Comparison

Shredder Chess vs HIARCS Chess

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

Head to head
About

Shredder Chess

Engage in chess matches against a world champion AI, analyze your games, and solve numerous chess puzzles. This app offers adjustable difficulty and human-like play, helping you improve your skills anytime, anywhere.

Highlights
  • Play against adjustable AI strength
  • Analyze games and identify mistakes
  • Solve 1000 built-in chess puzzles
  • Mimics human playing styles
  • Automatic strength adjustment
  • In-game coach for mistakes
Features
Read full description

Play better chess with Shredder Chess - the classic chess opponent, trainer and analysis partner for iPhone. Shredder gives you a chess opponent that adapts to your level, from casual beginner to strong club player. Play a quick game, solve tactics, get warned before mistakes and analyze your games to understand where you can improve. Whether you want to learn chess, sharpen your tactics or simply enjoy a good game, Shredder helps you make every move count. Why chess players choose Shredder: • Adaptive playing strength from beginner to master level • Optional auto-adjusting opponent that matches your play • Built-in coach that warns you before mistakes • 1,000 chess puzzles for tactics training • Game analysis to find mistakes and improve your play • Estimated Elo rating with progress diagram • Human-like playing styles, from passive to aggressive • Opening book with more than one million moves • Set up and analyze any position • Save games, share them by email and review later • Multiple boards and pieces • VoiceOver and accessibility support The Shredder chess programs have won 19 World Computer Chess Champion titles, making Shredder one of the most successful names in computer chess. Play a game. Solve a puzzle. Analyze your moves. Get stronger with Shredder Chess.

About

HIARCS Chess

This app offers a powerful chess engine for playing, analyzing, and learning chess. It provides adjustable difficulty levels and coaching features to help players of all abilities improve their game. Analyze professional games and track your progress with an Elo rating.

Highlights
  • World Championship winning chess engine
  • Adjustable playing strengths and styles
  • Advanced coaching features
  • Elo rating tracking
  • PGN database support
  • Large tournament book
  • Multiple playing modes
Features
Read full description

HIARCS is a multiple World Championship winning chess program and the only handheld chess program in the world which has won matches and tournaments with Grandmasters. It twice won the Mercusor Cup in Buenos Aires, Argentina ahead of Grandmasters with a performance of 2900 Elo, the best chess performance rating for any handheld device in history. In 1997 the World's strongest ever human chess player, Garry Kasparov, said "HIARCS is much better positionally than Deep Blue" and even the current World champion, Vishy Anand, in a recent interview when asked what chess program he uses to analyse with said "generally I use HIARCS". This power enables your iPhone to play chess like a super Grandmaster, analyse games and chess problems with you, or play at whatever weakened chess strength you want from beginner to GM strength while offering numerous features to help you learn and improve as you play with HIARCS. An advanced set of coaching features helps players of all strengths improve their chess play. HIARCS Chess has a full range of realistic weaker opponent strengths and playing styles catering for players of all abilities from absolute beginners to Grandmasters. On the weaker playing levels HIARCS will make human-like mistakes appropriate to the level of play and this together with the integrated coach advice, assessments and alerts allow you to learn and improve quickly. HIARCS also monitors your chess performance and provides you with an Elo chess rating which tracks your chess ability in every game. It can continuously adjust its playing strength to give you challenging but beatable opponents as you improve. HIARCS Chess will save battery life by using much less energy on the weaker levels, allowing more playing time on long journeys etc. HIARCS Chess supports PGN chess game databases and has all the games between Fischer & Spassky and Kasparov & Karpov for you to play through and enjoy. HIARCS has a large tournament book which is up to date with chess theory with over 235,000 variations. The book moves are displayed on screen with chess symbols and the opening variations are named and ECO coded. Key features: + Strongest chess program on iPhone and iPod Touch, genuine strong GM-level performance + Suitable for all players from absolute beginners to strong Grandmasters with many handicap levels and opponents styles and advanced coaching + Intuitive and friendly user interface with multiple high quality pieces set, colour schemes and icons including high res support for iPhone 4 and 5 retina displays + Multiple playing modes: play white, black, both sides in two player mode, continuous analysis and interactive replay + Fully adjustable Elo strengths, adaptive levels and multiple playing levels and opponents + All levels below maximum are low energy to increase battery life + Rates your chess play and gives you an Elo rating which is updated after each game + Advanced coach can provide move options, give hints, indicate move safety and quality highlights and watch your play and warn about mistakes + Transfer PGN databases to/from HIARCS chess via iTunes file sharing, email games and PGN DBs from HIARCS + Launch HIARCS from PGN email attachments + Load, save or delete games to/from PGN databases + Set up or edit a position to analyse or play from + Advanced game navigation with game move slider and VCR buttons for rapid and precise game navigation + Many selectable preset blitz, incremental and average time clock settings for timed play + Large HIARCS tournament opening book as used by the professionals! + Permanent brain for enhanced playing strength + Numerous chess display functions for showing chess moves, analysis, book moves, coach advice, move quality even legal moves, offer draws or resign + 8 Piece sets and 9 colour schemes + Integrated Html manual and help screens A discount coupon is included with a $10 USD discount on other HIARCS products on Mac and PC from www.hiarcs.com.

Screenshots

Shredder Chess4 screens
HIARCS Chess4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is chart position: Shredder Chess at #47 against HIARCS Chess's unranked. Shredder Chess also leads on price ($8.99 vs $9.99). HIARCS Chess's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 7 months). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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

Shredder Chess costs $8.99 and HIARCS Chess $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Shredder Chess against 4.8 for HIARCS Chess. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 336 and 205 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 83% of Shredder Chess's written reviews are positive against 76% of HIARCS Chess's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shredder Chess ships an update every 7 months, HIARCS Chess every 3 months. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Shredder Chess versus HIARCS Chess: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShredder ChessHIARCS Chess
Price$8.99 — better$9.99
Rating4.7 (336 ratings)4.8 (205 ratings) — better
Positive reviews82.8% of reviews — better75.9% of reviews
Number of ratings336 — better205
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank#47 — better—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size46 MB21 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEiko Bleicher, Skizzix.comApplied Computer Concepts Ltd.

Customer experience

Shredder Chess

All ratings97 ratings
Positive83.5%
Neutral4.1%
Negative12.4%
Written reviews436 reviews
Positive82.8%
Neutral4.4%
Negative12.8%

HIARCS Chess

All ratings199 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral1.0%
Negative3.5%
Written reviews220 reviews
Positive75.9%
Neutral5.9%
Negative18.2%

User reviews

Shredder Chess

From 336 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Excellent chess engine
  • 👍 Adjustable difficulty level
  • 🎨 Great graphics and interface
  • 💡 Helpful puzzles and analysis
  • ⚖️ Accurate ELO rating system

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
  • 🔒 Lack of online play and multiplayer
  • 🔍 Limited opening book and game database
  • 📏 Issues with screen size and layout on larger devices

HIARCS Chess

From 205 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Strong chess engine
  • 👍 Human-like play
  • 🧠 Excellent coaching/analysis features
  • 🔧 Customizable difficulty levels
  • 💾 Saves and loads games well

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
  • 🔍 Lacks advanced features (PGN import/export, database navigation)
  • 🖼️ Outdated or subpar UI/UX
  • 💤 Slow move animations
  • 🤖 Engine strength may be overstated

Bugs and requests

Shredder Chess

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes when loading new games
  • Incorrect move evaluation and scoring
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add online/multiplayer functionality
  • Expand game database and opening library
  • Improve interface for larger screens
  • Provide more detailed analysis and coaching

HIARCS Chess

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes on certain iOS versions
  • Discount codes not working
  • Issues with hotspot mode

Requested features

5 requests
  • PGN import/export functionality
  • Advanced database navigation (next/previous game)
  • Endgame tablebase support
  • Improved UI/UX for modern devices
  • More customization options

In-app purchases

None

Shredder Chess

No in-app purchases

None

HIARCS Chess

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shredder Chess free?
Shredder Chess costs $8.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is HIARCS Chess free?
HIARCS Chess costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Shredder Chess or HIARCS Chess?
HIARCS Chess is rated higher. Shredder Chess averages 4.7 out of 5 from 336 ratings, while HIARCS Chess averages 4.8 from 205 ratings.
Do Shredder Chess or HIARCS Chess have ads?
Neither Shredder Chess nor HIARCS Chess shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shredder Chess or HIARCS Chess?
Shredder Chess ships an update every 7 months, and HIARCS Chess every 3 months. Most recently, Shredder Chess was updated on October 31, 2026 and HIARCS Chess on October 31, 2026.

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