Comparison

Deep Green vs Simple chess board

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Read full description

A no-nonsense classical chess app. - CLEAN UI: Deep Green offers a distraction-free experience in a clean, native user interface, with Liquid Glass on iOS 26 and later. - 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. - MADE FOR IPHONE DUO: Adapts to both displays and every pose. The board centers on the fold like a folding chess board, and the game controls follow the system into the vertical bar. - 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.

About

Simple chess board

This app provides a digital chessboard with unrestricted piece movement and a configurable chess clock. Save and load board positions, undo/redo moves, and even use checker pieces. It's ideal for analyzing games or setting up custom scenarios.

Highlights
  • Free piece movement
  • Undo/Redo functionality
  • Board rotation
  • Checker piece option
  • Save/load positions
  • Configurable chess clock
  • Tweet current position
Features
Read full description

A simple chess board and a chess clock without movement restrictions. Free movement as a real board. Current features are: • Move pieces freely, add or remove them. • Undo/Redo last movement. • Rotate board and/or pieces. • Use checkers game pieces. • Save/load positions for later use, or delete them when you don't need them anymore (swipe over them). Starting positions for chess and checkers are available. • Use a chess clock where you can configure initial time, move time increment, increment after a number of movement, hourglass time, ... • Set time independent for black and white if required. • Save/load time settings for later use. Already available some common times. • Tweet your current position.

Screenshots

Deep Green4 screens
Simple chess board4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Simple chess board at 4.5 against Deep Green's 3.9. Simple chess board also leads on review sentiment (88% vs 66%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.4). Deep Green's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On price, ratings volume 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. Simple chess board sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Deep Green asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Simple chess board holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 76 and 68 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 66% of Deep Green's written reviews are positive against 88% of Simple chess board's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Deep Green ships an update every 4 months, Simple chess board every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Deep Green versus Simple chess board: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDeep GreenSimple chess board
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.9 (76 ratings)4.5 (68 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.0% of reviews88.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings76 — better68
Update frequencyEvery 4 months — betterEvery 10 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.412.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCocoa StuffLuis Lopez

Customer experience

Deep Green

All ratings76 ratings
Positive71.1%
Neutral5.3%
Negative23.7%
Written reviews212 reviews
Positive66.0%
Neutral9.9%
Negative24.1%

Simple chess board

All ratings68 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral2.9%
Negative8.8%
Written reviews51 reviews
Positive88.2%
Neutral3.9%
Negative7.8%

User reviews

Deep Green

From 76 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🌟 Elegant and polished design
  • 🤖 Strong chess engine
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 🎨 Beautiful graphics and animations
  • 🕹️ Smooth gameplay and controls

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
  • ⚠️ Lack of features (e.g. game saving, online play)
  • 🔍 Difficulty settings too challenging for some users
  • 🔕 Missing audio/sound effects
  • 📏 Board/pieces not optimized for larger screens

Simple chess board

From 68 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Simple and straightforward
  • 👍 Great for study and practice
  • 👍 No restrictions or 'help' functions
  • 👍 Allows setting up custom positions
  • 👍 Useful for playing through games

Room to improve

  • 🤔 Pieces not bound by rules
  • 🤔 Graphics can be distracting/ugly
  • 🤔 Aggressive board colors
  • 🤔 Clocks take up screen space
  • 🤔 Pieces can shift unexpectedly

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

Simple chess board

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • Keyboard not appearing to enter text/save
  • Cannot figure out how to save position
  • Pieces shift on their own
  • Kings and queens on wrong squares initially
  • Save position fails with 'You must insert text' error
Show 2 more
  • App froze mid-game
  • Write a review tab has trouble

Requested features

20 requests
  • Add scoresheet functionality
  • Export game for analysis
  • Move counter
  • Portrait view on iPad
  • Board expansion to fill screen
Show 15 more
  • Ability to turn board around
  • More board color options
  • Option to hide timers
  • PGN save and import facility
  • PGN export
  • Chess notation feature
  • Larger board size (optional timers)
  • Change chess set for better viewing
  • Fix 'write a review' tab issue
  • Delete saved games/setups easily
  • Better graphics
  • More realistic piece movement enforcement
  • Improve piece dragging and selection
  • Make piece representations larger
  • Add variations

In-app purchases

None

Deep Green

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Simple chess board

One-time1
  • Remove ads$0.99

Questions

Is Deep Green free?
Deep Green is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Simple chess board free?
Simple chess board is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Deep Green or Simple chess board?
Simple chess board is rated higher. Deep Green averages 3.9 out of 5 from 76 ratings, while Simple chess board averages 4.5 from 68 ratings.
Do Deep Green or Simple chess board have ads?
Simple chess board shows ads; Deep Green does not.
Which is updated more often, Deep Green or Simple chess board?
Deep Green ships an update every 4 months, and Simple chess board every 10 months. Most recently, Deep Green was updated on October 14, 2026 and Simple chess board on October 16, 2026.

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