Comparison

Chess Problems Lite vs Chess Combinations Vol. 1

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

About

Chess Combinations Vol. 1

Master chess tactics with over 1300 exercises and interactive lessons. This program acts as a personal coach, providing hints, explanations, and refutations to improve your game. It tracks your ELO rating and offers a free section to test its capabilities.

Highlights
  • Over 1300 chess exercises
  • 40 tactical methods and motifs
  • Interactive theoretical lessons
  • Hints and explanations
  • Refutation of mistakes
  • ELO rating tracking
  • Offline functionality
Features
Read full description

The fundamental chess program for club players. This first part includes more than 1300 exercises (more than 200 examples to explore and 1100 to solve), classified in 40 tactical methods and motifs. This course is in the series Chess King Learn, 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. Win 1.1. Mate in 1 1.2. Double attack 1.3. Simultaneous attack 1.4. Discovered attack 1.5. Discovered attack with check 1.6. Discovered check 1.7. Mill 1.8. Double check 1.9. Linear attack 1.10. Absolute pin 1.11. Relative pin A 1.12. Relative pin B 1.13. Trap in the opening 1.14. Passed pawn 1.15. Intermediate move 1.16. Intermediate check 1.17. Counter attacking move 1.18. Zugzwang 1.19. Invasion 1.20. Irrefutable threat 1.21. Ambush 1.22. X-Ray 1.23. Gaining tempo 2. Draw 2.1. Theoretical draw 2.2. Stalemate 2.3. Desperado 2.4. Perpetual check 2.5. Perpetual attack 2.6. Perpetual threat 2.7. Positional draw 2.8. Fortress 2.9. Blocade 3. Combining tactical devices 3.1. Combining tactical devices 3.2. Exercises 1 3.3. Exercises 2 3.4. Exercises 3

Screenshots

Chess Problems Lite4 screens
Chess Combinations Vol. 14 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Chess Problems Lite at none against Chess Combinations Vol. 1's 1. Chess Combinations Vol. 1's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.3) and review sentiment (100% vs 83%). On price, ads and device support 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 Combinations Vol. 1 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Chess Problems Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Chess Combinations Vol. 1 holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Combinations Vol. 1 has 89 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Chess Problems Lite's written reviews are positive against 100% of Chess Combinations Vol. 1's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess Problems Lite ships an update every 7 months, Chess Combinations Vol. 1 every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Chess Problems Lite versus Chess Combinations Vol. 1: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess Problems LiteChess Combinations Vol. 1
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (8 ratings)4.7 (89 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings889 — better
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.08.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB44 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGano Technologies LLCChess King

Customer experience

Chess Problems Lite

All ratings8 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews24 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral8.3%
Negative8.3%

Chess Combinations Vol. 1

All ratings89 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral3.4%
Negative3.4%
Written reviews18 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Chess Problems Lite

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Chess Combinations Vol. 1

One-time1
  • Full course$12.99

Questions

Is Chess Problems Lite free?
Chess Problems Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Chess Combinations Vol. 1 free?
Chess Combinations Vol. 1 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chess Problems Lite or Chess Combinations Vol. 1?
Chess Combinations Vol. 1 is rated higher. Chess Problems Lite averages 4.3 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while Chess Combinations Vol. 1 averages 4.7 from 89 ratings.
Do Chess Problems Lite or Chess Combinations Vol. 1 have ads?
Neither Chess Problems Lite nor Chess Combinations Vol. 1 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chess Problems Lite or Chess Combinations Vol. 1?
Chess Problems Lite ships an update every 7 months, and Chess Combinations Vol. 1 every 3 months. Most recently, Chess Problems Lite was updated on September 21, 2026 and Chess Combinations Vol. 1 on September 30, 2026.

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