Comparison

Chess vs Chess Notation Trainer

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

Head to head
About

Chess

Enhance your chess skills with over 1400 tactical exercises designed for beginners. This app offers interactive lessons, hints, and explanations to help you learn new combinations and improve your game.

Highlights
  • Over 1400 tactical exercises
  • Interactive lessons with hints
  • Difficulty levels
  • Refutation of mistakes
  • Play positions against computer
  • Offline play
  • Rating monitoring
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 1400 exercises with a few 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

About

Chess Notation Trainer

Master chess squares and notation with this training app. Improve your ability to identify coordinates, translate moves, and visualize the board, even without one. Ideal for serious players looking to enhance calculation speed and chess understanding.

Highlights
  • Identify squares by coordinate
  • Translate move sequences to notation
  • Determine square color instantly
  • Stay oriented on the board
  • Follow chess tutorials without a board
  • Speed up calculation
  • Practice blind chess
Features
Read full description

Serious about chess? But struggling to identify the squares, remembering sequences and follow chess notations? Well, you just landed on the perfect app! This training app is designed to dramatically uplift your mastery over chess squares. There are 5 training sessions. A small dose of regular practice will make you: 1. Spot a square as soon as you hear or see its coordinate 2. Translate a sequence of moves into their notation at ease 3. Immediately identify the color of a square 4. Stay oriented regardless of you facing white or black 5. Follow along with chess tutorials, books or any discussion without a board 6. Massively speedup your thought process on any calculation 7. Finally, start playing blind chess! Don't be surprised if you see a sudden surge of rating simply increasing your strength on square reading. The free version is already good enough to cause a major spike in your chess career. However, a one time purchase will unlock the full version which includes: - Extended time controls - Untimed practice mode - Milestones and achievements - Board assistance during training - And a complete visualization of your records There will be no ads, neither in the full version nor in the free one. Just a beautiful and satisfyingly addictive way to your square mastery. Caution: If you are rated below 1500, this app is probably not gonna be as useful for you, and tactics training is something you should prioritize.

Screenshots

Chess4 screens
Chess Notation Trainer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Chess Notation Trainer at every 2 days against Chess's every 6 weeks. Chess's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.4) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 18.6). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume 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. Chess sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Chess Notation Trainer 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

Chess holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 27 and 18 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess ships an update every 6 weeks, Chess Notation Trainer every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Chess versus Chess Notation Trainer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChessChess Notation Trainer
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (27 ratings) — better4.4 (18 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings27 — better18
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS8.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChess KingNishat Majid

Customer experience

Chess

All ratings27 ratings
Positive92.6%
Neutral3.7%
Negative3.7%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Chess Notation Trainer

All ratings18 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.7%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Chess

One-time1
  • Full course$3.99
1 purchases

Chess Notation Trainer

One-time1
  • Full Version$4.99

Questions

Is Chess free?
Chess is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chess Notation Trainer free?
Chess Notation Trainer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chess or Chess Notation Trainer?
Chess is rated higher. Chess averages 4.7 out of 5 from 27 ratings, while Chess Notation Trainer averages 4.4 from 18 ratings.
Do Chess or Chess Notation Trainer have ads?
Neither Chess nor Chess Notation Trainer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chess or Chess Notation Trainer?
Chess ships an update every 6 weeks, and Chess Notation Trainer every 2 days. Most recently, Chess was updated on October 12, 2026 and Chess Notation Trainer on October 14, 2026.

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