Comparison

Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles vs ™ Chess

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

Head to head
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

About

™ Chess

Engage in the timeless strategy of chess on your mobile device. Play against sophisticated AI opponents across multiple difficulty levels, or challenge friends and family. Features include an undo option, board editor, and customizable themes for a personalized experience.

Highlights
  • Play against AI
  • Multiplayer matches
  • Undo feature
  • Board editor
  • Customizable themes
  • Game save/load
  • Timed games
Features
Read full description

Chess is a classic board game for quiet study, quick practice, local play, and relaxed online matches through Game Center. Play your way: - Start an online game through Game Center and play a casual no-time-limit match. - Practice against multiple AI difficulty levels. - Solve thousands of chess puzzles, including 777 newly added tactical positions. - Play local two-player games on the same device. - Save and load games when you want to continue later. - Set up custom positions with the board editor. - Customize boards, pieces, avatars, sounds, and themes. - Try timed games when you want a sharper challenge. This update also adds a seasonal football-themed board background and avatar for the 2026 world tournament season. Whether you want to train tactics, learn openings, play against AI, share a local game, or challenge another player online, Chess is built for comfortable play at your own pace.

Screenshots

Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles4 screens
™ Chess4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles at 91% against ™ Chess's 37%. Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and rating (4.8 vs 4.5). ™ Chess's advantage is price (Free vs $0.99) and ratings volume (11K vs 70). On update cadence, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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 is free to download; Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles costs $0.99 up front. ™ Chess sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ™ Chess has 11K ratings behind it against 70, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 91% of Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles's written reviews are positive against 37% of ™ Chess's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles ships an update every 7 months, ™ Chess every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles versus ™ Chess: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMate in 2 Chess Puzzles™ Chess
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (70 ratings) — better4.5 (11K ratings)
Positive reviews91.1% of reviews — better37.3% of reviews
Number of ratings7011K — better
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 4 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB112 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGano Technologies LLCVM Mobile Team

Customer experience

Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles

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

™ Chess

All ratings10,299 ratings
Positive86.2%
Neutral6.1%
Negative7.7%
Written reviews614 reviews
Positive37.3%
Neutral8.0%
Negative54.7%

User reviews

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

™ Chess

From 11K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Challenging gameplay
  • 🚀 Quick response times
  • 💡 Variety of difficulty levels
  • 🤩 Enjoyable for chess lovers

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inconsistent difficulty levels
  • 🤬 Overpowered AI on easy mode
  • 💰 Too many ads
  • 🤯 Frustrating for beginners

Bugs and requests

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

™ Chess

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Illegal moves allowed by AI
  • Incorrect draw detection
  • Castling not functioning properly

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more difficulty settings
  • Allow under-promotion
  • Improve AI difficulty scaling
  • Reduce ads or offer paid version

In-app purchases

None

Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

™ Chess

One-time1
  • Premium$3.99

Questions

Is Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles free?
Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is ™ Chess free?
™ Chess is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles or ™ Chess?
Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles is rated higher. Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles averages 4.8 out of 5 from 70 ratings, while ™ Chess averages 4.5 from 11K ratings.
Do Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles or ™ Chess have ads?
Neither Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles nor ™ Chess shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles or ™ Chess?
Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles ships an update every 7 months, and ™ Chess every 4 months. Most recently, Mate in 2 Chess Puzzles was updated on November 1, 2026 and ™ Chess on November 4, 2026.

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