Comparison

Simple chess board vs Chess Prime

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Free piece movement
  • Undo/Redo functionality
  • Board rotation
  • Checker piece option
  • Save/load positions
  • Configurable chess clock
  • Tweet current position
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Chess Prime

This app offers a challenging chess experience for players of all levels. It features a versatile AI engine, customizable game modes, and helpful tools for beginners. Save your progress and replay games to improve your skills.

Highlights
  • One player and two player modes
  • Challenging AI with flexible difficulty
  • Start from any position
  • Save and load games
  • Show legal moves for beginners
  • Undo and redo moves
Features
Read full description

- Importance of chess - Chess is one of the ancient games in the world. Chess has become so increasingly popular that there was a time when chess was considered "Royal Game", but is now a common source of entertainment for a common man. In many parts of the world (in schools) chess has been introduced as major part of the curriculum, because chess increases the mathematical and scientific skills of the students. Chess also increases the problem solving skills, a sense of confidence, a self-worth and the communication skills. ••• Why Chess Prime? ••• Chess Prime is one of the best designed chess games for the iPad / iPhone (1,000,000+ downloads so far). It provides learning support for novice players, a real challenge for the experienced players and fun. Chess Prime supports both ‘one player’ and ‘two player’ game play, so you can play against your friends or against a challenging computer opponent. You can even start your game from different position that allows you to test your skills in different game phases, common positions, solve chess puzzles, etc. Also you can save your game and then re-load it anytime you want. If you are novice player you may take advantage of the feature that shows all legal moves for current piece. -The full list of features:- • Excellent graphics, sound effects and music • Configurable player names • Great AI engine with a flexible difficulty level that suits both novice players and experts • Versatile openings: Chess Prime AI engine plays like a human, not as a computer that always chooses the same move at the same position. It gives you opportunity to play different famous openings to gain extensive experience in chess. This feature is activated automatically in the game with high difficulty level. • SETUP game: Start the game from any desirable position with any number of pieces • UNDO function if you accidentally hit wrong piece or square. It works even if your king is checkmated. • REDO function if you missed the opponent’s move. Just press EYE button and Chess Prime will show you the last opponent’s move. • SAVE / LOAD feature gives you an opportunity to finish the game later or to play the chess puzzle which you can setup in the “Setup Game” module. • Option to show the LEGAL MOVES for current piece (very useful for novice players) • Option to ROTATE the board in ‘two player’ mode. • Option to limit ‘think time’ in ‘one player’ mode to 5, 15 or 30 seconds • Option to switch on / off sound effects and / or music • Automatically saves the current state of the game, so the game state would be automatically restored if you quit the application • Universal app (supports iPad / iPod touch / iPhone) If you love playing chess in landscape mode and in 3D, then download and try out our new Chess Prime 3D app! Enjoy!

Screenshots

Simple chess board4 screens
Chess Prime4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Chess Prime at none against Simple chess board's 1. Chess Prime also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 10 months). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Simple chess board sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Chess Prime asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Simple chess board against 4.4 for Chess Prime. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 68 and 71 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 88% of Simple chess board's written reviews are positive against 84% of Chess Prime's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Simple chess board ships an update every 10 months, Chess Prime every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Simple chess board versus Chess Prime: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimple chess boardChess Prime
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (68 ratings) — better4.4 (71 ratings)
Positive reviews88.2% of reviews — better83.6% of reviews
Number of ratings6871 — better
Update frequencyEvery 10 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.08.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB44 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLuis LopezVinta Games

Customer experience

Simple chess board

All ratings68 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral2.9%
Negative8.8%
Written reviews51 reviews
Positive88.2%
Neutral3.9%
Negative7.8%

Chess Prime

All ratings71 ratings
Positive85.9%
Neutral7.0%
Negative7.0%
Written reviews55 reviews
Positive83.6%
Neutral9.1%
Negative7.3%

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
Show 2 more
  • 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
Show 15 more
  • 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 Prime

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Simple chess board

One-time1
  • Remove ads$0.99
None

Chess Prime

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Simple chess board free?
Simple chess board is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chess Prime free?
Chess Prime is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Simple chess board or Chess Prime?
Simple chess board is rated higher. Simple chess board averages 4.5 out of 5 from 68 ratings, while Chess Prime averages 4.4 from 71 ratings.
Do Simple chess board or Chess Prime have ads?
Simple chess board shows ads; Chess Prime does not.
Which is updated more often, Simple chess board or Chess Prime?
Simple chess board ships an update every 10 months, and Chess Prime every 2 weeks. Most recently, Simple chess board was updated on October 16, 2026 and Chess Prime on October 14, 2026.

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