Comparison

Chessvis vs Board Brain

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

Board Brain

This app helps chess players of all levels enhance their skills through interactive games and exercises. It focuses on mastering chessboard coordinates, understanding piece movements, and recognizing square colors to improve overall game vision.

Highlights
  • Interactive games
  • Skill-building exercises
  • Chessboard coordinate mastery
  • Piece movement understanding
  • Square color recognition
Features
Read full description

BoardBrain is designed to help both novice and experienced chess players improve their skills. It offers interactive games and exercises that focus on mastering chessboard coordinates, understanding piece movements, and recognizing square colors.

Screenshots

Chessvis4 screens
Board Brain4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Board Brain at 5.0 against Chessvis's 4.4. Board Brain also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and update cadence (every 6 days vs monthly). Chessvis's advantage is ratings volume (21 vs 3). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Board Brain asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Board Brain holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chessvis has 21 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chessvis ships an update monthly, Board Brain every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on August 25, 2026 and September 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Chessvis versus Board Brain: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChessvisBoard Brain
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (21 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings21 — better3
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size38 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperConceptual Software, Inc.Selvarajan Thangavel

Customer experience

Chessvis

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

Board Brain

All ratings3 ratings
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
None

Board Brain

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chessvis free?
Chessvis is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Board Brain free?
Board Brain is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Chessvis or Board Brain?
Board Brain is rated higher. Chessvis averages 4.4 out of 5 from 21 ratings, while Board Brain averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Chessvis or Board Brain have ads?
Neither Chessvis nor Board Brain shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chessvis or Board Brain?
Chessvis ships an update monthly, and Board Brain every 6 days. Most recently, Chessvis was updated on August 25, 2026 and Board Brain on September 12, 2026.

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