Comparison

Elementary Chess Tactics I vs Hexpawn

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

Hexpawn

This game features a chess AI that learns from every game you play. It starts with minimal knowledge but improves with each win, making it increasingly challenging. Experience a unique take on machine learning through strategic gameplay.

Highlights
  • Adaptive AI opponent
  • Learns from player wins
  • Increasing difficulty
  • Simple pawn-only moves
  • Machine learning demonstration
Features
Read full description

Think you're smarter than a mindless iPhone app? Think again! HEXPAWN is just that: a computer that fits in your pocket and knows almost nothing. What does it know? Only the moves a pawn can make in chess. Oh yeah, and one other thing. Like the proverbial elephant or your seventh grade algebra teacher, it never forgets. So play HEXPAWN. You'll probably win the first few games. But every time you win, HEXPAWN remembers. And it will never make the same mistake twice... which means eventually, HEXPAWN will be impossible to defeat. Don't believe me? Go ahead. Try. See how long you can last against this brainless robot. I bet it won't be long. Enjoy this small dip into the world of machine learning and the eventual domination of the human race at the hands of our machine overlords.

Screenshots

Elementary Chess Tactics I4 screens
Hexpawn4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Hexpawn at none against Elementary Chess Tactics I's 1. Hexpawn also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 months). Elementary Chess Tactics I's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and ratings volume (148 vs 8). On price, review sentiment, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Elementary Chess Tactics I sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Hexpawn asks for nothing beyond the download.

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 8, 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, Hexpawn every 3 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Elementary Chess Tactics I versus Hexpawn: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterElementary Chess Tactics IHexpawn
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (148 ratings) — better4.5 (8 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings148 — better8
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS8.0 — better10.1
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB38 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChess KingGarrett Milovich

Customer experience

Elementary Chess Tactics I

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

Hexpawn

All ratings6 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral16.7%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Elementary Chess Tactics I

One-time1
  • Full course$3.99
None

Hexpawn

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Elementary Chess Tactics I free?
Elementary Chess Tactics I is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hexpawn free?
Hexpawn is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Elementary Chess Tactics I or Hexpawn?
Elementary Chess Tactics I is rated higher. Elementary Chess Tactics I averages 4.8 out of 5 from 148 ratings, while Hexpawn averages 4.5 from 8 ratings.
Do Elementary Chess Tactics I or Hexpawn have ads?
Neither Elementary Chess Tactics I nor Hexpawn shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Elementary Chess Tactics I or Hexpawn?
Elementary Chess Tactics I ships an update every 3 months, and Hexpawn every 3 days. Most recently, Elementary Chess Tactics I was updated on October 24, 2026 and Hexpawn on October 24, 2026.

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