ChessUp vs Minimalist Chess
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ChessUp
This app enhances your chess experience with a smart chessboard. It offers game archives, analysis, and live AI assistance. Connect to play remote opponents on various platforms.
- Chess game archives
- Game analysis
- Live AI assistance
- Remote opponent play
- BLE connectivity
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ChessUp is a companion app for the ChessUp smart chessboard. The app provides chess game archives and analysis. The app can link with the chessboard over BLE to provide live Ai assistance. The app can also provide an internet connection for the board in order to play remote chess opponents on various chess platforms.
Minimalist Chess
Enjoy a pure chess experience with no distractions. Play against an engine, watch it play itself, or analyze positions. The app saves your progress automatically and offers a clean interface for reviewing games.
- Play against AI engine
- Watch engine vs engine
- Analyze positions
- Automatic game saving
- Offline play
- Ad-free experience
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Just Chess is a clean, minimal chess app with no distractions. Play against the engine at several difficulty levels or play both sides and work through positions on your own. Rotate to landscape and the move list sits beside the board, giving you a full game review experience. No ads. No subscriptions. Internet connection optional. Your game is saved automatically when you leave and picks up exactly where you left off.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Minimalist Chess at 100% against ChessUp's 54%. Minimalist Chess also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). ChessUp's advantage is price (Free vs $1.99) and ratings volume (2.8K vs 2). On ads, in-app purchases, 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
ChessUp is free to download; Minimalist Chess costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Minimalist Chess holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ChessUp has 2.8K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 54% of ChessUp's written reviews are positive against 100% of Minimalist Chess's.
ChessUp ships an update every 2 weeks, Minimalist Chess every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ChessUp | Minimalist Chess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $1.99 |
| Rating | 4.8 (2.8K ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 54.5% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2.8K — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #195 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 218 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bryght Labs Inc. | Darren Holland |
Customer experience
ChessUp
Minimalist Chess
Bugs and requests
ChessUp
Reported bugs
6 issues- Moves not registering
- Bluetooth connectivity issues
- Crashes and freezes
- Sync issues between app and board
- Lessons not working properly
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- Chess.com integration problems
Requested features
5 requests- Add chess openings lessons
- Implement position setup and export/import
- Add post-game review mechanism
- Improve AI difficulty scaling
- Add chess puzzles
Minimalist Chess
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
ChessUp
No in-app purchases
Minimalist Chess
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is ChessUp free?
Is Minimalist Chess free?
Which has better reviews, ChessUp or Minimalist Chess?
Do ChessUp or Minimalist Chess have ads?
Which is updated more often, ChessUp or Minimalist Chess?
Other comparisons
