Comparison

Chess.com vs Chess Prime 3D

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 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.

Highlights
  • Online multiplayer chess
  • Offline play against AI
  • Extensive puzzle library
  • Interactive chess lessons
  • Tournament participation
  • Chess variants
  • Game analysis
Features
Read full description

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

About

Chess Prime 3D

Engage in classic chess with stunning 3D graphics and versatile play modes. Challenge yourself with puzzles, play against AI or friends online, and learn with helpful move indicators. Save games, customize the board, and master openings.

Highlights
  • 3D and 2D board views
  • Single player and two player modes
  • Online multiplayer with chat
  • Hundreds of chess puzzles
  • Adjustable AI difficulty
  • Legal move highlighting
  • Board setup and save/load
Features
Read full description

Chess Prime 3D is one of the best designed 3D chess games for the iPad / iPhone. It provides learning support for novice players, a real challenge for the experienced players and fun. Swipe in any of four directions to view the board from any angle and play the chess game in 3D / 2D. Chess Prime 3D supports both ‘one player’ and ‘two player’ game play, so you can play online with your friends or with millions of players around the world, or against a challenging computer opponent with adjustable difficulty level. Master your chess skills by solving hundreds chess puzzles. You can use hints if you get stuck. You can even edit the board and start the game from any predefined position. That allows you to test your skills in different game phases, common positions, solve chess puzzles, etc. Also you can save your game and then re-load it anytime you want. If you are a novice player you may take advantage of the feature that shows all legal moves for the current piece. -The full list of features:- • Excellent 3D graphics, sound effects and music • Configurable player names • Option to change the piece’s and board color • Option to play in 2D • Great AI engine with a flexible difficulty level that suits both novice players and experts • 200 ‘Mate in 2’ / ‘Mate in 3’ puzzles with stats, rewards and hints. • LIVE CHESS - invite your friends and play online. Or just play with a random player. Three difficulty levels, four time control settings, rating system, statistics and more. Confirm your move before submitting. Communication options - In-Game Chat, Rematch, Undo Move, Offer Draw, Resign, Postpone Match. • Versatile openings: Chess Prime AI engine plays like a human, not as a computer that always chooses the same move at the same position. It gives you an opportunity to play different famous openings to gain extensive experience in chess • SETUP game: Start the game from any predefined position with any number of pieces • UNDO function if you accidentally hit wrong piece or square. It works even if your king is checkmated • REDO function if you missed the opponent’s move. Just press EYE button and Chess Prime will show you the last opponent’s move • SAVE / LOAD feature gives you an opportunity to finish the game later or to play the chess puzzle which you can setup in the “Setup Game” module • CENTER function to align the board to the center • Option to show the LEGAL MOVES for current piece (very useful for novice players) • Option to ROTATE the board in ‘two player’ mode • Option to change the perspective angle, adjust the piece size, rotate knights • Help button with instructions for En Passant capture / Castling (activated automatically) • Option to limit ‘think time’ in ‘one player’ mode to 5, 15 or 30 seconds • Option to switch on / off sound effects and / or music. You can also listen to own music. • Automatically saves the current state of the game, so the game state would be automatically restored if you quit the application • Universal app (supports iPad / iPod touch / iPhone) If you love playing chess in portrait mode and in 2D, then download and try out our Chess Prime app! Enjoy!

Screenshots

Chess.com4 screens
Chess Prime 3D4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Chess.com at weekly against Chess Prime 3D's every 3 weeks. Chess.com also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and ratings volume (854K vs 63K). Chess Prime 3D's advantage is review sentiment (81% vs 64%) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Chess.com sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Chess Prime 3D sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Chess.com holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess.com has 854K ratings behind it against 63K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 64% of Chess.com's written reviews are positive against 81% of Chess Prime 3D's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess.com ships an update weekly, Chess Prime 3D every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Chess.com versus Chess Prime 3D: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess.comChess Prime 3D
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (854K ratings) — better4.6 (63K ratings)
Positive reviews64.3% of reviews81.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings854K — better63K
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#1 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.09.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size457 MB61 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChess.comVinta Games

Customer experience

Chess.com

All ratings840,432 ratings
Positive95.8%
Neutral1.5%
Negative2.6%
Written reviews9,254 reviews
Positive64.3%
Neutral5.9%
Negative29.7%

Chess Prime 3D

All ratings62,131 ratings
Positive89.6%
Neutral5.3%
Negative5.1%
Written reviews902 reviews
Positive81.4%
Neutral5.7%
Negative13.0%

User reviews

Chess.com

From 854K 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

Chess Prime 3D

From 63K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great app, easy to use
  • 👍 Versatile with customization options
  • 🎨 Excellent 3D graphics and visuals
  • 💡 Helpful for learning and improving chess skills

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional connection issues and glitches
  • ⏱️ Frustrating timer and move registration problems
  • 💰 Ads can be intrusive and disruptive
  • 🤖 Difficulty levels can be unbalanced and overly challenging

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

Chess Prime 3D

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Pieces not moving as expected
  • Game freezing or crashing during play
  • Incorrect move registrations and stalemate issues

Requested features

4 requests
  • Online multiplayer with chat functionality
  • Ability to save and review game history
  • Option to play background music from device
  • Improved matchmaking and difficulty balancing

In-app purchases

12 purchases

Chess.com

Subscriptions12
  • Gold Membership7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Gold Membership7 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Platinum Membership7 Days trial$6.991 Month
Show 9 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$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
1 purchases

Chess Prime 3D

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$2.99

Questions

Is Chess.com free?
Chess.com is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chess Prime 3D free?
Chess Prime 3D is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chess.com or Chess Prime 3D?
Chess.com is rated higher. Chess.com averages 4.8 out of 5 from 854K ratings, while Chess Prime 3D averages 4.6 from 63K ratings.
Do Chess.com or Chess Prime 3D have ads?
Both Chess.com and Chess Prime 3D show ads.
Which is updated more often, Chess.com or Chess Prime 3D?
Chess.com ships an update weekly, and Chess Prime 3D every 3 weeks. Most recently, Chess.com was updated on October 25, 2026 and Chess Prime 3D on October 25, 2026.

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