Comparison

Chess Only vs Chess Puzzles & Tactics

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

Head to head
About

Chess Only

This app offers a focused chess experience with instant analysis and a human-like engine for tactical puzzles. It's designed for offline play, battery saving, and includes features like an evaluation bar with blunder alerts and e-board support.

Highlights
  • Instant game analysis
  • Human-like engine (Elo 400-2500)
  • Tactical puzzles
  • Evaluation bar with blunder alert
  • Try moves out of game play
  • PGN file save
  • Over-the-board mode
  • E-board support
Features
Read full description

No ads. No network. No gimmicks. Chess Only! Instant analysis tells you why a move is good or poor instantly. Human-like engine gives you tactical puzzles; playing is studying. - optimized for saving battery power - human-like engine offering draw/resign (Elo 400 ~ 2500) - evaluation bar with blunder alert - try moves out of game play - instant game analysis and hint - game save to a pgn file - over-the-board mode - e-board (Millennium ChessLink) support

About

Chess Puzzles & Tactics

Improve your chess skills with an extensive library of puzzles that adapt to your level. Analyze positions with a powerful engine and train specific tactics and endgames. Play offline and track your progress with a personalized Elo rating.

Highlights
  • Unlimited free chess puzzles
  • Adaptive difficulty with puzzle Elo
  • Offline play
  • Stockfish engine analysis
  • 56 puzzle themes
  • Review missed puzzles
  • Customizable board themes
Features
Read full description

Unlimited free chess puzzles. The fastest way to get better at chess. • 200,000+ chess puzzles, from beginner to master • Over 4 million puzzles played by 50,000+ players • Your own puzzle Elo that climbs as you improve • Play offline anywhere, no account needed • Analyze any position with Stockfish, the world's strongest chess engine Five minutes a day is all it takes. Chess Puzzles & Tactics serves every rated chess puzzle at exactly your level, so you are always challenged and never bored. Solve, watch your rating climb, and start seeing the winning move before your opponent does. Win more games with chess tactics The tactics that decide real games are all here: forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks, deflection and sacrifices. Drill checkmate puzzles from mate in 1 and mate in 2 to long mating attacks, then convert winning positions with chess endgame training: pawn and rook endgames, opposition and promotion. Built to make you better • Puzzles that adapt to you. Your puzzle Elo starts at 1000 and moves with every solve. Let the app pick the difficulty, or set your own Elo range. • 56 puzzle themes. Train only checkmates, only endgames, or the exact tactic you keep missing. • Fix your weak spots. Missed puzzles go to your review list, and spaced repetition brings them back until the pattern sticks. • Hints and engine analysis. Stuck? Take a hint, or analyze the position with the built-in Stockfish chess engine and evaluation bar, right on your device. • Watch yourself improve. The Elo graph shows your daily rating gains, and the History tab keeps every puzzle you have played. • Chess puzzles and tactics offline. Download puzzle packs and solve on a plane, on the subway, anywhere. Results sync when you are back online. • Your rating everywhere. Sign in to sync across your phone, tablet and chesspuzzles.io. • Make it yours with 28 board themes, 9 piece sets, and sounds and haptics you control. What you can train • Checkmate puzzles: mate in 1, mate in 2, mate in 3 and longer, back-rank mates, mating nets, smothered mates • Chess tactics: forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks, double checks, deflection, overloading, zwischenzug, sacrifices • King safety and defense: attacks on the castled king, perpetual check, stalemate tricks, defensive moves • Chess endgame training: pawn and rook endgames, opposition, passed pawns, zugzwang, promotion • Positional patterns: knight outposts, rooks on the seventh, the bishop pair, Alekhine's gun and more Chess training for every level Beginners learn basic checkmates and simple chess tactics with hints. Club players sharpen calculation and pattern recognition. Strong players set a high Elo range and crack hard combinations. It adapts to you like a personal chess trainer. Unlimited chess puzzles, free Download free and solve as many chess puzzles as you want. Open the app and start solving in seconds, whether you have two minutes or a full session of chess practice. Your next rating jump is one puzzle away.

Screenshots

Chess Only4 screens
Chess Puzzles & Tactics4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Chess Puzzles & Tactics at 4.5 against Chess Only's 4.0. Chess Puzzles & Tactics also leads on ratings volume (490 vs 29). Chess Only's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On price, review sentiment, update cadence 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Chess Puzzles & Tactics sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Chess Only asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Chess Puzzles & Tactics holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Puzzles & Tactics has 490 ratings behind it against 29, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of Chess Only's written reviews are positive against 76% of Chess Puzzles & Tactics's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Chess Only versus Chess Puzzles & Tactics: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess OnlyChess Puzzles & Tactics
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (29 ratings)4.5 (490 ratings) — better
Positive reviews75.0% of reviews76.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings29490 — better
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB76 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYoung-Jo SongSajed Nahian

Customer experience

Chess Only

All ratings29 ratings
Positive72.4%
Neutral10.3%
Negative17.2%
Written reviews24 reviews
Positive75.0%
Neutral16.7%
Negative8.3%

Chess Puzzles & Tactics

All ratings490 ratings
Positive85.9%
Neutral4.3%
Negative9.8%
Written reviews38 reviews
Positive76.3%
Neutral5.3%
Negative18.4%

Bugs and requests

Chess Only

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Chess Puzzles & Tactics

Reported bugs

18 issues
  • Unable to login
  • Application resets to starting value (1000elo)
  • History/review chapters remain unlocked
  • In-application feedback not functioning
  • Rating feature broke
Show 13 more
  • Ability to control puzzle strength broke
  • Scanning thing after opening app continues forever
  • App resets ELO to 1000
  • Undo button disappears
  • Tapping to select a piece stops working
  • Analysis breaks
  • Viewing history doesn’t work
  • App crashes
  • View History tab page never loads
  • App forgets login and starts from ELO = 0
  • Analysis button messed up
  • App hangs after pressing 'log in'
  • Puzzles freeze, no way of moving pieces

Requested features

4 requests
  • Option to mute sounds
  • Ability to disable audio
  • Allow loading custom puzzle sets
  • Better interface and cable

In-app purchases

None

Chess Only

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Chess Puzzles & Tactics

One-time1
  • Ad-Free Forever$3.99

Questions

Is Chess Only free?
Chess Only is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Chess Puzzles & Tactics free?
Chess Puzzles & Tactics is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chess Only or Chess Puzzles & Tactics?
Chess Puzzles & Tactics is rated higher. Chess Only averages 4.0 out of 5 from 29 ratings, while Chess Puzzles & Tactics averages 4.5 from 490 ratings.
Do Chess Only or Chess Puzzles & Tactics have ads?
Chess Puzzles & Tactics shows ads; Chess Only does not.
Which is updated more often, Chess Only or Chess Puzzles & Tactics?
Chess Only ships an update weekly, and Chess Puzzles & Tactics weekly. Most recently, Chess Only was updated on November 7, 2026 and Chess Puzzles & Tactics on November 8, 2026.

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