Shredder Chess Lite vs ChessBase Mobile Chess
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shredder Chess Lite
Play chess against a world champion program that mimics human play and makes mistakes at lower levels. Solve puzzles, track your progress, and get advice to improve your game. Features adjustable difficulty and a built-in coach.
- Adjustable playing strength
- 100 built-in chess puzzles
- Coach warns of mistakes
- Elo rating calculation
- Opening book with over 1 million moves
- Two player mode
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Shredder, the most successful chess program ever, is now also available for the iPhone. You can play against Shredder and solve chess puzzles. It offers the usual Shredder standard for your pocket. The 12 times computer chess world champion Shredder is able to mimic the play of a human chess player with any playing strength. He even deliberately makes typical human mistakes in those levels. Solve 100 built in chess puzzles. Shredder keeps track of your performance and offers advice if needed. You can adjust Shredder’s playing strength and, if you like, Shredder automatically adjusts his strength to yours. He even calculates an Elo rating for you. This is how the playing strength of chess players is typically measured. During the game a coach is watching your moves and warns you if you are about to make a mistake. See how you are getting better and better the more games you play and the more chess puzzles you solve. Shredder Chess Lite features: * Adjustable playing strength * Intuitive and very easy to operate * 100 built in chess puzzles * See your rating in a diagram * Coach shows your mistakes * Great variety: opening book with more than one million moves * Load and save games (incl. names, date, etc.) * Different chess boards and pieces * two player mode / enter moves * Learn the name of the opening you are playing * Accessibility / VoiceOver support * Improve your play whenever and wherever you like 'Shredder Chess Lite' is a fully-functional version of 'Shredder Chess' for casual chess players. If you are an active player, need more features or simply want the best you should take a look at our pro version 'Shredder Chess'. Here is what you will additionally get in our pro version: * The strongest chess engine for the iPhone * Can be set to outstanding playing strength * 1000 built in chess puzzles * Send games via email * Different playing styles from passive to aggressive * Enter and analyze any position you like * Analyse your games with Shredder, find your mistakes and improve your play * 10 USD discount coupon for Shredder 13 Mac/Win on shredderchess.com
ChessBase Mobile Chess
Access a vast chess game database, save and analyze your own games, and practice openings. This app offers advanced notation and sharing features, with a free tier and optional premium upgrades for more extensive cloud storage and search capabilities.
- Access 13+ million chess games
- Save and sync personal game databases
- Analyze games with built-in engine
- Live opening book statistics
- Create and practice opening repertoires
- Advanced game notation and sharing
- PGN file compatibility
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ChessBase Mobile is the training, playing, and analysis platform for chess players who track their progress by the numbers. ChessBase Mobile is built by ChessBase, the company behind the standard desktop software used by world champions and club players alike for over 30 years. Solve tactics puzzles rated by difficulty and watch your Elo rise or fall with every attempt. No participation trophies, your rating reflects exactly where you stand. The tactics database draws from positions in real games, not synthetic exercises, so the patterns you train are the patterns you encounter at the board. Puzzle Fight puts you head-to-head against another player in a timed series of 24 tactical positions. Both players solve the same puzzles simultaneously. The one who solves more, faster, wins - and gains Elo. Structured competition, not a casual minigame. Play live games in Blitz and Rapid formats against opponents worldwide. Premove support, clean interface, no clutter. The ChessBase Online Database contains over 14 million games. Search by player, position, or opening. Review grandmaster games, study endgame structures, track opening trends - the same database used by professionals, accessible from your phone. Cloud analysis with several engines, including Fritz and Lc0. Basic cloud analysis with Fritz is free. For deeper analysis, scalable cloud servers are available, from Large to Gargantuan, paid per minute in ducats. Lc0 brings neural network evaluation for positions where classical engines struggle. The engine panel shows evaluation, depth, and principal variation. Build and maintain your opening repertoire in the cloud. 300 opening overviews with repertoire suggestions help you get started with new systems. A live opening book provides up-to-date statistics for every position. Three practice modes let you drill your variations until they stick. Annotate your games with comments, symbols, variations, arrows, and markings. Save games and analyses in cloud databases that synchronise across all your devices. Share positions and games via link, image, GIF, FEN, QR code, or PGN. Upload and download PGN files for full compatibility with desktop software. AI Kibitzer provides live commentary during games and puzzles — with personality. Chess-legend anecdotes, opinions, the occasional bad joke. Like a friend with too much chess trivia sitting next to you. Audio output included. Available in 27 languages. Customisable board colours, piece sets, and notation display. Light and dark mode across all screens, or set to follow your device preference. No ads. No energy systems. No artificial gating. Open the app, train, close the app. Free to use, all functions are available at no cost. ChessBase Premium unlocks expanded cloud storage and unlimited database search results. Free: search the online database (max 50 games displayed), up to 10 cloud databases (10 MB total), cloud clipping for up to 10 games. Premium: unlimited database search, up to 200 cloud databases (500 MB total), cloud clipping for up to 400 games. Privacy policy: https://en.chessbase.com/pages/security Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Shredder Chess Lite at 4.0 against ChessBase Mobile Chess's 2.9. Shredder Chess Lite also leads on review sentiment (79% vs 41%) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. ChessBase Mobile Chess sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $3.99 per month. Shredder Chess Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.
Shredder Chess Lite holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 2.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 20 and 18 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of Shredder Chess Lite's written reviews are positive against 41% of ChessBase Mobile Chess's.
Shredder Chess Lite ships an update every 7 months, ChessBase Mobile Chess every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Shredder Chess Lite | ChessBase Mobile Chess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (20 ratings) — better | 2.9 (18 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 78.9% of reviews — better | 40.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 20 — better | 18 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 6 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Eiko Bleicher, Skizzix.com | ChessBase GmbH |
Customer experience
Shredder Chess Lite
ChessBase Mobile Chess
Bugs and requests
Shredder Chess Lite
Reported bugs
11 issues- Pawns moving sideways or diagonally without capturing
- Pawns captured by opponent pawns when not adjacent
- Illegal moves allowed by computer player
- App crashes on iOS 8 and later versions
- App won't open or load on startup
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- Freezing after puzzle completion
- Crashes when accessing advanced settings
- Game crashes every second or third game on OS4
- Incompatibility with iPhone 3GS and older devices
- Checkmate detection errors
- Puzzle mode incorrectly marking valid moves as invalid
Requested features
10 requests- Full screen optimization for modern iPhones
- Time delay option before computer moves
- Multiplayer mode for human vs human play
- HD/universal app for iPad compatibility
- Detailed explanations for puzzle solutions
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- Higher difficulty levels in free version
- Alternative board colors (red pieces option)
- Dynamic hints like Fritz offers
- Better endgame analysis
- Improved board and piece design for clarity
ChessBase Mobile Chess
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Shredder Chess Lite
No in-app purchases
ChessBase Mobile Chess
- ChessBase Premium (Monthly)$3.991 Month
Questions
Is Shredder Chess Lite free?
Is ChessBase Mobile Chess free?
Which has better reviews, Shredder Chess Lite or ChessBase Mobile Chess?
Do Shredder Chess Lite or ChessBase Mobile Chess have ads?
Which is updated more often, Shredder Chess Lite or ChessBase Mobile Chess?
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