Comparison

Chess Tactics and Lessons vs Chess Puzzles & Tactics

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

Head to head
About

Chess Tactics and Lessons

Master chess strategy and openings with this app. Practice unlimited tactics, follow detailed lessons, and save your favorite openings. Create your own content and learn from a supportive community.

Highlights
  • Unlimited tactics practice
  • Detailed chess lessons
  • Opening practice and saving
  • Create custom tactics and lessons
  • Learn from mistakes with explanations
  • Community comments and discussion
  • Customizable board design
Features
Read full description

“Chess is 99% tactics” (R. Teichmann.) From beginner to expert, practicing tactics is hands-down the best way to master the game. Play 30,000+ tactics, lessons, and openings while the app adjusts to your ability as you play. Join thousands of users who improve their game with daily tactics. Beginner-friendly, even if you don't know the rules of chess yet. "This app is a must have for any chess player - student or master." -Tom Taylor, USA "This is easily the best purchase I've made since owning a smartphone." -Miles C. Samuels, USA "This app has improved my game tremendously!" - anonymous fandom on the App Store FEATURES - Tactics: Play as many tactics as you want, for free. - Lessons: Get deeper into strategy with detailed lessons including positions from Netflix's 'The Queen's Gambit' and the World Championship. - Openings: Practice makes perfect! Save and practice openings from the Grandmasters and more. - Create your own tactics, lessons, and openings for others to try. - Learn from your mistakes with solutions, explanations, and chess engine analysis. - Join the community: comment on tactics and learn from other users. New tactics are added every day, so you'll never run out. ------ Chess Tactics PRO subscriptions will be charged to your iTunes account upon purchase. Subscriptions will automatically renew unless canceled within 24-hours before the end of the current period. You can cancel anytime with your iTunes account settings. See Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for more information. Privacy Policy: https://chesstacticsapp.com/privacy.html Terms of Service: https://chesstacticsapp.com/terms.html Acknowledgements: Chess Pieces by jurgenwesterhof on WikiCommons (adapted from work of Cburnett) Icons by bezier master, Cutiecon, and Shawn Wong from the Noun Project.

About

Chess Puzzles & Tactics

Improve your chess skills with an extensive library of puzzles that adapt to your level. Analyze positions with a powerful engine and train specific tactics and endgames. Play offline and track your progress with a personalized Elo rating.

Highlights
  • Unlimited free chess puzzles
  • Adaptive difficulty with puzzle Elo
  • Offline play
  • Stockfish engine analysis
  • 56 puzzle themes
  • Review missed puzzles
  • Customizable board themes
Features
Read full description

Unlimited free chess puzzles. The fastest way to get better at chess. • 200,000+ chess puzzles, from beginner to master • Over 4 million puzzles played by 50,000+ players • Your own puzzle Elo that climbs as you improve • Play offline anywhere, no account needed • Analyze any position with Stockfish, the world's strongest chess engine Five minutes a day is all it takes. Chess Puzzles & Tactics serves every rated chess puzzle at exactly your level, so you are always challenged and never bored. Solve, watch your rating climb, and start seeing the winning move before your opponent does. Win more games with chess tactics The tactics that decide real games are all here: forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks, deflection and sacrifices. Drill checkmate puzzles from mate in 1 and mate in 2 to long mating attacks, then convert winning positions with chess endgame training: pawn and rook endgames, opposition and promotion. Built to make you better • Puzzles that adapt to you. Your puzzle Elo starts at 1000 and moves with every solve. Let the app pick the difficulty, or set your own Elo range. • 56 puzzle themes. Train only checkmates, only endgames, or the exact tactic you keep missing. • Fix your weak spots. Missed puzzles go to your review list, and spaced repetition brings them back until the pattern sticks. • Hints and engine analysis. Stuck? Take a hint, or analyze the position with the built-in Stockfish chess engine and evaluation bar, right on your device. • Watch yourself improve. The Elo graph shows your daily rating gains, and the History tab keeps every puzzle you have played. • Chess puzzles and tactics offline. Download puzzle packs and solve on a plane, on the subway, anywhere. Results sync when you are back online. • Your rating everywhere. Sign in to sync across your phone, tablet and chesspuzzles.io. • Make it yours with 28 board themes, 9 piece sets, and sounds and haptics you control. What you can train • Checkmate puzzles: mate in 1, mate in 2, mate in 3 and longer, back-rank mates, mating nets, smothered mates • Chess tactics: forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks, double checks, deflection, overloading, zwischenzug, sacrifices • King safety and defense: attacks on the castled king, perpetual check, stalemate tricks, defensive moves • Chess endgame training: pawn and rook endgames, opposition, passed pawns, zugzwang, promotion • Positional patterns: knight outposts, rooks on the seventh, the bishop pair, Alekhine's gun and more Chess training for every level Beginners learn basic checkmates and simple chess tactics with hints. Club players sharpen calculation and pattern recognition. Strong players set a high Elo range and crack hard combinations. It adapts to you like a personal chess trainer. Unlimited chess puzzles, free Download free and solve as many chess puzzles as you want. Open the app and start solving in seconds, whether you have two minutes or a full session of chess practice. Your next rating jump is one puzzle away.

Screenshots

Chess Tactics and Lessons4 screens
Chess Puzzles & Tactics4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Chess Tactics and Lessons at none against Chess Puzzles & Tactics's shown. Chess Tactics and Lessons also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and ratings volume (5.1K vs 490). Chess Puzzles & Tactics's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 5 weeks) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). On price, in-app purchases, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Chess Tactics and Lessons sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Chess Puzzles & Tactics sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Chess Tactics and Lessons holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Tactics and Lessons has 5.1K ratings behind it against 490, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of Chess Tactics and Lessons's written reviews are positive against 76% of Chess Puzzles & Tactics's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess Tactics and Lessons ships an update every 5 weeks, Chess Puzzles & Tactics weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Chess Tactics and Lessons versus Chess Puzzles & Tactics: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess Tactics and LessonsChess Puzzles & Tactics
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (5.1K ratings) — better4.5 (490 ratings)
Positive reviews85.2% of reviews — better76.3% of reviews
Number of ratings5.1K — better490
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size114 MB76 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLockwood Productions, LLCSajed Nahian

Customer experience

Chess Tactics and Lessons

All ratings5,056 ratings
Positive95.2%
Neutral3.1%
Negative1.7%
Written reviews283 reviews
Positive85.2%
Neutral4.6%
Negative10.2%

Chess Puzzles & Tactics

All ratings490 ratings
Positive85.9%
Neutral4.3%
Negative9.8%
Written reviews38 reviews
Positive76.3%
Neutral5.3%
Negative18.4%

User reviews

Chess Tactics and Lessons

From 5.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 😃 Great for learning tactics
  • 👍 Enjoyable and addictive
  • 🚀 Excellent training tool
  • 🤗 Helpful for improving chess skills
  • 💯 Best tactics app

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy after updates
  • 💰 Subscription model too expensive
  • 🤔 Some tactics are questionable
  • 🙄 Too many queen sacrifices
  • 😣 Difficult to navigate

Chess Puzzles & Tactics

From 490 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🆓 Free to use, no ads
  • ♾️ Seemingly endless puzzles
  • 🧠 Great for chess improvement
  • 👍 Simple and easy to use interface
  • 🎯 Puzzles tailored to skill level

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent bugs and glitches
  • 🔄 Progress resets (ELO, history)
  • ⚠️ Login issues (Apple/Google)
  • ⏳ Puzzles take a long time to load
  • 🥶 Freezes and crashes

Bugs and requests

Chess Tactics and Lessons

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Server connection issues
  • White screen after updates
  • Inability to delete account
  • Incorrect move explanations

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to save tactics
  • Offline mode
  • Difficulty filtering
  • Improved user interface
  • More comprehensive lessons

Chess Puzzles & Tactics

Reported bugs

18 issues
  • Unable to login
  • Application resets to starting value (1000elo)
  • History/review chapters remain unlocked
  • In-application feedback not functioning
  • Rating feature broke
Show 13 more
  • Ability to control puzzle strength broke
  • Scanning thing after opening app continues forever
  • App resets ELO to 1000
  • Undo button disappears
  • Tapping to select a piece stops working
  • Analysis breaks
  • Viewing history doesn’t work
  • App crashes
  • View History tab page never loads
  • App forgets login and starts from ELO = 0
  • Analysis button messed up
  • App hangs after pressing 'log in'
  • Puzzles freeze, no way of moving pieces

Requested features

4 requests
  • Option to mute sounds
  • Ability to disable audio
  • Allow loading custom puzzle sets
  • Better interface and cable

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Chess Tactics and Lessons

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly PRO Subscription$3.991 Month
  • Annual Pro Subscription$29.991 Year
One-time5
  • Marble Chess Board$0.99
  • Orange Chess Board$0.99
  • Remove ads$0.99
Show 2 more
  • Green Chess Board$0.99
  • Enable Saved Puzzles$1.99
1 purchases

Chess Puzzles & Tactics

One-time1
  • Ad-Free Forever$3.99

Questions

Is Chess Tactics and Lessons free?
Chess Tactics and Lessons is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chess Puzzles & Tactics free?
Chess Puzzles & Tactics is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chess Tactics and Lessons or Chess Puzzles & Tactics?
Chess Tactics and Lessons is rated higher. Chess Tactics and Lessons averages 4.8 out of 5 from 5.1K ratings, while Chess Puzzles & Tactics averages 4.5 from 490 ratings.
Do Chess Tactics and Lessons or Chess Puzzles & Tactics have ads?
Chess Puzzles & Tactics shows ads; Chess Tactics and Lessons does not.
Which is updated more often, Chess Tactics and Lessons or Chess Puzzles & Tactics?
Chess Tactics and Lessons ships an update every 5 weeks, and Chess Puzzles & Tactics weekly. Most recently, Chess Tactics and Lessons was updated on November 6, 2026 and Chess Puzzles & Tactics on November 5, 2026.

Other comparisons