Comparison

Elementary Chess Tactics I vs Chess

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Elementary Chess Tactics I

Master fundamental chess tactics with over 4300 exercises designed for beginners and club players. Learn to identify and exploit common tactical patterns like forks, pins, and discovered checks. Improve your game quality and never miss an elementary combination again.

Highlights
  • Over 4300 tactical exercises
  • Covers forks, pins, discovered checks, and more
  • Interactive lessons with hints and explanations
  • Monitors ELO rating changes
  • Offline play capability
  • Tablet optimized
Features
Read full description

If you are a beginner, it is necessary for you to study simple tactical methods and learn how to employ them! This course includes more than 4300 exercises for beginners on the following tactical methods: Fork, pin, double check, discovered check, annihilation of the opponent's king defense, exploiting a back (1st) rank weakness. If you are a beginner or a club player, this is the program for you! After going through this course you will never miss an elementary combination in a practical game of your own and will be able to improve the quality of your play considerably. This course is in the series Chess King Learn (https://learn.chessking.com/), which is an unprecedented chess teaching method. In the series are included courses in tactics, strategy, openings, middle game, and endgame, split by levels from beginners to experienced players, and even professional players. With the help of this course, you can improve your chess knowledge, learn new tactical tricks and combinations, and consolidate the acquired knowledge into practice. The program acts as a coach who gives tasks to solve and helps to solve them if you get stuck. It will give you hints, explanations and show you even striking refutation of the mistakes you might make. Advantages of the program: • High quality examples, all double-checked for correctness • You need to enter all key moves, required by the teacher • Different levels of complexity of the tasks • Various goals, which need to be reached in the problems • The program gives hint if an error is made • For typical mistaken moves, the refutation is shown • You can play out any position of the tasks against the computer • Interactive theoretical lessons • Structured table of contents • The program monitors the change in the rating (ELO) of the player during the learning process • Test mode with flexible settings • Possibility to bookmark favorite exercises • The application is adapted to the bigger screen of a tablet • The application does not require an internet connection The course includes a free part, in which you can test the program. Lessons offered in the free version is fully functional. They allow you to test the application in real world conditions before releasing the following topics: 1. The fork 1.1. Pawn 1.2. Knight 1.3. Bishop 2. Pin or skewer 2.1. Bishop 2.2. Rook 3. Double check 3.1. Level 5 3.2. Level 6 3.3. Level 7 3.4. Level 8 3.5. Level 9 3.6. Level 10 3.7. Level 11 3.8. Level 12 3.9. Level 13 3.10. Level 14 4. Discovered check 4.1. Level 3 4.2. Level 4 4.3. Level 5 4.4. Level 6 4.5. Level 7 4.6. Level 8 4.7. Level 9 4.8. Level 10 4.9. Level 11 5. Annihilation of defence of a king 5.1. Level 8 5.2. Level 9 5.3. Level 10 5.4. Level 11 5.5. Level 12 5.6. Level 13 5.7. Level 14 5.8. Level 15 5.9. Level 16 5.10. Level 17 5.11. Level 18 5.12. Level 19 5.13. Level 20 5.14. Level 21 5.15. Level 22 5.16. Level 23 6. Annihilation of the back rank defence 6.1. Level 7 6.2. Level 9 6.3. Level 10 6.4. Level 11 6.5. Level 12 6.6. Level 13 6.7. Level 14 6.8. Level 15 6.9. Level 16 6.10. Level 17 6.11. Level 18 6.12. Level 19 6.13. Level 20

About

Chess

Enhance your chess skills with over 1500 tactical exercises drawn from real games. This app provides hints, explanations, and refutations to help beginners improve their play and learn new combinations. It acts as a personal coach, adapting to your progress and offering interactive lessons.

Highlights
  • Over 1500 tactical exercises
  • Hints and explanations
  • Refutations of mistakes
  • Interactive theoretical lessons
  • Progress monitoring (ELO rating)
  • Offline play
Features
Read full description

If you are a beginner, you just cannot afford to give away your piece in 1 move, presuming, of course, that you wish to improve your play! Another thing you cannot afford is to miss a chance of grabbing an undefended piece of your opponent's! This course includes more than 1500 exercises with lots of pieces on the board. Such a great number of exercises makes this course an excellent tool for quick training of chess beginners. The course is intended for players who are already acquainted with the rules of the game. Even if you study and solve only 20% of exercises you are sure to improve your chess skills and not to miss a chance to take an undefended piece in your practical game! All the exercises are taken from practical games and arranged according to the names of pieces and difficulty levels. This course is in the series Chess King Learn (https://learn.chessking.com/), which is an unprecedented chess teaching method. In the series are included courses in tactics, strategy, openings, middle game, and endgame, split by levels from beginners to experienced players, and even professional players. With the help of this course, you can improve your chess knowledge, learn new tactical tricks and combinations, and consolidate the acquired knowledge into practice. The program acts as a coach who gives tasks to solve and helps to solve them if you get stuck. It will give you hints, explanations and show you even striking refutation of the mistakes you might make. Advantages of the program: • High quality examples, all double-checked for correctness • You need to enter all key moves, required by the teacher • Different levels of complexity of the tasks • Various goals, which need to be reached in the problems • The program gives hint if an error is made • For typical mistaken moves, the refutation is shown • You can play out any position of the tasks against the computer • Interactive theoretical lessons • Structured table of contents • The program monitors the change in the rating (ELO) of the player during the learning process • Test mode with flexible settings • Possibility to bookmark favorite exercises • The application is adapted to the bigger screen of a tablet • The application does not require an internet connection The course includes a free part, in which you can test the program. Lessons offered in the free version is fully functional. They allow you to test the application in real world conditions before releasing the following topics: 1. Part 1 1.1. Winning a knight 1.2. Winning a bishop 1.3. Winning a rook 1.4. Winning a queen 2. Part 2. Win a piece 2.1. Level 1 2.2. Level 2 2.3. Level 3 2.4. Level 4 2.5. Level 5 2.6. Level 6 2.7. Level 7 2.8. Level 8

Screenshots

Elementary Chess Tactics I4 screens
Chess4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Elementary Chess Tactics I at 4.8 against Chess's 4.5. Elementary Chess Tactics I also leads on ratings volume (148 vs 11). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Elementary Chess Tactics I sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Chess sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Elementary Chess Tactics I holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Elementary Chess Tactics I has 148 ratings behind it against 11, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Elementary Chess Tactics I ships an update every 3 months, Chess every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Elementary Chess Tactics I versus Chess: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterElementary Chess Tactics IChess
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (148 ratings) — better4.5 (11 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings148 — better11
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS8.08.0
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB42 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChess KingChess King

Customer experience

Elementary Chess Tactics I

All ratings147 ratings
Positive97.3%
Neutral1.4%
Negative1.4%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Chess

All ratings11 ratings
Positive81.8%
Neutral9.1%
Negative9.1%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Elementary Chess Tactics I

One-time1
  • Full course$3.99
1 purchases

Chess

One-time1
  • Full course$3.99

Questions

Is Elementary Chess Tactics I free?
Elementary Chess Tactics I is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chess free?
Chess is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Elementary Chess Tactics I or Chess?
Elementary Chess Tactics I is rated higher. Elementary Chess Tactics I averages 4.8 out of 5 from 148 ratings, while Chess averages 4.5 from 11 ratings.
Do Elementary Chess Tactics I or Chess have ads?
Neither Elementary Chess Tactics I nor Chess shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Elementary Chess Tactics I or Chess?
Elementary Chess Tactics I ships an update every 3 months, and Chess every 6 weeks. Most recently, Elementary Chess Tactics I was updated on November 6, 2026 and Chess on November 6, 2026.

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