Deep Green vs BlueChess
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.
BlueChess
Engage in strategic gameplay with powerful chess engines. Choose between the BlueChess engine or the highly-rated Stockfish engine for your matches.
- Play against BlueChess engine
- Play against Stockfish engine
- Strategic gameplay
- Free to play
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Play a game of chess against the BlueChess engine or the Stockfish engine.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: BlueChess at 5.0 against Deep Green's 3.9. BlueChess also leads on monetization model (free vs paid). Deep Green's advantage is ratings volume (75 vs 2) and review sentiment (66% vs 50%). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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.
BlueChess holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Deep Green has 75 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 66% of Deep Green's written reviews are positive against 50% of BlueChess's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Deep Green | BlueChess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (75 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.0% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 75 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 55 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Cocoa Stuff | GreenChess.com |
Customer experience
Deep Green
BlueChess
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
BlueChess
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Deep Green
No in-app purchases
BlueChess
No in-app purchases
