Simple chess board vs Chess Challenge Elite
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Simple chess board
This app provides a digital chessboard with unrestricted piece movement and a configurable chess clock. Save and load board positions, undo/redo moves, and even use checker pieces. It's ideal for analyzing games or setting up custom scenarios.
- Free piece movement
- Undo/Redo functionality
- Board rotation
- Checker piece option
- Save/load positions
- Configurable chess clock
- Tweet current position
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A simple chess board and a chess clock without movement restrictions. Free movement as a real board. Current features are: • Move pieces freely, add or remove them. • Undo/Redo last movement. • Rotate board and/or pieces. • Use checkers game pieces. • Save/load positions for later use, or delete them when you don't need them anymore (swipe over them). Starting positions for chess and checkers are available. • Use a chess clock where you can configure initial time, move time increment, increment after a number of movement, hourglass time, ... • Set time independent for black and white if required. • Save/load time settings for later use. Already available some common times. • Tweet your current position.
Chess Challenge Elite
Engage in classic board game strategy against AI or a friend. Offers multiple difficulty levels, game modes, and customization options for pieces and boards. Track your progress with statistics and hints.
- 12 AI play levels
- Casual and Pro modes
- 2 player hot-seat
- Chess stats and hints
- Customizable boards and pieces
- Sound effects
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Chess is a board game for two players. It is played on a square board, made of 64 smaller squares, with eight squares on each side. Each player starts with sixteen pieces: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. The goal of the game is for each player to try and checkmate the king of the opponent. Checkmate is a threat ('check') to the opposing king which no move can stop. It ends the game. During the game the two opponents take turns to move one of their pieces to a different square of the board. One player ('White') has pieces of a light color; the other player ('Black') has pieces of a dark color. There are rules about how pieces move, and about taking the opponent's pieces off the board. The player with white pieces always makes the first move. Because of this, White has a small advantage, and wins more often than Black in tournament games. Chess is popular and is often played in competitions called chess tournaments. It is enjoyed in many countries. -- 12 play levels (Novice->Expert) This uses intelligent weakening for lower levels. Good for beginners. -- Casual and Pro modes. Learn on Casual and progress to Pro. -- 2 player hot-seat. Play against your friends! -- Chess Stats, Timers and Hints -- 5 Chess Boards and 6 Chess Piece Sets - sound effects - small size
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Chess Challenge Elite at none against Simple chess board's 1. Simple chess board's advantage is update cadence (every 10 months vs every 98 months) and rating (4.5 vs 4.2). On price, ads, monetization model 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. Simple chess board sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Chess Challenge Elite asks for nothing beyond the download.
Simple chess board holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 68 and 17 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 88% of Simple chess board's written reviews are positive against 79% of Chess Challenge Elite's.
Simple chess board ships an update every 10 months, Chess Challenge Elite every 98 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Simple chess board | Chess Challenge Elite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (68 ratings) — better | 4.2 (17 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 88.2% of reviews — better | 78.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 68 — better | 17 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 months — better | Every 98 months |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 78 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Luis Lopez | Linda Mottley |
Customer experience
Simple chess board
Chess Challenge Elite
Bugs and requests
Simple chess board
Reported bugs
7 issues- Keyboard not appearing to enter text/save
- Cannot figure out how to save position
- Pieces shift on their own
- Kings and queens on wrong squares initially
- Save position fails with 'You must insert text' error
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- App froze mid-game
- Write a review tab has trouble
Requested features
20 requests- Add scoresheet functionality
- Export game for analysis
- Move counter
- Portrait view on iPad
- Board expansion to fill screen
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- Ability to turn board around
- More board color options
- Option to hide timers
- PGN save and import facility
- PGN export
- Chess notation feature
- Larger board size (optional timers)
- Change chess set for better viewing
- Fix 'write a review' tab issue
- Delete saved games/setups easily
- Better graphics
- More realistic piece movement enforcement
- Improve piece dragging and selection
- Make piece representations larger
- Add variations
Chess Challenge Elite
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Simple chess board
- Remove ads$0.99
Chess Challenge Elite
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Simple chess board free?
Is Chess Challenge Elite free?
Which has better reviews, Simple chess board or Chess Challenge Elite?
Do Simple chess board or Chess Challenge Elite have ads?
Which is updated more often, Simple chess board or Chess Challenge Elite?
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