Chess Notation Trainer vs Chess Puzzles & Tactics
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chess Notation Trainer
Master chess squares and notation with this training app. Improve your ability to identify coordinates, translate moves, and visualize the board, even without one. Ideal for serious players looking to enhance calculation speed and chess understanding.
- Identify squares by coordinate
- Translate move sequences to notation
- Determine square color instantly
- Stay oriented on the board
- Follow chess tutorials without a board
- Speed up calculation
- Practice blind chess
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Serious about chess? But struggling to identify the squares, remembering sequences and follow chess notations? Well, you just landed on the perfect app! This training app is designed to dramatically uplift your mastery over chess squares. There are 5 training sessions. A small dose of regular practice will make you: 1. Spot a square as soon as you hear or see its coordinate 2. Translate a sequence of moves into their notation at ease 3. Immediately identify the color of a square 4. Stay oriented regardless of you facing white or black 5. Follow along with chess tutorials, books or any discussion without a board 6. Massively speedup your thought process on any calculation 7. Finally, start playing blind chess! Don't be surprised if you see a sudden surge of rating simply increasing your strength on square reading. The free version is already good enough to cause a major spike in your chess career. However, a one time purchase will unlock the full version which includes: - Extended time controls - Untimed practice mode - Milestones and achievements - Board assistance during training - And a complete visualization of your records There will be no ads, neither in the full version nor in the free one. Just a beautiful and satisfyingly addictive way to your square mastery. Caution: If you are rated below 1500, this app is probably not gonna be as useful for you, and tactics training is something you should prioritize.
Chess Puzzles & Tactics
Enhance your chess skills with an extensive collection of puzzles and tactical exercises. Tailor your training by customizing puzzle difficulty and Elo ratings to target specific weaknesses and accelerate improvement, suitable for players of all levels.
- Infinite chess puzzles
- Tactics training
- Customizable puzzles
- Elo rating adjustment
- All player levels
- Extensive tactic list
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Solve interactive chess positions on the board and find the correct continuation. Train tactics, mating patterns, and endgames. Choose the categories or motifs you want to practice, then set a puzzle Elo range or difficulty that fits your target session. Built for chess players from beginner through advanced. Practice familiar ideas such as forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks, sacrifices, promotion, and zugzwang. Develop pattern recognition and calculation through focused puzzle practice.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Chess Notation Trainer at none against Chess Puzzles & Tactics's shown. Chess Notation Trainer also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 76%) and update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly). Chess Puzzles & Tactics's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and ratings volume (487 vs 18). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Chess Notation Trainer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Chess Puzzles & Tactics sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for Chess Notation Trainer against 4.5 for Chess Puzzles & Tactics. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Puzzles & Tactics has 487 ratings behind it against 18, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Chess Notation Trainer's written reviews are positive against 76% of Chess Puzzles & Tactics's.
Chess Notation Trainer ships an update every 2 days, Chess Puzzles & Tactics weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess Notation Trainer | Chess Puzzles & Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (18 ratings) | 4.5 (487 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 75.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 18 | 487 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Weekly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 26 MB | 89 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nishat Majid | Sajed Nahian |
Customer experience
Chess Notation Trainer
Chess Puzzles & Tactics
Bugs and requests
Chess Notation Trainer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
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
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- 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
Chess Notation Trainer
- Full Version$4.99
Chess Puzzles & Tactics
- Ad-Free Forever$3.99
Questions
Is Chess Notation Trainer free?
Is Chess Puzzles & Tactics free?
Which has better reviews, Chess Notation Trainer or Chess Puzzles & Tactics?
Do Chess Notation Trainer or Chess Puzzles & Tactics have ads?
Which is updated more often, Chess Notation Trainer or Chess Puzzles & Tactics?
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