BlueChess vs Chess
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BlueChess
Engage in strategic gameplay with powerful chess engines. Choose between the BlueChess engine or the highly-rated Stockfish engine for your matches.
- Play against BlueChess engine
- Play against Stockfish engine
- Strategic gameplay
- Free to play
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Play a game of chess against the BlueChess engine or the Stockfish engine.
Chess
Engage in chess with a comprehensive suite of tools for analysis, annotation, and online play. Explore game trees with side-lines, add detailed comments, and enjoy a stable FICS server connection. Features include a robust database, opening/endgame browsers, and training videos.
- Game tree representation with side-lines
- Detailed game annotation
- Stable FICS server communication
- Enhanced FICS interface
- Improved database and setup screen
- Opening and endgame browser
- Links to training videos
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With Chess-wise 3 you can play chess, analyse games, annotate game notations, play online, solve exercises, watch training videos and much more. - Games are represented as trees, so they can have side-lines. This means when analysing moves, this will not anymore overwrite the moves of the main game - On the new annotation screen, you can add comments and !! - or ?? to the moves - The communication with the FICS server has been complete rewritten and is now much more stable - The FICS interface has more features (support for multiple accounts, iMessage-like chatting, friend list) - Improved database (re-order games in a PGN file) and setup screen (move pieces on the board) - Landscape views for the opening and endgame browser, showing the possible moves next to the board - Over 250 links to free training videos - Separate screen to select the pieces orientation, when playing with 2 players - Help file with tutorial for each major use case Each screen has been re-designed to give a better user experience, focussing on the main actions that people want to do on that screen. Any suggestions for further improvements (as well as bug reports) are welcome at info@chess-wise.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: BlueChess at 5.0 against Chess's 3.6. BlueChess also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and review sentiment (50% vs 41%). Chess's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months) and ratings volume (16 vs 2). On price, ads 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 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. BlueChess asks for nothing beyond the download.
BlueChess holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess has 16 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of BlueChess's written reviews are positive against 41% of Chess's.
BlueChess ships an update every 4 months, Chess fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BlueChess | Chess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 3.6 (16 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better | 40.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 16 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 55 MB | 42 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | GreenChess.com | Marcel Nijman |
Customer experience
BlueChess
Chess
In-app purchases
BlueChess
No in-app purchases
Chess
- Unlock PRO$5.99
