Chess ∙ vs Chess Puzzles & Tactics
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.
Chess Puzzles & Tactics
Enhance your chess skills with an extensive collection of puzzles and tactical exercises. Tailor your training by customizing puzzle difficulty and Elo ratings to target specific weaknesses and accelerate improvement, suitable for players of all levels.
- Infinite chess puzzles
- Tactics training
- Customizable puzzles
- Elo rating adjustment
- All player levels
- Extensive tactic list
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Solve interactive chess positions on the board and find the correct continuation. Train tactics, mating patterns, and endgames. Choose the categories or motifs you want to practice, then set a puzzle Elo range or difficulty that fits your target session. Built for chess players from beginner through advanced. Practice familiar ideas such as forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks, sacrifices, promotion, and zugzwang. Develop pattern recognition and calculation through focused puzzle practice.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Chess ∙ at none against Chess Puzzles & Tactics's 1. Chess ∙ also leads on ratings volume (205K vs 478) and chart position (#90 vs unranked). Chess Puzzles & Tactics's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 4 months) and review sentiment (78% vs 57%). On price, rating, ads 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. Chess Puzzles & Tactics sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Chess ∙ asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Chess ∙ against 4.5 for Chess Puzzles & Tactics. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess ∙ has 205K ratings behind it against 478, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 57% of Chess ∙'s written reviews are positive against 78% of Chess Puzzles & Tactics's.
Chess ∙ ships an update every 4 months, Chess Puzzles & Tactics every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess ∙ | Chess Puzzles & Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (205K ratings) | 4.5 (478 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 56.9% of reviews | 77.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 205K — better | 478 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #90 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 84 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Optime Software LLC | Sajed Nahian |
Customer experience
Chess ∙
Chess Puzzles & Tactics
User reviews
Chess ∙
From 205K 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
Chess Puzzles & Tactics
From 478 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🆓 Free to use, no ads
- ♾️ Seemingly endless puzzles
- 🧠 Great for chess improvement
- 👍 Simple and easy to use interface
- 🎯 Puzzles tailored to skill level
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent bugs and glitches
- 🔄 Progress resets (ELO, history)
- ⚠️ Login issues (Apple/Google)
- ⏳ Puzzles take a long time to load
- 🥶 Freezes and crashes
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
Chess Puzzles & Tactics
Reported bugs
18 issues- Unable to login
- Application resets to starting value (1000elo)
- History/review chapters remain unlocked
- In-application feedback not functioning
- Rating feature broke
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- Ability to control puzzle strength broke
- Scanning thing after opening app continues forever
- App resets ELO to 1000
- Undo button disappears
- Tapping to select a piece stops working
- Analysis breaks
- Viewing history doesn’t work
- App crashes
- View History tab page never loads
- App forgets login and starts from ELO = 0
- Analysis button messed up
- App hangs after pressing 'log in'
- Puzzles freeze, no way of moving pieces
Requested features
4 requests- Option to mute sounds
- Ability to disable audio
- Allow loading custom puzzle sets
- Better interface and cable
In-app purchases
Chess ∙
No in-app purchases
Chess Puzzles & Tactics
- Ad-Free Forever$3.99
Questions
Is Chess ∙ free?
Is Chess Puzzles & Tactics free?
Which has better reviews, Chess ∙ or Chess Puzzles & Tactics?
Do Chess ∙ or Chess Puzzles & Tactics have ads?
Which is updated more often, Chess ∙ or Chess Puzzles & Tactics?
Other comparisons
