Deep Green vs iPlay Chess
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Deep Green
This app provides a classical chess experience with a clean, native interface and customizable piece designs. It supports open game formats, offers a unique chess engine with adjustable strength, and features a private, ad-free environment.
- Clean, native user interface
- Customizable chess piece designs
- Open game format (PGN/FEN)
- Adjustable strength chess engine
- Private and ad-free experience
- System-level integration
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A no-nonsense classical chess app. - CLEAN UI: Deep Green offers a distraction-free experience in a clean, native user interface – now with the Liquid Glass design on iOS 26. - CUSTOM PIECE DESIGN: Beautiful chess set designed specifically for Deep Green and rendered at high resolution in both outline and 3D throughout the app. - MADE FOR IPAD: Dedicated menu bar, multiple windows, and refined trackpad, mouse, and Apple Pencil support. Squares highlight as you hover over the board. - TIGHT SYSTEM INTEGRATION: System-level sharing, drag and drop, AirDrop, undo/redo, contextual menus, Quick Look previews of chess files, Dark Mode, high contrast support and more. - OPEN GAME FORMAT: Games can be shared, saved, copied, pasted, imported, exported in the ubiquitous, open source PGN and FEN formats. Deep Green can open chess files straight from the Files app. - UNIQUE CHESS ENGINE: Enjoyable opponent with adjustable strength, praised for its humane gameplay, developed for Deep Green on the Apple Newton more than 25 years ago. - TWEAKABLE APPEARANCE: Engage the knights in the game by having them turn towards the center of the board, apply a humane, slightly random placement of the pieces. - IN YOUR LANGUAGE: Available in English, German, and Danish. - MODERN ARCHITECTURE: Written in Swift as a fully native app – modern, maintainable, and prepared for the future. - PRIVATE, AD-FREE: No ads, no tracking, no analytics, no nonsense. If you like Deep Green, please rate it favorably on the App Store.
iPlay Chess
Engage in chess matches against powerful AI engines with customizable difficulty and playing styles. Enhance your skills with opening books, move hints, and detailed play statistics. Enjoy a personalized experience with custom boards, pieces, and sounds across multiple devices.
- Play against 6 top chess engines
- Customizable boards, pieces, and sounds
- Variety of opening books for all levels
- Adjustable opponent playing style
- Move highlights and hints
- Play statistics tracking
- iPad split screen support
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Play against 6 of the best chess engines, including Stockfish 13 and Leela Chess Zero. More engines will be added with next updates. Great interface for all platforms with custom boards and pieces, sounds and spoken moves. A variety of opening books for all levels can help you improve your game. You can customize your opponent's playing style by adjusting various options like engine strength, move time and increment, opening books variations. Other features: - highlights and hints for moves - support for multiple opening books - play stats - iPad split screen Constant updates will bring more features. Discover the planned roadmap in settings.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Deep Green at none against iPlay Chess's shown. Deep Green also leads on update cadence (every 4 months vs every 25 months) and ratings volume (75 vs 5). iPlay Chess's advantage is monetization model (ad-supported vs paid) and rating (4.2 vs 3.9). On price, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
iPlay Chess holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Deep Green has 75 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Deep Green ships an update every 4 months, iPlay Chess every 25 months. Both last shipped on September 21, 2026.
| Parameter | Deep Green | iPlay Chess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (75 ratings) | 4.2 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 75 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months — better | Every 25 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 200 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Cocoa Stuff | BEYTEK MUHENDISLIK SANAYI VE TICARET ANONIM SIRKETI |
Customer experience
Deep Green
iPlay Chess
Bugs and requests
Deep Green
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes when promoting pawns
- Board orientation issues when rotating device
- Unresponsive UI elements
- Compatibility problems with newer iOS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Game saving and loading functionality
- Online/multiplayer mode
- Customizable board/piece themes
- Difficulty settings for beginners
- Indicators for check, checkmate, and draw
iPlay Chess
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Deep Green
No in-app purchases
iPlay Chess
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Deep Green free?
Is iPlay Chess free?
Which has better reviews, Deep Green or iPlay Chess?
Do Deep Green or iPlay Chess have ads?
Which is updated more often, Deep Green or iPlay Chess?
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