Comparison

Fide Chess Elo vs ChessBase Mobile Chess

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

Head to head
About

Fide Chess Elo

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The application helps to follow either your own, chess club friend's or your favorite professional chess player's Fide Elo points. What is FIDE? The Fédération Internationale Des Échecs (or World Chess Federation) is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world and acts as the governing body of international chess competition. (www.fide.com)

About

ChessBase Mobile Chess

Access a vast chess game database, save and analyze your own games, and practice openings. This app offers advanced notation and sharing features, with a free tier and optional premium upgrades for more extensive cloud storage and search capabilities.

Highlights
  • Access 13+ million chess games
  • Save and sync personal game databases
  • Analyze games with built-in engine
  • Live opening book statistics
  • Create and practice opening repertoires
  • Advanced game notation and sharing
  • PGN file compatibility
Features
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ChessBase Mobile is the training, playing, and analysis platform for chess players who track their progress by the numbers. ChessBase Mobile is built by ChessBase, the company behind the standard desktop software used by world champions and club players alike for over 30 years. Solve tactics puzzles rated by difficulty and watch your Elo rise or fall with every attempt. No participation trophies, your rating reflects exactly where you stand. The tactics database draws from positions in real games, not synthetic exercises, so the patterns you train are the patterns you encounter at the board. Puzzle Fight puts you head-to-head against another player in a timed series of 24 tactical positions. Both players solve the same puzzles simultaneously. The one who solves more, faster, wins - and gains Elo. Structured competition, not a casual minigame. Play live games in Blitz and Rapid formats against opponents worldwide. Premove support, clean interface, no clutter. The ChessBase Online Database contains over 14 million games. Search by player, position, or opening. Review grandmaster games, study endgame structures, track opening trends - the same database used by professionals, accessible from your phone. Cloud analysis with several engines, including Fritz and Lc0. Basic cloud analysis with Fritz is free. For deeper analysis, scalable cloud servers are available, from Large to Gargantuan, paid per minute in ducats. Lc0 brings neural network evaluation for positions where classical engines struggle. The engine panel shows evaluation, depth, and principal variation. Build and maintain your opening repertoire in the cloud. 300 opening overviews with repertoire suggestions help you get started with new systems. A live opening book provides up-to-date statistics for every position. Three practice modes let you drill your variations until they stick. Annotate your games with comments, symbols, variations, arrows, and markings. Save games and analyses in cloud databases that synchronise across all your devices. Share positions and games via link, image, GIF, FEN, QR code, or PGN. Upload and download PGN files for full compatibility with desktop software. AI Kibitzer provides live commentary during games and puzzles — with personality. Chess-legend anecdotes, opinions, the occasional bad joke. Like a friend with too much chess trivia sitting next to you. Audio output included. Available in 27 languages. Customisable board colours, piece sets, and notation display. Light and dark mode across all screens, or set to follow your device preference. No ads. No energy systems. No artificial gating. Open the app, train, close the app. Free to use, all functions are available at no cost. ChessBase Premium unlocks expanded cloud storage and unlimited database search results. Free: search the online database (max 50 games displayed), up to 10 cloud databases (10 MB total), cloud clipping for up to 10 games. Premium: unlimited database search, up to 200 cloud databases (500 MB total), cloud clipping for up to 400 games. Privacy policy: https://en.chessbase.com/pages/security Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Fide Chess Elo4 screens
ChessBase Mobile Chess4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Fide Chess Elo at none against ChessBase Mobile Chess's 1. Fide Chess Elo also leads on update cadence (every 3 months vs every 6 months). 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. ChessBase Mobile Chess sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $3.99 per month. Fide Chess Elo asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Fide Chess Elo ships an update every 3 months, ChessBase Mobile Chess every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Fide Chess Elo versus ChessBase Mobile Chess: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFide Chess EloChessBase Mobile Chess
PriceFreeFree
Rating—2.9 (18 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—38.7% of reviews
Number of ratings—18 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Freemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGabriel MinarikChessBase GmbH

In-app purchases

None

Fide Chess Elo

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

ChessBase Mobile Chess

Subscriptions1
  • ChessBase Premium (Monthly)$3.991 Month

Questions

Is Fide Chess Elo free?
Fide Chess Elo is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ChessBase Mobile Chess free?
ChessBase Mobile Chess is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Fide Chess Elo or ChessBase Mobile Chess have ads?
Neither Fide Chess Elo nor ChessBase Mobile Chess shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Fide Chess Elo or ChessBase Mobile Chess?
Fide Chess Elo ships an update every 3 months, and ChessBase Mobile Chess every 6 months. Most recently, Fide Chess Elo was updated on September 19, 2026 and ChessBase Mobile Chess on September 21, 2026.

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