Comparison

Chess.com vs Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles

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

Head to head
About

Chess.com

Engage in chess with millions globally through online matches, tournaments, and lessons. Improve your skills with over a million puzzles, powerful bot opponents, and detailed game analysis. Explore various chess variants and track your progress with in-depth statistics.

Highlights
  • Online multiplayer chess
  • Over 1 million chess puzzles
  • Hundreds of chess lessons
  • Play against AI opponents
  • Chess variant modes
  • Game analysis tools
  • Community leaderboards
Features
Read full description

Play chess lessons online with over 280 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 1,000,000+ 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 1,000,000 + 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

About

Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles

Challenge yourself with over 1200 interactive chess puzzles designed to help you achieve checkmate in two moves. Suitable for both beginners and experienced players, this app offers a fun way to improve your tactical skills with a variety of classical problems.

Highlights
  • Over 1200 interactive chess problems
  • Checkmate in 2 moves objective
  • Variety of classical puzzles
  • Timing clock for puzzle solving
  • Multiple chess piece sets and color schemes
  • Leaderboards and social sharing
Features
Read full description

The Ultimate mate in 2 moves chess puzzle app! Sharpen your chess skills with Mate in 2 Puzzles! Beginners and experienced players will enjoy solving these chess problems! This app has over 1200 interactive chess problems ranging from easy to harder puzzles that will challenge you and help improve your chess skills. The object is to finish each game by forcing a checkmate in 2 moves. The puzzles consist of a large number of classical puzzles collected from a variety of sources. These puzzles are fun to play and can be enjoyed at your leisure on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Mate in 2 chess problems are especially useful for learning to play chess or anyone wanting to improve their skills. New features added in Version 2.0 include: ------------------------------ - Completely revamped chess engine that is much stronger - Timing clock is displayed while you are working on each puzzle. How long you take to solve a puzzle is stored. - New options: more chess piece sets (total of 7) and more colors schemes (total of 7) including wood and marble. (Improved the options menu as well) - Social Gaming: Leaderboards to compare the number of puzzles you have solved with your friends and other players. Facebook integration - including the ability to post your progress and ask your friends for help on a puzzle. - Universal app - works on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad - high resolution graphics all around (where supported). For even more chess puzzle challenges check out these apps: - Mate in 1 Puzzles - Mate in 3 Puzzles - Mate in 4+ Puzzles

Screenshots

Chess.com4 screens
Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Chess.com at Free against Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles's $0.99. Chess.com also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 7 months) and ratings volume (873K vs 70). Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and ads (none vs shown). On rating 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Chess.com is free to download; Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles costs $0.99 up front. Chess.com sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Chess.com against 4.8 for Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess.com has 873K ratings behind it against 70, 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 91% of Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess.com ships an update weekly, Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Chess.com versus Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess.comMate in 2 Chess Puzzles
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.8 (873K ratings)4.8 (70 ratings) — better
Positive reviews64.4% of reviews91.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings873K — better70
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 7 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#1 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size456 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChess.comGano Technologies LLC

Customer experience

Chess.com

All ratings867,042 ratings
Positive95.8%
Neutral1.5%
Negative2.6%
Written reviews9,361 reviews
Positive64.4%
Neutral5.9%
Negative29.7%

Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles

All ratings70 ratings
Positive98.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative1.4%
Written reviews135 reviews
Positive91.1%
Neutral3.7%
Negative5.2%

User reviews

Chess.com

From 873K App Store ratings

What 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

Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles

From 70 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🧠 Excellent puzzle collection with 1000+ problems
  • 💰 Great value for money at low price point
  • 🎯 Wide range of difficulty levels for various skill levels
  • 🎨 Clean, well-designed user interface
  • ⏱️ Built-in timer for tracking solve times

Room to improve

  • 🔥 App causes phone to heat up during extended use
  • ❌ Inconsistent puzzle accuracy and validity
  • ⚠️ Sudden difficulty jump between Mate in 1 and Mate in 2
  • 🤔 Some puzzles rely on opponent making unforced errors
  • 🚫 Cannot explore alternative black responses

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

Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • App freezes or goes haywire requiring restart
  • Occasional crashes during gameplay
  • App skips puzzles when navigating
  • Game Center prompts become annoying
  • Performance issues on older devices

Requested features

11 requests
  • Ability to freely move pieces and explore variations
  • Sandbox mode to test alternative moves
  • Play as black against white
  • Hint that only shows which piece to move, not destination
  • Landscape and portrait orientation support
Show 6 more
  • Puzzle tracking by number of moves
  • Mark puzzles solved with hints vs. solutions
  • More gradual difficulty progression
  • Page scroll feature for navigation
  • Disable Game Center prompts
  • Show why opponent made specific moves

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Chess.com

Subscriptions10
  • Gold Membership7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Gold Membership7 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Platinum Membership7 Days trial$6.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • 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$79.991 Year
  • Diamond Membership7 Days trial$99.991 Year
  • Diamond Membership7 Days trial$119.991 Year
None

Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chess.com free?
Chess.com is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles free?
Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Chess.com or Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles?
Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles is rated higher. Chess.com averages 4.8 out of 5 from 873K ratings, while Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles averages 4.8 from 70 ratings.
Do Chess.com or Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles have ads?
Chess.com shows ads; Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles does not.
Which is updated more often, Chess.com or Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles?
Chess.com ships an update weekly, and Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles every 7 months. Most recently, Chess.com was updated on November 6, 2026 and Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles on November 1, 2026.

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