Chess Problems Lite vs Chess Middlegame I
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 I
Master chess middlegame strategies with this comprehensive course. Learn popular opening plans, pawn structures, and tactical intricacies through interactive lessons and practice problems. Improve your game with personalized coaching and track your progress.
- Middlegame strategies and intricacies
- Theoretical section with interactive lessons
- Practice problems with hints and refutations
- Analysis of popular openings and pawn structures
- Progress monitoring and rating changes
- Offline play capability
- Tablet optimization
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Chess Middlegame I course composed by GM Alexander Kalinin is aimed at teaching a student much of the middlegame methods and intricacies through a theoretical section. Typical Plans and Methods in the Most Popular Openings: Scotch, Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, Caro-Kann, French, English opening, Dutch, Slav, Catalan, Nimzo-Indian, King's Indian, Grünfeld, Benko Gambit. The Encyclopedia of Middlegame course contains detailed material about typical pawn structures: Karlsbad, Hedgehog, etc. 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. Scotch game 1.1. Scotch game 1.2. The variation with 4... Nf6 1.3. The variation with 4... Bc5 2. Ruy Lopez defense 2.1. Ruy Lopez defense 2.2. Classification of the closed Ruy Lopez 2.3. The closed pawn center 2.4. Positions with the closed pawn center and the open c-file 2.5. Rauzer's plan 2.6. The variation with Bc8-e6 2.7. The center is not blocked 3. Caro-Kann defense 3.1. Caro-Kann defense 3.2. The Capablanca variation 3.3. The Smyslov-Petrosian variation 4. French defense 4.1. French defense 4.2. The Winawer variation 4.3. The classical system (3... Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7) 4.4. The Tarrasch variation (3. Nd2) 5. Sicilian defense 5.1. Sicilian defense 5.2. The system with 2. c3 5.3. Scheveningen 5.4. The systems with e7-e5 5.5. Systems with an exchange Bxf6 gf 6. English opening 6.1. English opening 6.2. English opening, the dragon system with colors reversed 6.3. English opening. 1. c4 e5 (without d7-d5) 7. Dutch defense 7.1. Dutch defense 7.2. Stonewall 7.3. The Iljin-Zhenevsky system 7.4. Leningrad system 8. Slav defense 8.1. Slav defense 8.2. The Schlechter system 8.3. The Meran variation 8.4. The Botvinnik system 9. Catalan opening 10. Nimzo-Indian defense 11. Grünfeld defense, the system with Qd1-b3 12. King's Indian defense 13. Benko gambit 14. The "Karlsbad" pawn structure 15. Typical position with the mobile pawn center 16. The "hedgehog" system 17. Typical pawn structure with an outpost on the half-open d-file
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Chess Problems Lite at none against Chess Middlegame I's 1. Chess Middlegame I's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.3) and review sentiment (100% vs 83%). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Chess Middlegame I sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Chess Problems Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.
Chess Middlegame I holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Middlegame I has 68 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 Middlegame I's.
Chess Problems Lite ships an update every 7 months, Chess Middlegame I every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess Problems Lite | Chess Middlegame I |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (8 ratings) | 4.7 (68 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 8 | 68 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| 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 I
In-app purchases
Chess Problems Lite
No in-app purchases
Chess Middlegame I
- Full course$7.99
Questions
Is Chess Problems Lite free?
Is Chess Middlegame I free?
Which has better reviews, Chess Problems Lite or Chess Middlegame I?
Do Chess Problems Lite or Chess Middlegame I have ads?
Which is updated more often, Chess Problems Lite or Chess Middlegame I?
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