Chess vs StonePath
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chess
This app offers a high-quality chess experience for players of all levels, from beginners to professionals. It features a strong engine, analysis tools, and learning resources to improve your game.
- Simulated human opponents for beginners
- Top-tier chess engine for experts
- Real-time game analysis
- 1 or 2-player game support
- Opening Library and PGN Database
- Position Editor
- Rated games and progress tracking
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tChess Pro is the high-quality, critically acclaimed chess game with the richest features for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. It's perfect for every player: Beginners: Not everybody is a chess master! Most chess games are too strong or just make random mistakes at easier levels. tChess Pro has unique algorithms to simulate human opponents. Experts: tChess Pro has a top-tier chess engine. (Over 380 ELO points stronger than Caissa Chess.) Enthusiasts: tChess Pro's Analysis Mode is like having a chess master in your pocket. You can get the engine's "expert opinion" about any game or position in real-time: which side is winning, and the best sequence of moves. Just like a professional desktop chess package. More key features: - Perfect for 1- or 2-player games - Strong computer opponent - Play against any ELO rating from 500 to 2500 - Integrated "Learn Chess" e-book app (Apple Staff Favorite!) - Opening Library feature lets you explore chess opening theory as you play - PGN Database feature lets you download and view PGN files - Support for 3-stage time controls with Fischer increments - Position Editor to enter positions from books, newspapers, etc. - Save and load games; export them in standard PGN format - Use the Profile feature to play rated games against the computer and track your progress tChess Pro is developed by Tom Kerrigan, author of the TSCP and Stobor chess engines.
StonePath
This app is a dedicated trainer for the 9x9 Go board, offering interactive play for openings, shapes, and master games. It provides detailed move analysis and multiple AI opponents, all running locally on your device.
- Interactive 9x9 Go board play
- AI opponents from 20K to 1D
- Detailed move analysis and verdicts
- Live opening book with KataGo evaluations
- 1,958 Go problems, including classics
- Life-and-death shape training
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StonePath is a 9x9 Go trainer. Not a book, not a collection of diagrams — every position on every screen is a board you play on. WHY 9x9 The small board is usually treated as a warm-up for 19x19. StonePath is built around 9x9, and on a board this size the engine can look deep: the app ships 23,915 positions rated by KataGo. NOTHING TO READ — PLAY IT OUT Shapes, openings, problems and master games are all live boards. Tap an attacking move in a corner shape and the line plays out, with the opponent answering. Play off the book and the move is not refused: the board hands you free play, so you can try your own idea and watch how it ends. Master games step through move by move, and where the book gives a variation, one tap replaces the rest of the game with it. A 9x9 OPENING BOOK, EVERY POSITION RATED 43 openings in four families, 229 branches, 1,613 positions — every one with a KataGo evaluation: win rate and score. THE BOOK DOESN'T STOP WHERE THE DIAGRAM STOPS Two computed layers sit on top of it. 1,745 positions carry the engine's verdict on every reasonable continuation past the last book move, so you can keep playing and see why the best move is best. 20,557 more answer a different question: you just gave away the advantage — here are the three strongest ways to punish it. TEN OPPONENTS FROM 20K TO 1D The bots are not just Go engines running a shallow search. They use KataGo's network trained on human games: each bot picks moves the way players at its rank do. Each bot's strength was measured in games against a Go program whose rating is known from games with human players. The results place every bot close to its stated rank on both 9x9 and 13x13. The same ten opponents play on both board sizes. EVERY MOVE, NAMED After a game each of your moves gets a verdict on one scale: best, great, good, inaccuracy, mistake, blunder. The thresholds are set in points and tuned for 9x9, and on 13x13 they grow with the board — losing four points on 81 intersections is not the same mistake as on 361. HELP WHILE YOU PLAY Three layers you can switch on mid-game: the three best moves lettered on the board, who is ahead and by how much, and the territory map. 1,958 PROBLEMS, 1,932 OF THEM CLASSICS Gokyo Shumyo (1812) and Guanzi Pu (1660) — the collections generations of players learned from. Difficulty is measured for every problem, and the next one is chosen for your level. ALSO INSIDE 96 life-and-death shapes, named and settled. Techniques and theory written for the 9x9 board. Chinese or Japanese rules, your choice. A full KataGo engine running on the Neural Engine — no server, no account, no internet. On an iPhone 15 Pro it evaluates 531 positions per second, faster than a rented GTX 1080. WHAT STONEPATH IS NOT No 19x19 play against the bot, no online play against people. StonePath is not all of Go — it is learning to play, on the board small enough to understand whole. FREE, AND WHAT THE SUBSCRIPTION ADDS Free forever: the lessons, the 9x9 theory, the whole opening book, two opponents, and the start of every problem and shape section. The first seven days open everything. StonePath Pro adds the engine: position evaluations, the three best moves lettered on the board, play past the end of the book, punishment for a bad move, the territory map, game review, adaptive training, all ten opponents and all 1,958 problems. $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year. Payment is charged to your Apple ID; the subscription renews unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends, and is managed in your Apple ID settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://kai-go.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: StonePath at Free against Chess's $7.99. StonePath also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 4 months) and review sentiment (100% vs 89%). Chess's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On 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
StonePath is free to download; Chess costs $7.99 up front. StonePath sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Chess asks for nothing beyond the download.
Chess ships an update every 4 months, StonePath weekly. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Chess | StonePath |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $7.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (250 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 88.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 250 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 245 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tom Kerrigan | Alexey Volvak |
Customer experience
Chess
StonePath
Bugs and requests
Chess
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes when creating annotations
- Zoomed-in screen issue when returning to the app
- Difficulty settings not accurately reflecting the AI's strength
Requested features
6 requests- Add chess puzzles
- Provide more board and piece style options
- Implement a resign feature and draw offer
- Add a move evaluation bar
- Improve the online multiplayer experience
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- Provide a way to organize and navigate through game databases
StonePath
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Chess
No in-app purchases
StonePath
- StonePath Pro - Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- StonePath Pro - Yearly$29.991 Year









