the AI, start a match with friends through Game Center, or pass-and-play on one device. Zenmate keeps the interface simple and refined so the board stays central and every move has room to breathe. Features: - Play vs AI with multiple difficulty levels - Play with friends using Game Center - Local 2-player pass-and-play - Light and dark mode - Optional board coordinates - Flip board support - Clean timers and move-focused gameplay A quiet game of kings. Designed to slow you down, one move at a time.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Zenmate at none against Lucid Chess's shown. Lucid Chess's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Lucid Chess ships an update every 5 weeks, Zenmate every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lucid Chess | Zenmate |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 82 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Seori Labs | Timothy Nice |
In-app purchases
Lucid Chess
No in-app purchases
Zenmate
No in-app purchases
