Chess.com vs SmartGo One
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chess.com
Engage in online and offline chess matches with millions of players worldwide. Improve your skills through interactive lessons, over 500,000 puzzles, and powerful AI opponents. Compete in tournaments and explore various chess variants.
- Online multiplayer chess
- Offline play against AI
- Extensive puzzle library
- Interactive chess lessons
- Tournament participation
- Chess variants
- Game analysis
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Play chess lessons online with over 265 million players from around the world! Chess is known as the best strategy board game in the world! Enjoy unlimited 3D offline pocket chess games and improve your chess rating with 500,000+ puzzles, more than 20 million chess games a day, lessons, and over 100 powerful bot opponents. Unlock your inner chess master today! PLAY CHESS ONLINE: - 2 Player online chess mode is entirely free to enjoy with your friends. - Join tournaments with players online or friends and become a master. - Play games in real-time from one minute per game to 30 minutes or longer with friends. - Review your strategy and game lessons and lay out daily correspondence in online chess. - Play exciting chess variants in our app: chess960 (Fischer-Random), blitz chess, puzzle rush, bullet chess, puzzle battle, or blindfold. CHESS PUZZLES: - Enjoy 500,000 + unique puzzles. - Rated mode automatically adjusts to your skill level to help you improve. - Race the clock with a timer to beat your high score in Puzzle Rush. - Practice puzzles with specific themes in this strategy board game (checkmate in 1, in 2, in 3, blindfold, endgames, fork, skewer, sacrifice, timer, etc.) CHESS LESSONS: - Hundreds of quality chess lessons and online videos made by masters (Learn and practice your skills with chess problems) - Interactive puzzles tutorials with tips and game recommendations. - Learn all the chess rules and strategies in a step-by-step lesson plan (opening, endgame...) CHESS COACHING: - Learn from helpful and immersive visual chess coach lessons. - Review your games with the coach and learn the strategy of the board game for every move. - Play games with the coach, who will guide you through the fundamentals move by move and provide helpful hints as you play. PLAY CHESS ONLINE AGAINST THE COMPUTER: - Choose the level of computer opponent you want to play and set a timer. - Analyze your chess games offline and learn to see where you went wrong and how you can improve. CHESS COMMUNITY: - Join a community of more than 200M online chess players. Find friends! - More than 20M games played each day. - Compete to get your own rating and try to join the best player online chess leaderboards against other players. - Watch the most popular superstars: Hikaru, GothamChess, or Magnus! ... and MUCH MORE: - Play chess games offline against the computer and the clock with a timer. - Articles by the best coaches and masters. - Explore openings like Queen´s Gambit or Sicilian Defense. - Challenge and play with your friends in an online chess game. - Choose from 20+ board themes and 3D pieces. - Get in-depth performance stats about your games, puzzles, and lessons. Playing pocket chess online has never been so easy! Chess.com is the place to play chess games online with your friends and other players! Share your suggestions and comments. Our support team is happy to help you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year! ABOUT CHESS.COM: Chess.com was created by chess players and people who love chess! Team: http://www.chess.com/about
SmartGo One
Learn, play, and improve at the ancient game of Go. This app offers adjustable board sizes, a strong AI opponent, and tools to study professional games and solve Go problems. It's designed for players of all skill levels, from beginners to masters.
- Adjustable board sizes (9x9 to 19x19)
- Strong KataGo game engine
- Study professional game records
- Solve Go problems and tutorials
- Pattern matching for move suggestions
- Territory estimator
- Game recording and annotation
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SmartGo One is the only Go app you’ll need, whether you’re just getting started or already a seasoned player. Learn, play, study, and improve with SmartGo One. Experience the ancient game of Go on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac in a whole new way. Also known as igo (囲碁), wéiqí (围棋), or baduk (바둑), Go begins with an empty board that gradually fills as players surround territory and capture stones. Start with a 9x9 board and move up to 13x13 and 19x19 as your skills grow. SmartGo One adapts to your strength, automatically adjusting handicaps so games remain competitive and enjoyable. And when you’re ready for a serious challenge, the powerful KataGo-based engine delivers strong, rewarding play. But SmartGo One is far more than a way to play Go. Read interactive Go books while replaying the moves they describe to deepen your understanding. Explore a collection of more than 138,000 professional game records spanning both modern and historical masters. Improve your reading and decision-making skills with a growing library of Go problems and tutorials. Want to know how a master would handle a position on your board? SmartGo’s pattern matching technology compares your game with historical pro games and shows how strong players approached similar situations. No matter your level, SmartGo One helps you continue improving. Features include: • 9x9, 11x11, 13x13, and 19x19 board sizes • Powerful KataGo-based engine • Fast and responsive gameplay • Manual or automatic handicap adjustment • Record, annotate, and edit your games • Territory estimator • Hints and move analysis • Undo and replay controls • Tutorial with over 100 problems • Extensive user manual We value your privacy and only collect the minimum information necessary to make our apps work well for you. Learn more at https://smartgo.com/privacy.html. This app is licensed under Apple’s standard Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: SmartGo One at none against Chess.com's shown. SmartGo One also leads on review sentiment (77% vs 64%). Chess.com's advantage is ratings volume (827K vs 1.9K) and chart position (#5 vs unranked). On price, rating, update cadence 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. Chess.com sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and SmartGo One sells 46 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Chess.com against 4.8 for SmartGo One. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess.com has 827K ratings behind it against 1.9K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 64% of Chess.com's written reviews are positive against 77% of SmartGo One's.
Chess.com ships an update weekly, SmartGo One every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess.com | SmartGo One |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (827K ratings) | 4.8 (1.9K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 63.9% of reviews | 76.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 827K — better | 1.9K |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #5 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 445 MB | 140 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chess.com | Smart Go, Inc. |
Customer experience
Chess.com
SmartGo One
User reviews
Chess.com
From 827K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Excellent app for learning and improving chess skills
- 🎓 Comprehensive lessons, puzzles, and analysis tools
- 🌍 Large player base for quick matchmaking
- 📊 Detailed game statistics and progress tracking
- 💻 Seamless integration between mobile app and website
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent connection issues and game freezes
- ⏱️ Unreliable and inconsistent game timers
- 🔒 Lack of transparency around anti-cheating measures
- 💰 Aggressive paywall for advanced features
- 🤖 Subpar AI opponents with questionable move choices
SmartGo One
From 1.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Awesome app
- 👍 Great for playing and learning Go
- 📚 Excellent integration with Go books
- 🔍 Powerful analysis and review features
- 💻 Seamless experience across devices
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and stability issues
- 🤔 Unintuitive user interface for beginners
- 💰 Paywall for full 19x19 board and some features
- 🤖 AI too strong for novice players
Bugs and requests
Chess.com
Reported bugs
5 issues- Incorrect move suggestions in game analysis
- Inability to leave or manage chess clubs within the app
- Puzzle mode crashing when attempting to reveal the solution
- Inconsistent behavior when switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data
- Pieces not registering correctly on the board during gameplay
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to customize board and piece themes
- Option to pause and resume games at a later time
- Improved game analysis with more detailed explanations
- Enhanced social features for interacting with other players
- Offline mode for practicing puzzles and tactics
SmartGo One
Reported bugs
3 issues- Illegal move detection issues on certain board positions
- Problems with missing variations or incorrect answers
- Inconsistent behavior when passing moves
Requested features
5 requests- Add read-only mode
- Improve move suggestion explanations
- Introduce difficulty settings for AI
- Integrate online play functionality
- Provide more randomness in AI moves
In-app purchases
Chess.com
- Gold Membership7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Gold Membership7 Days trial$6.991 Month
- Platinum Membership7 Days trial$6.991 Month
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- Platinum Membership7 Days trial$10.991 Month
- Diamond Membership7 Days trial$14.991 Month
- Diamond Membership7 Days trial$16.991 Month
- Gold Membership7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Platinum Membership7 Days trial$49.991 Year
- Gold Membership7 Days trial$49.991 Year
- Platinum Membership7 Days trial$79.991 Year
- Diamond Membership7 Days trial$99.991 Year
- Diamond Membership7 Days trial$119.991 Year
SmartGo One
- SmartGo One Pro – Monthly$4.991 Month
- Pro Games and Features14 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Just Enough Japanese 1Free
- Key Concepts in Life and Death$2.99
- Go Problems Master Collection$3.99
Show 41 moreShow fewer
- Go Problems Add-on 2: Medium$3.99
- Go Problems Add-on 1: Easy$3.99
- Go Problems Add-on 3: Hard$3.99
- Counting Liberties$4.99
- The Monkey Jump$4.99
- Double Digit Kyu Games$5.99
- Go: A Complete Introduction$5.99
- How Not to Play Go$5.99
- Encyclopedia of Go Principles$5.99
- Want to Play Go? Level 1$5.99
- Black to Play 30-25 Kyu$5.99
- The Workshop Lectures 1$5.99
- Rethinking Opening Strategy$6.99
- Learn to Play Go 1$7.99
- Learn to Play Go 2$7.99
- Learn to Play Go 3$7.99
- Correct Joseki$7.99
- “The Theory of Go”$7.99
- Learn to Play Go 4$7.99
- Buddhist Philosophy Game of Go$8.99
- Graded Go Problems 1$9.99
- Graded Go Problems 2$9.99
- Want to Play Go? Level 2$9.99
- Basic Techniques of Go$9.99
- Graded Go Problems 3$9.99
- Get Strong at Life and Death$9.99
- Mastering Mini Go by Mark Tomlinson$11.99
- Fuseki Revolution$11.99
- Fundamental Principles of Go$11.99
- The Basics of Life and Death$11.99
- Joseki Revolution$11.99
- Life and Death$11.99
- A Survey of the Basic Tesujis$11.99
- Tesuji$11.99
- AlphaGo to Zero, vol. 4$14.99
- Trouble Master, volume 2$14.99
- Trouble Master, volume 1$14.99
- AlphaGo to Zero, Vol. 2$14.99
- Invincible$24.99
- Essential Go Proverbs$24.99
- Pro – Lifetime Unlock$99.00








