Comparison

Chess Problems Lite vs Encyclopedia 1 by Informant

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

Encyclopedia 1 by Informant

This educational tool offers systematic chess combinations for players around ELO 2000. It provides interactive lessons, hints, and explanations to improve tactical skills and game knowledge. The app includes a free section for testing before unlocking more advanced topics.

Highlights
  • Systematic chess combinations
  • Interactive lessons and explanations
  • Hints and mistake refutations
  • Theoretical sections with interactive play
  • Progress monitoring (ELO rating)
  • Offline play
  • Tablet optimized
Features
Read full description

Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations vol. 1 (ECC vol. 1) is the ultimate educational tool with systematic, carefully selected content for player with ELO 2000. The material is based on the latest edition of the eponymous bestselling book released by Chess Informant. This volume contains chess combination of Basic Level (ELO 2000) for solving, all hand-picked and sorted by theme to provide the most exciting and efficient training experience possible! Unlike disorganized, basic tactics you can learn all over the Internet, this Chess Sphinx will challenge you consistently and systematically, unveiling new intricacies right when you decide you have mastered that particular tactic. 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. Annihilation of defence 2. Blockade 3. Clearance 4. Deflection 5. Discovered attack 6. Pinning 7. Demolition of pawn structure 8. Decoy 9. Interference 10. Double attack

Screenshots

Chess Problems Lite4 screens
Encyclopedia 1 by Informant4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Encyclopedia 1 by Informant at 4.9 against Chess Problems Lite's 4.3. Encyclopedia 1 by Informant also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 83%) and ratings volume (49 vs 8). Chess Problems Lite's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Encyclopedia 1 by Informant sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Chess Problems Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Encyclopedia 1 by Informant holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Encyclopedia 1 by Informant has 49 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 Encyclopedia 1 by Informant's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Chess Problems Lite versus Encyclopedia 1 by Informant: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess Problems LiteEncyclopedia 1 by Informant
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (8 ratings)4.9 (49 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings849 — 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%

Encyclopedia 1 by Informant

All ratings49 ratings
Positive98.0%
Neutral2.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Chess Problems Lite

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Encyclopedia 1 by Informant

One-time1
  • Full Course$9.99

Questions

Is Chess Problems Lite free?
Chess Problems Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Encyclopedia 1 by Informant free?
Encyclopedia 1 by Informant is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chess Problems Lite or Encyclopedia 1 by Informant?
Encyclopedia 1 by Informant is rated higher. Chess Problems Lite averages 4.3 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while Encyclopedia 1 by Informant averages 4.9 from 49 ratings.
Do Chess Problems Lite or Encyclopedia 1 by Informant have ads?
Neither Chess Problems Lite nor Encyclopedia 1 by Informant shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chess Problems Lite or Encyclopedia 1 by Informant?
Chess Problems Lite ships an update every 7 months, and Encyclopedia 1 by Informant every 3 months. Most recently, Chess Problems Lite was updated on September 21, 2026 and Encyclopedia 1 by Informant on September 30, 2026.

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