Comparison

Ballpoint Den vs Chess Puzzles

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

Head to head
About

Ballpoint Den

Read full description

Press on a location to launch a pen there. Once the pen reaches its maximum height, it will turn into a ball and fall back down. If a ball reaches the bottom you lose.

About

Chess Puzzles

Enhance your chess skills with adaptive tactical training. Solve millions of real-game puzzles to build pattern recognition and increase your rating. The system adjusts to your level, offering structured sessions for steady progress.

Highlights
  • Adaptive puzzle difficulty
  • Millions of real-game chess puzzles
  • Themed tactical training (forks, pins, etc.)
  • Engine-supported analysis
  • Rating growth and accuracy tracking
  • Structured training sessions
Features
Read full description

Turn every puzzle into progress. Train with 5M+ puzzles from real games, personalized to your level. When you make a mistake, understand why - and learn from it. That’s the idea we built this app around. Solving more puzzles is useful, but we wanted training to be about more than getting a position right or wrong. We wanted every puzzle to teach you something - about the move you missed, the pattern you didn’t recognize, or the way you calculated the position. There are more than 5 million puzzles from real games. But the number itself isn’t really the point. What matters is finding the right positions for you, at the right difficulty, and helping you learn from them. When you make a mistake, you can understand why. Use hints, explore better moves, get coaching, and look deeper into the position instead of simply moving on to the next puzzle. Over time, your training starts to reveal which tactical patterns give you the most trouble. You can practice across 64 motifs and patterns - forks, pins, sacrifices, checkmates, endgames, and many more - and spend more time on the ideas that need it. You can also see how your training develops over time: your rating, accuracy, training time, and performance across different patterns. And when you’re ready for something truly advanced, there are more than 300,000 composed chess problems from solving competitions. They’re difficult, precise, often beautiful - and solving them can be one of the most satisfying forms of chess training. We’ve also tried to make this a place you’ll actually want to come back to. Solve a few puzzles when you have five minutes. Sit down for a longer session when you feel like training seriously. Build a streak, reach a milestone, or simply keep showing up. Whether you’re new to tactics or have been playing chess for years, the goal stays the same: Learn something from every puzzle. Play better chess. And we’re here to help you along the way. Privacy Policy: https://chess.phd/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://chess.phd/terms/

Screenshots

Ballpoint Den4 screens
Chess Puzzles4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Chess Puzzles at none against Ballpoint Den's shown. Ballpoint Den's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 18.0). On price, in-app purchases 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. Ballpoint Den sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and Chess Puzzles sells 20 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Ballpoint Den versus Chess Puzzles: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBallpoint DenChess Puzzles
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.8 (244 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—95.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—244 — better
Update frequency—Every 3 days
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS12.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size72 MB113 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHamish MurraySergei Tovmasian

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Ballpoint Den

One-time10
  • Yellow Big Colour$0.99
  • Red Big Colour$0.99
  • Green Big Colour$0.99
Show 7 more
  • Orange Ball Colour$0.99
  • White Ball Colour$0.99
  • Purple Big Colour$0.99
  • Green Ball Colour$0.99
  • Red Ball Colour$0.99
  • Purple Ball Colour$0.99
  • Yellow Ball Colour$0.99
20 purchases

Chess Puzzles

Subscriptions20
  • Premium Weekly3 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • Chess.PhD Weekly Access3 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • Chess.PhD Premium (1 Week)$4.997 Days
Show 17 more
  • Premium Weekly3 variants$4.997 Days
  • Chess.PhD Weekly Premium3 Days trial$4.997 Days
  • Chess.PhD Monthly Premium$6.991 Month
  • Chess.PhD Monthly Access$7.991 Month
  • Chess.PhD Premium (1 Month)$9.991 Month
  • Premium Monthly3 variants$9.991 Month
  • Premium Annual$29.991 Year
  • Chess.PhD Annual Access$39.991 Year
  • Chess.PhD Premium (1 Year)7 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Chess.PhD Premium (1 Year)3 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Premium Annual2 variants$49.991 Year
  • Premium Annual3 Days trial2 variants$49.991 Year
  • Premium Annual7 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Premium 1 Year3 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Chess.PhD Annual Premium$49.991 Year
  • Premium Annual7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Premium Annual3 Days trial$79.991 Year

Questions

Is Ballpoint Den free?
Ballpoint Den is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chess Puzzles free?
Chess Puzzles is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Ballpoint Den or Chess Puzzles have ads?
Ballpoint Den shows ads; Chess Puzzles does not.

Other comparisons