Comparison

Chessvis vs Chess Notation Lab

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

Head to head
About

Chessvis

Enhance your chess skills with unique visualization exercises, including blindfold chess and progressive move following. Prepare openings by focusing on common opponent moves and practice with spaced repetition. Access millions of categorized puzzles with customizable difficulty and rating controls.

Highlights
  • Unique visualized puzzles
  • Blindfold chess training
  • Opening repertoire preparation
  • Progressive move following
  • Customizable puzzle categories and ratings
  • Offline puzzle access
Features
Read full description

Chessvis is designed to help you get better at the game. Its unique, "found nowhere else", puzzle, blindfold chess and progressive move following exercises will sharpen your visualization skills. Now with Version 11, all puzzle exercises are free - including working offline. There's a new menuing system that makes navigating around the huge 'toolbox' of features much easier. The opening repertoire preparation routines are also unique focusing on the "moves you'll see" and finding the "moves that work". Plus you can pull in your own games to see what's working for you. And now, use AI to help uncover the opening that will work for you. Puzzles The Chessvis puzzle collection starts with millions of categorized and rated puzzles from Lichess and adds several unique features including: Category and Rating Control Chessvis lets you set both the category and rating of the puzzles you’re challenged with. Want to try easy forks one day and hard multiple move mates the next? Do it! You’ll never be forced to only do puzzles around some hypothetical rating you’ve “earned”. The entire puzzle collection is always available for you. Visualized Puzzles A unique feature of Chessvis is the "Visualized" puzzle. It presents a puzzle showing the diagram from some number of moves before the actual tactic sequence starts. You're told the number of moves to "visualize" and then solve the problem from a board position that only exists in your mind. This is what got Chessvis started and it’s the only app with it. Other Puzzle Collection Features The “no repeat pledge” - with such an extensive puzzle collection, Chessvis is able to make sure you don’t see the same puzzle twice. Want to focus on solving puzzles quickly? Turn on the timer. Going to be away from the internet? Pull puzzles down to your device and work off-line. See your puzzle history. Download the puzzles you’ve done. All that is in Chessvis. Opening Preparation Build your repertoires focusing on the "moves you'll see". Chessvis believes that you need to think about the moves your opponents actually play and not some complex way too deep repertoire designed by a master who doesn't play anything like the way you do. At ever step in the repertoire design process, Chessvis shows you the moves your opponents actually make and highlights ones you need to think about. Then once you've built your repertoire, practice it with daily spaced repetition. Blindfold Chess Play against the computer with "stepping stones" to help ease your way into blindfold chess. Start with all pieces sharing one color then go to two color disks, one shared color disk and then eventually an empty board. Subscribers had the stockfish and Maia chess engines to the free-to-use Komodo engine. Who’s Guarding Whom A deceptively simple visualization exercise that forces you to mentally track piece movements and how they interact. (No other app has this.) Move Following & Static Boards Track a sequence of moves and then update the board to that point. Or memorize a board layout, then recreate it. Start off easy with just a few pieces and work your way up. Analyze Your Games Download your chess.com and lichess.org games for opening analysis. See what you've been playing, what's been played against you and the results. Videos What better way is there than videos to see Chessvis in action? You can watch the videos within the app. They're all kept short and to the point. Chessvis has always had unique tools to visualize the chessboard and win more games. A famous chess coach said: "Don't think about the pieces being exchanged, visualize how the board will look when the pieces are gone". Move a piece and you affect two places. But it's illegal to physically move the piece and see the effects -- you must learn to visualize. Chessvis is designed to help with that process. Download it today. Our Terms of Service can be found at: https://www.chessvis.com/tos.php

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

Chessvis4 screens
Chess Notation Lab4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Chess Notation Lab at 5.0 against Chessvis's 4.4. Chess Notation Lab also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 70%) and update cadence (every 3 days vs monthly). Chessvis's advantage is ratings volume (21 vs 6) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 18.6). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Chessvis sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Chess Notation Lab 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 Notation Lab holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of Chessvis's written reviews are positive against 100% of Chess Notation Lab's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chessvis ships an update monthly, Chess Notation Lab every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on August 25, 2026 and September 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Chessvis versus Chess Notation Lab: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChessvisChess Notation Lab
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (21 ratings)5.0 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings21 — better6
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size38 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperConceptual Software, Inc.Nishat Majid

Customer experience

Chessvis

All ratings21 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative14.3%
Written reviews10 reviews
Positive70.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative30.0%

Chess Notation Lab

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Chessvis

Subscriptions2
  • Chessvis Monthly Subscription$3.991 Month
  • Chessvis Annual Subscription$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Chessvis Perpetual$99.99
1 purchases

Chess Notation Lab

One-time1
  • Full Version$9.99

Questions

Is Chessvis free?
Chessvis is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chess Notation Lab free?
Chess Notation Lab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chessvis or Chess Notation Lab?
Chess Notation Lab is rated higher. Chessvis averages 4.4 out of 5 from 21 ratings, while Chess Notation Lab averages 5.0 from 6 ratings.
Do Chessvis or Chess Notation Lab have ads?
Neither Chessvis nor Chess Notation Lab shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chessvis or Chess Notation Lab?
Chessvis ships an update monthly, and Chess Notation Lab every 3 days. Most recently, Chessvis was updated on August 25, 2026 and Chess Notation Lab on September 7, 2026.

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