Chess Board vs Chess Notation Lab
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chess Board
Play chess against another person on a digital board. Move pieces by selecting or dragging them. Features include undo, redo, and reversing the board.
- Two-player mode
- Piece selection and dragging
- Undo and redo moves
- Reverse board option
- Start from beginning
- Intuitive icon-based controls
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Your next move, across the table. Clear pixel pieces on a blue and cream board. Use one iPhone or iPad as a chess board and play face to face with family or friends. Tap or drag a piece to move it. Includes promotion, board flipping, coordinates and sound. Go back to an earlier position or move forward again to rethink each move together. Games save automatically on your device. Save, reopen, rename and delete up to 10 games for free, and continue after closing the app. A one-time Additional Features purchase removes ads and unlocks unlimited saved games, move records, comments on each move, and iCloud backup and restore. Existing purchasers receive ad removal at no extra charge. iCloud backups run automatically after changes, with an on/off switch. Offline changes are retried when the app can connect again. Restore is manual and keeps games already on your device. Free, with ads. Playing and saving on your device work offline. Ads, purchases, purchase restoration and iCloud backup need an internet connection. For iOS and iPadOS 15 or later. iPhone portrait and iPad portrait or landscape. Choose from 10 languages in Settings: Japanese, English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Russian, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Changing the language keeps your current game.
Chess Notation Lab
Master chess board coordinates and piece movement with this training app. Improve your ability to visualize moves, read notation, and understand square colors. Designed to enhance your chess calculations and potentially boost your rating.
- Identify squares by coordinate
- Fluid piece movement visualization
- Translate moves to notation
- Identify square color
- Orient on the board
- Speed up calculation
- Blind chess practice
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Welcome to Chess Notation Lab! Are you struggling to identify squares, remember sequences, and follow chess notations? Do you have trouble visualizing Bishop diagonals? Or Knight jumps? Or worse, mapping the available moves for the Queen to get/avoid a deadly fork? This training app is designed to end this misery. There are 2 training modes, each with 5 unique training sessions carefully designed to dramatically uplift your mastery over chess squares and fluid piece movement. A small dose of regular practice will empower you to: 1. Spot a square as soon as you hear or see its coordinate 2. Fluidly move any piece around the board, even without a board 3. Translate a sequence of moves into their notation with ease 4. Immediately identify the color of a square 5. Stay oriented regardless of whether you're white or black 6. Follow along with chess tutorials, books, or discussions at ease and comfort 7. Massively speed up your thought process on any calculation 8. Finally, start playing blind chess! Don't be surprised if you experience a sudden surge in rating simply by improving your square reading skills. The free version is already effective enough to significantly boost your chess career. However, if you want to support me and get the full version, first of all, thanks!! And then just a one-time purchase will unlock: - Longer time controls - Untimed practice mode - Milestones and Achievements and - Complete visualization of your records - Compete with friends over the complete leaderboards There will be no ads, neither in the full version nor in the free one. Just a beautiful and satisfyingly addictive path to mastering squares. The level of comfort you will feel about talking, reading or even thinking about chess is, believe me, just priceless. Caution: If you are rated below 1500, this app may be less useful for you, and tactics training should be prioritized.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Chess Notation Lab at 100% against Chess Board's 50%. Chess Notation Lab also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.0) and ads (none vs shown). Chess Board's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.6). On price 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. Chess Notation Lab sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Chess Board asks for nothing beyond the download.
Chess Notation Lab holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Notation Lab has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Chess Board's written reviews are positive against 100% of Chess Notation Lab's.
Chess Board ships an update every 59 months, Chess Notation Lab every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess Board | Chess Notation Lab |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 6 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 59 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Yuki Honda | Nishat Majid |
Customer experience
Chess Board
Chess Notation Lab
In-app purchases
Chess Board
No in-app purchases
Chess Notation Lab
- Full Version$9.99
Questions
Is Chess Board free?
Is Chess Notation Lab free?
Which has better reviews, Chess Board or Chess Notation Lab?
Do Chess Board or Chess Notation Lab have ads?
Which is updated more often, Chess Board or Chess Notation Lab?
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