Chessvis vs Chessnut Next
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Unique visualized puzzles
- Blindfold chess training
- Opening repertoire preparation
- Progressive move following
- Customizable puzzle categories and ratings
- Offline puzzle access
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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
Chessnut Next
Enhance your chess experience by connecting a smart board to digitally record moves, play against AI, and analyze games. Offers tactical training, custom position creation, and voice input for hands-free play. Review your games with detailed reports and share your progress.
- Smart board connection
- Play against chess engines
- Automatic game recording
- On-device Stockfish analysis
- Tactical training and puzzles
- Board editor and position recognition
- Voice move input
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Chessnut Next is the companion app for Chessnut smart chessboards, bringing physical chess and digital tools together in one seamless experience. Connect a compatible Chessnut board to play naturally with real pieces while the app synchronizes positions, records moves, and saves your games automatically. Whether you are playing against a computer, practicing tactics, reviewing a finished game, or playing face-to-face, Chessnut Next helps you get more from every move. Key Features • Smart Board Connection Connect a compatible Chessnut electronic chessboard and synchronize physical positions with the app in real time. • Play Against Chess Engines Challenge computer opponents with different strengths and playing styles using either a physical board or the on-screen board. • Online Chess Support Use a compatible physical board with supported online chess platforms for a more natural playing experience. • Automatic Game Recording Create and save complete PGN records, including moves, players, results, and time information. • Local Stockfish Analysis Review games with on-device Stockfish analysis to explore evaluations, recommended moves, and critical mistakes. • Maia and Personalized Practice Train against human-like chess engines designed to provide realistic play across different skill levels. • Game Review Reports Generate easy-to-understand reports that highlight strong moves, mistakes, turning points, and opportunities to improve. • Puzzles and Tactical Training Improve calculation, pattern recognition, and practical decision-making with chess puzzles and focused exercises. • Board Editor and Position Recognition Create custom positions manually or use supported image-recognition features to extract a chess position from a photo. • Voice Moves In supported game modes, speak origin and destination squares to enter moves hands-free. • Chess Clock and Over-the-Board Play Record face-to-face games and manage player time with compatible Chessnut devices. • Game Library and Sharing Browse saved games, filter records by source, refresh game data, and share games or review results. • Multiple Languages Choose from a range of interface and content languages. From your first move to detailed post-game review, Chessnut Next combines smart-board connectivity, game recording, engine analysis, and training tools in one app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Chessvis at 70% against Chessnut Next's 0%. Chessnut Next's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.4) and in-app purchases (none vs 3). On price, ratings volume, 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
Both are free to download. Chessvis sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Chessnut Next asks for nothing beyond the download.
Chessnut Next holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 24 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 70% of Chessvis's written reviews are positive against 0% of Chessnut Next's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chessvis | Chessnut Next |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (21 ratings) | 5.0 (24 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 70.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 21 | 24 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 369 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Conceptual Software, Inc. | Xenx Technology Limited |
Customer experience
Chessvis
Chessnut Next
In-app purchases
Chessvis
- Chessvis Monthly Subscription$3.991 Month
- Chessvis Annual Subscription$29.991 Year
- Chessvis Perpetual$99.99
Chessnut Next
No in-app purchases







