Chess Time vs Chess Duel
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chess Time
Engage in online chess matches with friends or players worldwide. This app supports correspondence play with extended move times and offers features like in-game chat and customizable themes. Track your progress with an auto-calculated ELO rating.
- Online correspondence chess
- Play with friends
- Global player matchmaking
- In-game chat
- Customizable chess sets and themes
- Auto-calculated ELO rating
- PGN export
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Free online chess - Invite your friends or play against anyone in the world. Chess Time is a full featured online correspondence chess app allowing a player up to multiple days to make a move. Create and play multiple at length chess games. Chess Time features: A global audience of real chess players. Invite friends to play online games. In-game chat. -- Play chess against friends that have other mobile devices. Multiple Chess sets and themes. Play un-rated games to train without affecting your score. -- Auto-calculated ELO chess rating. Export completed games as PGN. Chess Time will send a notification for each move and a reminder for you to move. We recommend enabling notifications. ——————————— -- SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE --- PREMIUM Membership Subscription Options: - Monthly Premium Subscription - Yearly Premium Subscription Premium Membership features: * No Ads * 75 Simultaneous Active Games — Additional 25! * Compete with Premium Members * Exclusive Premium Leaderboard * Daily PGN Emails — Completed game PGNs are emailed daily! Perfect for players studying their games. — TERMS & DETAILS — Chess Time Premium features are only guaranteed on up-to-date iOS devices. Payment will be charged to your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Account will be charged the same amount for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal by going to your Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a Free Trial, if offered, is forfeited when you buy a subscription. Prices may vary by location. Terms of Use: http://chesstimeapp.com/Terms-and-Conditions.php Privacy Policy: http://chesstimeapp.com/Privacy-Policy.php
Chess Duel
Engage in a classic game of chess with a friend using only a local WiFi connection. Each player views the board from their perspective on their own device. No internet or external servers are required for gameplay.
- Play chess with nearby friends
- Direct peer-to-peer WiFi connection
- Automatic WiFi connection
- Automatic game resume
- Legal move highlighting
- Customizable chess clock
- Request takebacks
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Play chess with nearby friends via local WiFi. Play with your iPhone against a friend with an iPhone. Each player is seeing the board from his point of view (white / black) on the own device. Works on iPhone, iPad and iPod. To use the app, you need two devices with iOS 9.3 or newer. There is no engine included, which means that you can not play chess vs. this app. When you start chess duel on two devices, the devices do connect automatically. If WiFi is activated and the devices are nearby or they are on the same WiFi network. You don't need an account. Connection over the internet is not possible. Features - play chess with nearby friends - direct nearby peer to peer connection via WiFi or WiFi network, no chess server involved - automatically connects via wifi - you can safely close the app during a game, chess duel automatically resumes the game when reconnected - on interruption due to a phone call or an incoming message, the game is paused on both devices and resumes when you get back to the app - shows legal moves when you tap a chess piece - does not use gamecenter - no internet connection required - time control: you can setup the chess clock arbitrary for white and black, increment is supported as well - request takebacks, the opponent can accept or decline - give opponent additional time - universal app: iPhone / iPod / iPad - best chess app for nearby connections documentation: snugdev.de/chessduel/documentation.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Chess Time at 4.7 against Chess Duel's 3.3. Chess Time also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 5 months) and ratings volume (1.7K vs 7). Chess Duel's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ads (none vs shown). On price 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 Time sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Chess Duel asks for nothing beyond the download.
Chess Time holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Time has 1.7K ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 86% of Chess Time's written reviews are positive against 68% of Chess Duel's.
Chess Time ships an update every 10 days, Chess Duel every 5 months. Both last shipped on October 7, 2026.
| Parameter | Chess Time | Chess Duel |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (1.7K ratings) — better | 3.3 (7 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 86.2% of reviews — better | 67.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.7K — better | 7 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 9.3 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 42 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Haptic Apps LLC | Lothar Heinrich |
Customer experience
Chess Time
Chess Duel
Bugs and requests
Chess Time
Reported bugs
3 issues- Game incorrectly declaring draws on checkmate
- Inability to castle or move pieces in certain situations
- Notification issues across different devices
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to invite friends to watch ongoing games
- Option to disable move analysis for rated games
- Faster move processing and real-time gameplay
- More diverse chess piece and board designs
- In-app purchase to remove ads permanently
Chess Duel
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Chess Time
- Chess Time Premium$1.991 Month
- Chess Time Premium - Annual$17.991 Year
- IOS Chess Time Pro$4.99
Chess Duel
No in-app purchases








