Kriegspiel vs Sealed Move
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Kriegspiel
Engage in a strategic board game inspired by Napoleonic warfare. The objective is to capture enemy arsenals by deploying lines of communication and blocking enemy movements on a large game board. Offers online and local multiplayer, as well as AI practice.
- 20x25 game board
- Capture enemy arsenals to win
- Deploy lines of communication
- Block enemy lines
- Online multiplayer
- Local multiplayer
- AI practice mode
- Level editor
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Inspired by the military theory of Carl von Clausewitz and the European war campaigns of Napoleon, Kriegspiel is a chess-variant played by two opposing players on a 20 x 25 game board. Capture the enemy's Arsenals to win. Deploy your Lines of Communication to keep friendly units in contact. Block enemy lines for strategic advantage. "The surprises of this Kriegspiel seem to be inexhaustible," wrote French Situationist Guy Debord. In Debord's view the game represents the totality of factors at play in wartime maneuvers, what he called "the dialectic of all conflicts." -- Play 2P online against another player -- Play 2P in person on the same device -- Practice against the computer -- Level editor for customizing formations -- Language support for French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, and English Kriegspiel is produced and maintained by Alexander R. Galloway. The game is noncommercial. There are no in-app purchases. No advertisements. No Patreon. No GoFundMe. No monetization of player data. There is literally no possible way to take your money.
Sealed Move
This app provides personalized chess coaching by explaining engine evaluations in plain language. It offers interactive explanations, a lexicon of chess terms, and game review features. Practice against an AI that mimics human play and export games as videos.
- AI-powered chess coaching
- Plain-language explanations of engine moves
- Interactive lexicon of chess terms
- Game review timeline
- Export games as videos
- Human-like AI opponent
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Sealed Move is a chess coach on your phone. Stockfish makes every factual claim about your game, and a coach who talks like a person turns those claims into plain speech. The coach never analyzes the board on its own, which means it cannot invent a variation. THE ENGINE JUDGES. THE COACH EXPLAINS. Every evaluation, best move, tactic, and opening name comes from the engine. The coach's job is the words: what your move accomplished, what it missed, and what deserves your attention now. When the game genuinely shifts, the coach steps in with a short recap of the moves that caused the swing, then leaves you to play. FEEDBACK THAT WAITS ITS TURN Coaching arrives as cards docked under the board. Read the newest at a glance, tap to expand it, and swipe back through earlier notes whenever you like. Ask a question and a full conversation opens; close it and the board is yours again. TAP THE COACH'S WORDS Every square, piece, and move the coach mentions is live. Tap f7 and the board shows you f7. Tap a move and an annotation pen draws the same red arrow a coach reaches for at a demo board. A LEXICON WITH MOVING PARTS When the coach names a fork, a skewer, or a Najdorf, the word links into a Lexicon of 153 entries: a plain definition plus the pattern played out on an animated board. Every demo line was checked by the engine before it shipped. HINTS THAT LEAVE THE FIND TO YOU Stuck in a sharp position? The coach will tell you what kind of idea you are missing and let you find it. The eval is the engine's, the nudge is the coach's, and the find is still yours. REVIEW THE GAME AS A TIMELINE After the game, the review lays your moves on a scrubber with a dot at each moment that mattered: green where the game swung your way, red where it slipped. Press play and the coach walks you through the moments, two moves of run-up at a time, at reading pace. EXPORT THE GAME AS A VIDEO Turn any finished game into a vertical video. The moves play out on the board with the coach's red arrows or classic highlights, and the coach's notes hold on screen at reading pace. Trim the clip to the stretch that decided the game, then share it or save it from the share sheet. SCAN A BOARD Photograph a puzzle from a book, a newspaper, or a screenshot. Sealed Move reads the position right on your phone, nothing is uploaded, and puts it on an editable board so you can fix any square. Then play it out, have the coach solve it, ask why the key move works, or export the solution as a video. AN OPPONENT WHO PLAYS LIKE A PERSON Practice games run against Maia, a neural network trained on millions of human games, so your opponent misjudges positions the way people do. The level moves with you as you improve. FREE AND PRO The free coach runs entirely on your phone. Nothing leaves the device, there is no account, and free play stays free. Pro Coach ($5.99 a month, first 7 days free) adds our sharpest coaching through cloud AI, with deeper explanations and richer game stories. Positions reach the cloud only on Pro Coach, and only after you agree. OPEN WHERE IT COUNTS Sealed Move embeds Stockfish 11 under the GPLv3 and honors the license fully: the complete client source is public at github.com/tjameswilliams/sealedmove-app, tagged for every release. The claim that the coach cannot invent a line is one you can audit. The name comes from the adjournment era, when a paused game meant sealing your next move in an envelope and going home to analyze. Secret preparation, deep analysis, the resumed game: that is what your coach does between your moves. Terms of Use (Apple standard EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy policy: https://sealedmove.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Kriegspiel at 4.6 against Sealed Move's 2.0. Kriegspiel also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (65 vs 2). Sealed Move's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 6 months). On price, ads and device support 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. Sealed Move sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $5.99 per month. Kriegspiel asks for nothing beyond the download.
Kriegspiel holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Kriegspiel has 65 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Kriegspiel ships an update every 6 months, Sealed Move weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Kriegspiel | Sealed Move |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (65 ratings) — better | 2.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 74.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 65 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 59 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Alexander Galloway | Tim Williams |
Customer experience
Kriegspiel
Sealed Move
In-app purchases
Kriegspiel
No in-app purchases
Sealed Move
- Pro Coach$5.991 Month
Questions
Is Kriegspiel free?
Is Sealed Move free?
Which has better reviews, Kriegspiel or Sealed Move?
Do Kriegspiel or Sealed Move have ads?
Which is updated more often, Kriegspiel or Sealed Move?
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