Comparison

PVChess vs Aimchess

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

Head to head
About

PVChess

Enhance your chess abilities with an AI tutor, challenging computer opponents, and interactive lessons. Analyze your games, learn strategies, and practice guided play to master openings, tactics, and endgames.

Highlights
  • AI tutor with hints
  • Strong computer opponents
  • Interactive lessons
  • Opening and endgame training
  • Game review and analysis
  • Save and replay games
Features
Read full description

Improve your chess with an AI tutor, strong computer opponents, interactive lessons, and detailed game reviews. Learn openings, tactics, middlegames, and endgames with smart hints and move-by-move feedback. Play at your own level, analyze mistakes, and build stronger chess skills through guided practice. The app also includes two interactive classic chess books: Chess Fundamentals and Modern Ideas in Chess. Study timeless strategies, annotated games, and essential chess concepts directly inside the app. Features: * AI tutor with hints and feedback * Strong computer opponents * Interactive lessons and practice * Opening and endgame training * Game review and analysis * Save and replay games anytime

About

Aimchess

Enhance your chess skills with advanced analytics and personalized training. Connect your existing chess accounts to receive tailored study plans based on your game history. Master tactics, openings, and endgames with adaptive exercises and expert-prepared content.

Highlights
  • Personalized Study Plans
  • Game Analysis
  • Adaptive Tactics Puzzles
  • Blindfold Tactics
  • Checkmate Flash Cards
  • Grandmaster Content
Features
Read full description

Improve your Chess with next level analysis and focused training. Say goodbye to questions like “Why am I losing?” or “What should I be working on?” Let us guide you through the next stage in your chess improvement journey! With our dedicated suite of detailed analytic tools that can connect with any of your favourite online chess platforms, like Chess.com, Chess24 or Lichess, we can develop a unique Personalized Study Plan and targeted training options based on your own games. You can progress your chess faster than ever with Aimchess. ANALYTICS Connect your Chess.com, Lichess or Chess24 account for instant analysis of your online games. Get breakdowns on your performance in key areas such as Openings, Tactics, Endings, Advantage Capitalization, Resourcefulness and Time Management. See how you compare to other Chess players in your range, to really understand what areas you need to improve on. Opening Breakdowns. Find out which openings work for you, and where you need to put more work in. UNIQUE TRAINING EXERCISES Adaptive Tactics. Everyone loves Chess Puzzles! With Aimchess our Tactics Puzzles adapt to your strengths and weaknesses. Struggling with specific kinds of puzzles? We’ll show you them more often so you can make the most of your training time. Is one particular puzzle giving you difficulty? We’ll show it to you again a little later so you can prove that you’ve learned from your mistakes! Blindfold Tactics. Are normal Tactics Puzzles too easy? Test your skills with our Blindfold Tactics, where you have to visualise and solve the position simultaneously! Blunder Preventer. Given two possible moves, do you think you can spot the blunder? It’s not always as easy as you’d think! 360 Trainer. These aren’t your Grandfather’s Tactics Puzzles, instead these positions will really test your skills with offensive & defensive tactics, equal positions and mistakes from your past games. With no clear material gains available even the smallest positional advantage could be the right move! Practice Visualisation. Memorize a board and then answer questions about where the pieces were, how many undefended pieces there were, or even what moves you need to make to capture certain pieces. Checkmate Flash Cards. Run through a series of mates that all great Chess Players need to know, can you get them all right and beat your best time? Much More. Also included in our Training Room is our Opening Improver, Advantage Capitalization Trainer, Endgames, Intuition Trainer, Retry Mistakes, Defender and Time Trainer. OTHER FEATURES Discover a world of tactical chess content, prepared by Grandmasters, in the Explore section of Aimchess. Learn everything from basic checkmates, to high level theoretical concepts. With interactive tutorials and exercises, you can make sure the ideas stick! Warm Up for your games with a rapid fire puzzles gauntlet designed to get your chess brain working so you can hit the ground running against your opponents! Dedicated workouts to help improve your Focus and Tactical thinking. Personalized Training Plans help keep you on the right track with regular targets for games to be played and exercises to be completed. PREMIUM DETAILS Aimchess’ Free Tier allows you to do any 15 lessons per day in the Training Room or via the daily Personalized Workouts. You also get limited access to Scouting Reports and Statistics. Aimchess Premium allows you access to unlimited exercises in the Training Room and full access to all of our Statistical Analysis tools. Monthly Subscriptions are $9.99 per month, or get an Annual Subscription for $71.99 (Equivalent to $5.99 per month) Premium subscription is paid from your iTunes account at the time of purchase with automatic renewal every 30 days. Auto-renewal and write-off of money for a new period occurs within 24 hours immediately before the subscription expires. Auto-renewal can be disabled in the iTunes account settings on your device.

Screenshots

PVChess3 screens
Aimchess4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: PVChess at 4.7 against Aimchess's 3.9. PVChess also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and review sentiment (71% vs 51%). Aimchess's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (197 vs 23). On price, 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. Aimchess sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. PVChess asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PVChess holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Aimchess has 197 ratings behind it against 23, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 71% of PVChess's written reviews are positive against 51% of Aimchess's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PVChess ships an update every 2 months, Aimchess monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
PVChess versus Aimchess: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPVChessAimchess
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (23 ratings) — better3.9 (197 ratings)
Positive reviews70.8% of reviews — better50.9% of reviews
Number of ratings23197 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsMonthly — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationAd-supported — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.014.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB8 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperJianfeng WuChess.com, LLC

Customer experience

PVChess

All ratings23 ratings
Positive91.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative8.7%
Written reviews24 reviews
Positive70.8%
Neutral8.3%
Negative20.8%

Aimchess

All ratings195 ratings
Positive70.3%
Neutral8.2%
Negative21.5%
Written reviews108 reviews
Positive50.9%
Neutral9.3%
Negative39.8%

Bugs and requests

PVChess

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Aimchess

Reported bugs

16 issues
  • App crashes when attempting to purchase premium subscription
  • Logout occurring once per week
  • Theme settings not persisting across sessions
  • Full-screen white flash on app open
  • App closes when selecting monthly subscription option
Show 11 more
  • Premium access lost after purchase through Apple
  • Cannot update chess.com username in app
  • Puzzle pieces freeze and move to incorrect squares
  • Blank board appearing in 360 trainer
  • Analysis navigation buttons not functioning
  • Subscription charges continuing after cancellation
  • Inability to delete account
  • App unavailable/down for extended periods
  • Incorrect puzzle solutions marked as wrong
  • Lag when using analysis tool
  • Free version asks for payment before completing daily plan

Requested features

17 requests
  • Better UI/UX organization and progressive disclosure
  • Ability to save and review previous exercises
  • Explanations for why moves are correct or incorrect
  • Hint limiter for playground mode
  • Daily streak tracker like Duolingo
Show 12 more
  • Progress bar and countdown for daily training plans
  • Ability to go back one move in opening trainer instead of restarting
  • Export to PGN format
  • Endgame training module
  • Guess the ELO and guess the advantage training modes
  • Force complete sequence commitment before showing results in tactics
  • iPad portrait mode board optimization
  • Account username update functionality
  • Better graph legends with clear units and explanations
  • Infinite workout mode with mixed exercises
  • Visible ratings for all exercise types
  • Automatic game analysis queue for new games

In-app purchases

None

PVChess

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Aimchess

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Membership$9.991 Month
  • Annual Premium Membership$71.991 Year

Questions

Is PVChess free?
PVChess is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Aimchess free?
Aimchess is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, PVChess or Aimchess?
PVChess is rated higher. PVChess averages 4.7 out of 5 from 23 ratings, while Aimchess averages 3.9 from 197 ratings.
Do PVChess or Aimchess have ads?
PVChess shows ads; Aimchess does not.
Which is updated more often, PVChess or Aimchess?
PVChess ships an update every 2 months, and Aimchess monthly. Most recently, PVChess was updated on November 2, 2026 and Aimchess on November 3, 2026.

Other comparisons