Shredder Chess Lite vs Chess Studio Lite
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
Chess Studio Lite
Manage and analyze chess games and databases in PGN format. Study openings, practice against engines, and solve puzzles with advanced analysis tools. Supports multiple devices and cloud storage integration.
- PGN database management
- Game analysis with Stockfish 18
- Opening book creation and import
- Diagram recognition
- Cloud storage integration
- Play against engine (standard & Chess 960)
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Chess Studio is the first and only application for iPhone and iPad able to completely manage chess database and games in PGN format. Chess Studio is an application designed and built for those players who really want to deepen their knowledge in the field of chess, studying chess regularly and participate in tournaments. Chess Studio allows you to: • Read database and games in PGN format (also with extended notation of moves). • Create, delete and modify folders and databases. • View games with annotations and textual comments and keep track of the displayed games. • Use a double chessboard on the same screen for better game analysis. • Visualize moves and variants in compact mode or indented mode. • Modify existing games with move annotation and textual comments. • Insert new games and positions. • Insert moves with annotations and textual comments. • Insert variation, subvariations etc. • Insert and visualize graphical annotation (colored arrows and highlighted squares). • Share Databases and Games through Airdrop. • Download chess database from internet. • Download chess database from PGN Mentor site. • Import games, database and Opening Books from other applications. • Merge two or more databases. • Copy/Paste games and positions. • Analyze games with Stockfish 19 Engine with the support of the Neural Networks (up to 5 lines of analysis simultaneously) and see the results also through the Engine Evaluation Bar. • See graphic visualization of moves suggested by Stockfish 19 engine. • See Win-Draw-Loss (WDL) probabilities during engine analysis. • Replay games automatically. • Visualize Pawn structure. • Manage Variations and sub-variatons: delete and promote variations. • Read the weekly Magazine The Week In Chess and download the games. • Uploading and Downloading PGN database to/from Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive. • Three different modes for moving pieces. • Analyse endgames with Endgame Tablebases. • Analyse and study Chess Openings. • Creation and management of Opening Books in Polyglot format. • Import and management of ChessBase Opening Books (ctg, cto, ctb format). • Automatically classify a database according to ECO code. • Replay, enter and analyze Chess 960 games (Fischer Random Chess). • Play against the engine both in standard mode and in Chess 960 mode. • Solving Puzzles. • Diagram Recognition: this feature allows the user to take and/or upload photos of chess diagrams and convert them into PGN format positions. Other features and technical details: • Modify the board size tapping on the board or through the Settings menu. • Professional chess fonts and figurines for moves notation and annotation. • Preview of the game in the board tapping the Info button. • Advanced search feature. • Visualization of ECO code and Opening during game replay or game insertion. • Visualization of Book Openings during game replay or game insertion. • Complete management of Null Moves with Tutorial. • Portrait/Landscape mode for all devices. • Support of Slide Over and Split View mode. • Function to move up within variants and subvariants. • Online manual frequently updated. • iOS 26 compatible and optimized for all the devices. • Sharing of databases across devices via iCloud Drive. • Sound option. • Support for iPad Pro Keyboard or bluetooth keyboard. • VoiceOver/Accessibility support. • Direct contact via email with the developer. • Languages: English, Italian, Spanish and German. Complete description at the following address: https://chessstudio.wordpress.com/chess-studio/ The application is continuously updated with new features and improvements. Chess Studio Lite is a smaller version of Chess Studio where some features are limited. To view the terms of service visit https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ No registration! No advertising! No sharing of personal data! If you own an iMac or a MacBook try the new Chess Lab!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Chess Studio Lite at fortnightly against Shredder Chess Lite's every 7 months. Chess Studio Lite also leads on rating (4.4 vs 4.0). Shredder Chess Lite's advantage is review sentiment (79% vs 64%) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.0). On price, ratings volume, ads 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Chess Studio Lite holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 20 and 11 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 79% of Shredder Chess Lite's written reviews are positive against 64% of Chess Studio Lite's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Shredder Chess Lite ships an update every 7 months, Chess Studio Lite fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Shredder Chess Lite | Chess Studio Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (20 ratings) | 4.4 (11 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.9% of reviews — better | 63.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 20 — better | 11 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 237 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Eiko Bleicher, Skizzix.com | Giordano Vicoli |
Customer experience
Shredder Chess Lite
Chess Studio Lite
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
Chess Studio Lite
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Shredder Chess Lite
No in-app purchases
Chess Studio Lite
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Shredder Chess Lite free?
Is Chess Studio Lite free?
Which has better reviews, Shredder Chess Lite or Chess Studio Lite?
Do Shredder Chess Lite or Chess Studio Lite have ads?
Which is updated more often, Shredder Chess Lite or Chess Studio Lite?
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