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
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.
- Unlimited free chess puzzles
- Adaptive difficulty with puzzle Elo
- Offline play
- Stockfish engine analysis
- 56 puzzle themes
- Review missed puzzles
- Customizable board themes
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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
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 ratings volume (490 vs 18) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.6). On price, rating, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 490 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. Both last shipped on November 8, 2026.
| Parameter | Chess Notation Trainer | Chess Puzzles & Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (18 ratings) | 4.5 (490 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 76.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 18 | 490 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Weekly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 26 MB | 76 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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