Chess Problems Lite vs Chess Middlegame II
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chess Problems Lite
Sharpen your chess skills with directmate puzzles. This app offers 10 interactive problems, from easy mate-in-one to challenging mate-in-four moves. It features a revamped chess engine, a timing clock, customizable piece sets and color schemes, and social leaderboards with Facebook integration.
- Directmate chess puzzles
- Mate in 1 to 4+ moves
- Revamped chess engine
- Timing clock for puzzles
- Customizable piece sets and color schemes
- Leaderboards and Facebook integration
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A lite version of the Ultimate mate in 1 to 4+ chess puzzle apps! Sharpen your chess skills! Beginners and experienced players will enjoy solving these chess problems! This app has 10 interactive chess problems ranging from easy mate in one move problems to very challenging mate in four moves. The object is to finish each game by forcing a checkmate in a given number of moves. In the full versions of this app there are a much larger 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. Chess problems are especially useful for learning to play chess or anyone wanting to improve their skills. New features added 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 2 Puzzles - Mate in 3 Puzzles - Mate in 4+ Puzzles
Chess Middlegame II
This app offers a comprehensive chess middlegame training course designed by a Grandmaster. It covers various opening variations and provides interactive lessons with practice exercises and hints. Improve your chess knowledge, learn new tactics, and track your progress.
- Grandmaster-composed middlegame course
- Interactive theoretical lessons
- Practice exercises with hints and refutations
- Covers multiple opening variations
- Tracks ELO rating changes
- Offline play capability
- Tablet optimized
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Chess Middlegame II course composed by GM Alexander Kalinin is aimed at teaching a student much of the middlegame methods and intricacies through a theoretical section. The following openings are viewed: Sicilian defense (Dragon, Najdorf, Paulsen variations), Ruy Lopez (Open variation, Exchanged Variation), King's gambit, Italian game, Evans gambit, Pirc-Ufimtsev, Alekhine's defense, Nimzo-Indian defense, Queen's-Indian defense, Queen's gambit, Modern Benoni). This course is in the series Chess King Learn (https://learn.chessking.com/), which is an unprecedented chess teaching method. In the series are included courses in tactics, strategy, openings, middle game, and endgame, split by levels from beginners to experienced players, and even professional players. With the help of this course, you can improve your chess knowledge, learn new tactical tricks and combinations, and consolidate the acquired knowledge into practice. The program acts as a coach who gives tasks to solve and helps to solve them if you get stuck. It will give you hints, explanations and show you even striking refutation of the mistakes you might make. The program also contains a theoretical section, which explains the methods of the game in a certain stage of the game, based on actual examples. The theory is presented in an interactive way, which means you can not only read the text of the lessons, but also to make moves on the board and work out unclear moves on the board. Advantages of the program: • High quality examples, all double-checked for correctness • You need to enter all key moves, required by the teacher • Different levels of complexity of the tasks • Various goals, which need to be reached in the problems • The program gives hint if an error is made • For typical mistaken moves, the refutation is shown • You can play out any position of the tasks against the computer • Interactive theoretical lessons • Structured table of contents • The program monitors the change in the rating (ELO) of the player during the learning process • Test mode with flexible settings • Possibility to bookmark favorite exercises • The application is adapted to the bigger screen of a tablet • The application does not require an internet connection The course includes a free part, in which you can test the program. Lessons offered in the free version is fully functional. They allow you to test the application in real world conditions before releasing the following topics: 1. Sicilian Defense 1.1. Sicilian Defense 1.2. Dragon Variation 1.3. Najdorf Variation 6. Be3 1.4. Paulsen Variation 2. King's Gambit 2.1. King's Gambit 2.2. King's Gambit Declined 2... Bc5 2.3. Falkbeer Counter Gambit 2... d5 3. exd5 e4 2.4. Variation with 2... d5 3. exd5 exf4 2.5. Variation with 3... Nf6 4. e5 Nh5 2.6. Variation with 3... Be7 2.7. Variation with 3... g5 3. Giuoco Piano (Italian Game) 3.1. Giuoco Piano (Italian Game) 3.2. Giuoco Pianissimo 4. d3 3.3. Moeller Attack 4. c3 3.4. Evans Gambit 4. b4 4. Ruy Lopez 4.1. Ruy Lopez 4.2. Open Variation 4.3. Ruy Lopez. Exchanged variation 5. Pirc-Ufimtsev Defense 5.1. Pirc-Ufimtsev Defense 5.2. Classical Variation 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Be2 0-0 6. 0-0 5.3. Variation with 4. f3 5.4. Austrian Attack 4. f4 6. Alekhine's Defense 6.1. Alekhine's Defense 6.2. Four Pawns Attack 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4 6.3. Exchange Variation 5. exd6 6.4. Modern Variation 4. Nf3 Bg4 5. Be2 e6 6. 0-0 7. Nimzo-Indian Defense. Classical Variation 4. Qc2 7.1. Nimzo-Indian Defense. Classical Variation 4. Qc2 7.2. Variation with 4... d6 7.3. Variation with 4... b6 7.4. System with 4... 0-0 8. Queen's Indian Defense 8.1. Queen's Indian Defense 8.2. Classical Variation 8.3. System with 4... Ba6 9. Queen's Gambit Declined. Orthodox Defense 9.1. Queen's Gambit Declined. Orthodox Defense 9.2. Rubinstein's Attack 7. Qc2 9.3. Variation with 7. Bd3 9.4. System with 7. Rc1 10. Modern Benoni Defense 10.1. Modern Benoni Defense 10.2. Mikenas Variation 7. f4 Ng7
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Chess Middlegame II at 4.8 against Chess Problems Lite's 4.3. Chess Middlegame II also leads on iOS requirement (8.0 vs 13.0). Chess Problems Lite's advantage is 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. Chess Middlegame II sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Chess Problems Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.
Chess Middlegame II holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 11 respectively.
Chess Problems Lite ships an update every 7 months, Chess Middlegame II every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess Problems Lite | Chess Middlegame II |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (8 ratings) | 4.8 (11 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 8 | 11 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Gano Technologies LLC | Chess King |
Customer experience
Chess Problems Lite
Chess Middlegame II
In-app purchases
Chess Problems Lite
No in-app purchases
Chess Middlegame II
- Full course$7.99
Questions
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Is Chess Middlegame II free?
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