Comparison

Chess960 ™ vs Chess Puzzles & Tactics

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

Head to head
About

Chess960 ™

Experience a unique chess variant where the starting position of pieces changes with each game. Test your strategic thinking with fresh challenges and play against AI or friends. Customize your game with different themes and join a growing community.

Highlights
  • Randomized starting positions
  • Play against AI or friends
  • Progress from beginner to pro
  • Customizable pieces and boards
  • Community sharing and leaderboards
Features
Read full description

Welcome to Chess960: Fresh Moves, a new twist on the classic chess game you can play on your phone. This game changes up the starting line-up of the chess pieces, making every match different and exciting. Bobby Fischer, a famous chess player, came up with Chess960 in the late 1990s. He wanted to make chess fun again by mixing up where the pieces start. This means players need to think of new strategies every time they play, not just remember old moves. What's Cool About Chess960: Fresh Moves? New Challenges: Every game feels like a new puzzle because the pieces start in different spots. Play Your Way: Battle against the game or play with friends and family. Climb from beginner to pro by winning games. Make It Yours: Pick your favorite chess pieces and boards. Change the game's look and sounds to match what you like. Join the Crowd: Share your wins and join a community of Chess960 fans. See how you stack up against others. Chess960: Fresh Moves is all about discovering new ways to play and have fun with chess. Download it now and start exploring a whole new chess world!

About

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.

Highlights
  • Unlimited free chess puzzles
  • Adaptive difficulty with puzzle Elo
  • Offline play
  • Stockfish engine analysis
  • 56 puzzle themes
  • Review missed puzzles
  • Customizable board themes
Features
Read full description

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

Chess960 ™4 screens
Chess Puzzles & Tactics4 screens

Verdict

The call

Chess960 ™ and Chess Puzzles & Tactics both sit at 4.4 stars, but that hides the real split: 76% of Chess Puzzles & Tactics's written reviews are positive against 0% of Chess960 ™'s. Chess Puzzles & Tactics also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 10 months) and ratings volume (490 vs 64). Chess960 ™'s advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Chess960 ™ 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for Chess960 ™ 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 64, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 0% of Chess960 ™'s written reviews are positive against 76% of Chess Puzzles & Tactics's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess960 ™ ships an update every 10 months, Chess Puzzles & Tactics weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Chess960 ™ versus Chess Puzzles & Tactics: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess960 ™Chess Puzzles & Tactics
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (64 ratings)4.5 (490 ratings) — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews76.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings64490 — better
Update frequencyEvery 10 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size69 MB76 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVM Mobile TeamSajed Nahian

Customer experience

Chess960 ™

All ratings61 ratings
Positive83.6%
Neutral6.6%
Negative9.8%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral33.3%
Negative66.7%

Chess Puzzles & Tactics

All ratings490 ratings
Positive85.9%
Neutral4.3%
Negative9.8%
Written reviews38 reviews
Positive76.3%
Neutral5.3%
Negative18.4%

Bugs and requests

Chess960 ™

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
Show 13 more
  • 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

1 purchases

Chess960 ™

One-time1
  • Premium$3.99
1 purchases

Chess Puzzles & Tactics

One-time1
  • Ad-Free Forever$3.99

Questions

Is Chess960 ™ free?
Chess960 ™ is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chess Puzzles & Tactics free?
Chess Puzzles & Tactics is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chess960 ™ or Chess Puzzles & Tactics?
Chess Puzzles & Tactics is rated higher. Chess960 ™ averages 4.4 out of 5 from 64 ratings, while Chess Puzzles & Tactics averages 4.5 from 490 ratings.
Do Chess960 ™ or Chess Puzzles & Tactics have ads?
Chess Puzzles & Tactics shows ads; Chess960 ™ does not.
Which is updated more often, Chess960 ™ or Chess Puzzles & Tactics?
Chess960 ™ ships an update every 10 months, and Chess Puzzles & Tactics weekly. Most recently, Chess960 ™ was updated on October 30, 2026 and Chess Puzzles & Tactics on November 8, 2026.

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