Simple chess board vs Chess
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
Manage and study chess databases and games in PGN format with advanced analysis tools. Supports game creation, modification, and import from various sources. Includes engine analysis, opening book management, and puzzle training.
- PGN database and game management
- Create, modify, and import games
- Advanced engine analysis with Stockfish
- Opening book and ChessBase support
- Chess 960 (Fischer Random) support
- Diagram recognition for PGN conversion
- Puzzle training and online play
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Chess Studio is the first and only application for iPhone and iPad able to manage chess databases and games in PGN format in a complete and efficient way. Chess Studio is an application designed and built for those players who really want to deepen their knowledge in the field of chess, studying chess regularly and participate in tournaments. Chess Studio allows you to: • Read database and games in PGN format (also with extended notation of moves). • Create, delete and modify folders and databases. • View games with annotations and textual comments and keep track of the displayed games. • Use a double chessboard on the same screen for better game analysis. • Visualize moves and variants in compact mode or indented mode. • Modify existing games with move annotation and textual comments. • Insert new games and positions. • Insert, replay and analyze games in Chess 960 mode. • Insert moves with annotations and textual comments. • Insert variation, subvariations etc. • Insert and visualize graphical annotation (colored arrows and highlighted squares). • Share Databases and Games through Airdrop. • Download chess database from internet. • Download chess database directly from PGN Mentor site. • Import games, database and Opening Books from other applications. • Merge two or more databases. • Copy/Paste games and positions. • Analyze games with Stockfish 19 Engine with the support of the Neural Networks (up to 5 lines of analysis simultaneously) with the support of the Engine Evaluation Bar. • Replay games automatically. • Visualize Pawn structure. • Manage Variations and sub-variatons: delete and promote variations. • Read the weekly Magazine The New In Chess (TWIC) and download the games. • Uploading and Downloading PGN Database to/from Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive. • Three different modes for moving pieces. • Analyze endgames with Endgame Tablebases. • Analyze and study Chess Openings in the Chess Openings Section. • Create and manage Opening Books in Polyglot format. • Import and manage ChessBase Opening Books (ctg format). • Automatically classify a database according to ECO code. • Replay, enter and analyze Chess 960 games (Fischer Random Chess). • Play against the engine both in standard mode and in Chess 960 mode. • Play online through the LiChess platform • Train by solving Puzzles • ChessBase Database support. • Diagram Recognition: this feature allows the user to take and/or upload photos of chess diagrams and convert them into PGN format positions. Other features and technical details: • Modify the board size. • Professional chess fonts and figurines for moves notation and annotation. • Preview of the game in the board tapping the Info button. • Quick search feature. • Advanced search feature. • Complete management of Null Moves with Tutorial. • Visualization of ECO code and Opening during game replay or game insertion. • Visualization of Book Openings during game replay or game insertion. • Portrait/Landscape mode for all devices. • Support of Slide Over and Split View mode. • Function to move up within variants and subvariants. • iOS 26 compatible and optimized for all the devices. • Sharing of databases across devices via iCloud Drive (also with Chess Studio for Mac OS). • Sound option. • Support for iPad Pro Keyboard or bluetooth keyboard. • VoiceOver/Accessibility support. • Direct contact via email with the developer to report problems, ask for explanation and suggestions (very quick answer!). • Languages: English, Italian, Spanish and German. Complete description at: https://chessstudio.wordpress.com/chess-studio/ To view the privacy policy and Terms of Use (EULA) visit https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ The application is continuously updated with new features and improvements. No registration! No advertising! No sharing of personal data!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Simple chess board at Free against Chess's $3.99. Simple chess board also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). Chess's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 10 months). On review sentiment, ratings volume, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Simple chess board is free to download; Chess costs $3.99 up front. Simple chess board sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Chess sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Chess holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 68 and 118 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 88% of Simple chess board's written reviews are positive against 92% of Chess's.
Simple chess board ships an update every 10 months, Chess fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Simple chess board | Chess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $3.99 |
| Rating | 4.5 (68 ratings) | 4.7 (118 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 88.0% of reviews | 92.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 68 | 118 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| 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 | 237 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Luis Lopez | Giordano Vicoli |
Customer experience
Simple chess board
Chess
User reviews
Simple chess board
From 68 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Simple and straightforward
- 👍 Great for study and practice
- 👍 No restrictions or 'help' functions
- 👍 Allows setting up custom positions
- 👍 Useful for playing through games
Room to improve
- 🤔 Pieces not bound by rules
- 🤔 Graphics can be distracting/ugly
- 🤔 Aggressive board colors
- 🤔 Clocks take up screen space
- 🤔 Pieces can shift unexpectedly
Chess
From 118 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Powerful chess database features
- 👍 Comprehensive analysis tools
- 👍 Excellent PGN management
- 👍 Great value for price
- 👍 Frequent updates and improvements
Room to improve
- 🐛 Steep learning curve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes
- 🐛 Unintuitive interface
- 🐛 Some users find it confusing
- 🐛 Missing dark mode
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 moreShow fewer
- 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 moreShow fewer
- 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
Reported bugs
12 issues- Problem saving updated game data
- Engine stopped working after 30 seconds
- App crashes when adding annotations without hitting 'edit mode' first
- Crash opening .pgn in landscape mode
- Crashes when selecting a cell with 0 games associated
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- App freezes sometimes
- Download stuck on 'downloading'
- Dropbox issues on earlier iOS versions
- Program not bulletproof upon saving work
- Can't download cbv files
- Graphical annotations drawing unwanted arrows
- App doesn't work after iOS update
Requested features
20 requests- Add dark mode
- Add board flip button
- Improve interface for screen reader users
- Add private game feature with code
- Add computer whole game analysis with annotations
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Add coloring moves based on annotation
- Add drawing arrows that are saved
- Add bookmark feature
- Add buttons/swipe to go forward/backwards to next/previous game
- Add select all function for copying games
- Add autoplay games
- Remember last position/game opened in a database
- Support Millennium boards
- Support UCI engine compatibility
- Optimize database game view
- Make edit mode arrows slimmer and add more colors
- Allow direct iCloud access to databases without export
- Make graphical annotations optional/disableable
- Improve font size adjustment for moves and annotations
- Add search with multiple criteria
In-app purchases
Simple chess board
- Remove ads$0.99
Chess
- Monthly Premium Subscription3 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Yearly Premium Subscription3 Days trial$8.991 Year
Questions
Is Simple chess board free?
Is Chess free?
Which has better reviews, Simple chess board or Chess?
Do Simple chess board or Chess have ads?
Which is updated more often, Simple chess board or Chess?
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