Chess ∙ vs Daily Chess Puzzles
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chess ∙
Experience a visually appealing and engaging chess game on your iPhone and iPod Touch. Play against friends or a customizable AI opponent with features like undo and automatic saving. Enjoy a free, ad-supported experience.
- 1 and 2 player gameplay
- Challenging computer opponent
- Great graphics and sound
- Configurable difficulty
- Undo function
- Automatic save
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Are you tired of playing chess games that look like they were designed for a Commodore 64 instead of an iPhone? We've got the antidote for you. Chess Free is the best chess game for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and it's free! Chess Free supports both 1 player and 2 player gameplay, so you can play against friends or test your skills against a challenging computer opponent. Chess Free offers a host of exciting features, including: * Great graphics and exciting sound effects * Configurable player names and score tracking * Outstanding AI engine with configurable difficulty level * Board rotation for two player games * Undo function * Automatic save when you get a phone call or exit the application Chess Free is supported by unobtrusive banner advertising. Chess Premium is the same great app without the ads.
Daily Chess Puzzles
Engage in thousands of chess puzzles to sharpen your tactical skills. A daily challenge awaits, with puzzles sourced from a top chess platform. Compete with friends and climb global leaderboards to track your progress.
- Thousands of chess puzzles
- Daily Challenge
- Learn tactics and tricks
- Game Center integration
- Worldwide leaderboard
- Improve chess game
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Solve a chess puzzle every day, train at your level, and learn the tactics that win games. DAILY PUZZLE The same puzzle for everyone, every day, from chess.com. Solve it to keep your streak going. QUICK PLAY Five puzzles find your level. After that, every puzzle is picked for you from more than 26,000, and your rating grows as you improve. LEARN Lessons in 18 tactics: forks, pins, skewers, back-rank and smothered mates, rook endgames and more. A lesson is eight puzzles. PLAY ANYWHERE Quick play and Learn work offline, on a plane or on the subway. Your rating, streak and lessons move with your iCloud between iPhone and iPad, and come back when you reinstall. No account needed. Game Center achievements and leaderboards are there if you want them. ------- The app icon is from vectorportal.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Chess ∙ at none against Daily Chess Puzzles's 3. Chess ∙ also leads on ratings volume (208K vs 445) and chart position (#55 vs unranked). Daily Chess Puzzles's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 4 months) and review sentiment (65% vs 56%). On price, rating, ads and monetization model 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. Daily Chess Puzzles sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Chess ∙ asks for nothing beyond the download.
Daily Chess Puzzles holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess ∙ has 208K ratings behind it against 445, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 56% of Chess ∙'s written reviews are positive against 65% of Daily Chess Puzzles's.
Chess ∙ ships an update every 4 months, Daily Chess Puzzles every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 13, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess ∙ | Daily Chess Puzzles |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (208K ratings) | 4.7 (445 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 56.1% of reviews | 65.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 208K — better | 445 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Ad-supported |
| Best chart rank | #55 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 84 MB | 22 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Optime Software LLC | Stefan Stangl |
Customer experience
Chess ∙
Daily Chess Puzzles
User reviews
Chess ∙
From 208K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fun to play everyday
- 👍 Good free game
- 👍 Nice little game
- 👍 Very good practice
- 👍 Addictive
Room to improve
- 🐛 AD crazy
- 🐛 Major glitches make the game impossible
- 🐛 Force draw
- 🐛 Issues, needs fixing but has potential
- 🐛 Disappearing Pieces
Daily Chess Puzzles
From 445 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great puzzles
- 👍 Unlimited puzzles for free
- 👍 Improves chess game
- 👍 Simple and pure interface
- 👍 Good for practice without rating impact
Room to improve
- 👎 Kludgy UI for moving pieces
- 👎 Missing basic controls
- 👎 Graphics could be better
- 👎 Some puzzles are inexplicable/don't make sense
- 👎 App crashes randomly
Bugs and requests
Chess ∙
Reported bugs
10 issues- Rook being able to move diagonally
- Stalemate glitch where it will preemptively call stalemate before it even happens
- Call stalemate when only the king can't move, and the other pieces can still move
- Pieces move too fast
- Doesn't allow en-passant moves by pawns
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- Refuses to allow legitimate win, claims draw instead
- Doesn't recognize stalemate
- Doesn't recognize checkmate
- Pieces disappearing
- Illegal moves by the AI
Requested features
6 requests- Undo from stalemate
- Highland opponents last move in green and my last move in blue
- Allow a third level of zoom to fill the screen
- Display a numeric value when difficulty slider is moved
- Ability to turn off safety where you can't move king to where it would get taken out
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- Ability to turn off draw by stalemate rule
Daily Chess Puzzles
Reported bugs
3 issues- Link to chess.com not working
- App crashes randomly
- Privacy consent link does not work
Requested features
10 requests- Button to go back and review solution
- Navigate back to previous puzzles
- Rewind feature after solving
- Ability to play around with puzzle situations
- Sound effects for moving pieces
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- Option to replay moves after solving
- Fix privacy consent link
- Remove timer on puzzle solving
- Explain puzzle challenges/goals
- Adjust message box location after solving
In-app purchases
Chess ∙
No in-app purchases
Daily Chess Puzzles
- Remove Ads$3.99
- Unlock All Lessons$5.99
- Ads Off + All Lessons$8.99
Questions
Is Chess ∙ free?
Is Daily Chess Puzzles free?
Which has better reviews, Chess ∙ or Daily Chess Puzzles?
Do Chess ∙ or Daily Chess Puzzles have ads?
Which is updated more often, Chess ∙ or Daily Chess Puzzles?
Other comparisons
