Starchess vs Chess
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Starchess
Experience chess with a unique twist on a three-dimensional board. Pieces gain new movement capabilities, allowing for strategic plays in up, down, and diagonal directions. Enjoy a fresh challenge to your chess skills.
- Three-dimensional chess board
- Traditional chess rules
- Expanded piece movement (up, down, diagonal)
- Unique strategic gameplay
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Starchess has all of the same rules as traditional chess but now on a three-dimensional board. Pieces can move up, down and diagonally.
Chess
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Chess-3D helps add new layers of flexibility to your brain’s perceptual machinery as you exercise your mind planning strategic defenses and bold attacks into another dimension. All pieces move in the same basic formations as 2D chess, but now with the option of vertical-movement components in 3D-space. Simply select a piece with a mouse-click, select the squares distance to move it and then a 3D or 2D directional arrow to reach the square you are targeting. Invalid moves are rejected. It really is that simple. You can play against someone on one device as the boards rotate after each move, online against friends via Game Centre or against the computer AI. For visual clarity red pieces are traditional-chess white pieces and blue is black. User controls allow you to rotate and zoom to easily see piece positions. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Starchess at none against Chess's 2. Starchess also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.6). Chess's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months). 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 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Starchess asks for nothing beyond the download.
Starchess ships an update every 4 months, Chess every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Starchess | Chess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 60 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nathan Lane | Gareth Costa |
In-app purchases
Starchess
No in-app purchases
Chess
- Chess-3D Premium$0.991 Month
- Chess-3D Premium Yearly14 Days trial$4.991 Year
