Comparison

Chess Notation Lab 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

Chess Notation Lab

Master chess board coordinates and piece movement with this training app. Improve your ability to visualize moves, read notation, and understand square colors. Designed to enhance your chess calculations and potentially boost your rating.

Highlights
  • Identify squares by coordinate
  • Fluid piece movement visualization
  • Translate moves to notation
  • Identify square color
  • Orient on the board
  • Speed up calculation
  • Blind chess practice
Features
Read full description

Welcome to Chess Notation Lab! Are you struggling to identify squares, remember sequences, and follow chess notations? Do you have trouble visualizing Bishop diagonals? Or Knight jumps? Or worse, mapping the available moves for the Queen to get/avoid a deadly fork? This training app is designed to end this misery. There are 2 training modes, each with 5 unique training sessions carefully designed to dramatically uplift your mastery over chess squares and fluid piece movement. A small dose of regular practice will empower you to: 1. Spot a square as soon as you hear or see its coordinate 2. Fluidly move any piece around the board, even without a board 3. Translate a sequence of moves into their notation with ease 4. Immediately identify the color of a square 5. Stay oriented regardless of whether you're white or black 6. Follow along with chess tutorials, books, or discussions at ease and comfort 7. Massively speed up your thought process on any calculation 8. Finally, start playing blind chess! Don't be surprised if you experience a sudden surge in rating simply by improving your square reading skills. The free version is already effective enough to significantly boost your chess career. However, if you want to support me and get the full version, first of all, thanks!! And then just a one-time purchase will unlock: - Longer time controls - Untimed practice mode - Milestones and Achievements and - Complete visualization of your records - Compete with friends over the complete leaderboards There will be no ads, neither in the full version nor in the free one. Just a beautiful and satisfyingly addictive path to mastering squares. The level of comfort you will feel about talking, reading or even thinking about chess is, believe me, just priceless. Caution: If you are rated below 1500, this app may be less useful for you, and tactics training should be prioritized.

About

Chess Puzzles

Enhance your chess tactics with over 100,000 offline puzzles. Train anytime, anywhere, regardless of internet access. Features adaptive difficulty, detailed stats, and various puzzle themes for all skill levels.

Highlights
  • 100K+ chess tactics and puzzles
  • Fully offline functionality
  • Adaptive difficulty adjustment
  • Detailed progress tracking
  • Multiple puzzle themes
  • Smart hint system
  • Customizable board themes
Features
Read full description

Sharpen your chess skills Offline with 100,000+ chess puzzles! No Wi-Fi needed, train tactics anytime, anywhere. Perfect for beginners to masters! OffChess offers a massive collection of 100K+ offline chess puzzles designed to challenge and improve your tactical play. Features of OffChess: 1. 100K+ Chess Tactics & Chess Puzzles – Endless tactical challenges, from beginner to master level. 2. Fully Offline – No Wi-Fi? No problem! Solve puzzles anywhere. 3. Adaptive Difficulty – Chess puzzles adjust to your skill level as you improve. 4. Detailed Stats – Track your chess progress, puzzle streaks, and success rate. 5. Multiple Modes – Practice puzzles with specific themes like Checkmate, Mate in 1 chess puzzles, Mate in 2 puzzles, Mate in 3 puzzles, openings, tactics (forks, pins, sacrifices, pawn promotions, zugzwang), and more. 6. Smart Hints – Stuck? Get a nudge in the right direction. 7. Beautiful Themes – Customize your chess board for a personalized experience. 8. Real Chess Games – All chess puzzles are taken from real chess games that you can browse up to move one. 9. Openings - Get chess puzzles that occur in real chess games with the opening you choose like French, Caro-Kann, Ruy Lopez etc. 10. No ads & privacy friendly chess app 11. Rating - Get your chess rating up by solving puzzles, check stats on how many puzzles you have solved and what's the longest streak you have made. Chess is one of the most popular board and strategy game in the world and you can train chess offline on offChess app with so many puzzles to pick from. For All Levels – Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned chess player, there’s always a new chess tactic for you to try. Train smarter, play better with offline and free chess puzzles on OffChess — rush and download today!

Screenshots

Chess Notation Lab4 screens
Chess Puzzles4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Chess Notation Lab at every 3 days against Chess Puzzles's weekly. Chess Notation Lab also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 91%). Chess Puzzles's advantage is ratings volume (37 vs 6). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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. Chess Notation Lab sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Chess Puzzles 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 — 5.0 for Chess Notation Lab against 5.0 for Chess Puzzles. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Puzzles has 37 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Chess Notation Lab's written reviews are positive against 91% of Chess Puzzles's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess Notation Lab ships an update every 3 days, Chess Puzzles weekly. Both last shipped on October 14, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Chess Notation Lab versus Chess Puzzles: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess Notation LabChess Puzzles
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (6 ratings)5.0 (37 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better91.3% of reviews
Number of ratings637 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.617.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB52 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNishat MajidAvadhesh Bhunwaliya

Customer experience

Chess Notation Lab

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Chess Puzzles

All ratings37 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews23 reviews
Positive91.3%
Neutral4.3%
Negative4.3%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Chess Notation Lab

One-time1
  • Full Version$9.99
1 purchases

Chess Puzzles

One-time1
  • OffChess Unlimited$3.99

Questions

Is Chess Notation Lab free?
Chess Notation Lab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chess Puzzles free?
Chess Puzzles is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chess Notation Lab or Chess Puzzles?
Chess Notation Lab and Chess Puzzles are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 6 and 37 ratings respectively.
Do Chess Notation Lab or Chess Puzzles have ads?
Neither Chess Notation Lab nor Chess Puzzles shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chess Notation Lab or Chess Puzzles?
Chess Notation Lab ships an update every 3 days, and Chess Puzzles weekly. Most recently, Chess Notation Lab was updated on October 14, 2026 and Chess Puzzles on October 14, 2026.

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