Comparison

Chess Notation Lab vs Chesshood

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

Chesshood

Features
Read full description

Meet Hood AI — your personal chess coach. Chesshood is built around one simple idea: you shouldn't have to decide what to train every day. Hood can help do that for you. Add your Lichess username and Hood can study your games, results, mistakes, strengths and weaknesses, then help build a training plan around what you need most. Your job is simple: Train. Play. Learn. Improve. HOOD AI — AN AGENT THAT KEEPS GETTING BETTER Hood AI is an AI agent for learning chess. It is being actively expanded, so at times it may be slow, make a mistake or need a moment to think. But its strength is already enormous, and that is exactly why we spend so much time on it. Hood learns and improves itself very quickly — every new update is a major change. The more you play on Lichess and train in Chesshood, the more Hood learns about you: your openings, your recurring mistakes, your strengths and the moments where you lose points. YOUR PERSONALISED TRAINING PLAN Hood can guide you through a complete training cycle: 1. TRAIN — work on a personalised position selected for your current needs. 2. PRACTISE — improve an area Hood believes needs attention: tactics, openings, calculation or recurring mistakes. 3. PLAY — take your training into real games and tournaments. 4. ANALYSE — come back after the game. Hood and Stockfish help you understand what happened and what to work on next. Then the cycle continues. Your new games become information for your next training plan. HOOD HELPS DECIDE WHAT COMES NEXT Chesshood is not just a collection of puzzles, openings and analysis tools. Hood connects them together and can use your chess history to help decide: • what you should practise today • which mistakes keep coming back • where you are losing points • whether an opening needs attention • which tactical patterns need more work You don't need to search through endless exercises yourself. Hood helps choose. You train. YOUR PLAN ISN'T FIXED You are always in control. Want to practise an opening, work on tactics, prepare for a tournament or analyse a particular game? Talk to Hood by text or voice and adjust the plan together. MORE WAYS TO TRAIN • Learn chess from the beginning with interactive Chess Basics • Explore openings and popular continuations • Play against the computer at different strengths • Use Play Trainer for feedback while you play • Connect Lichess and analyse your real games • Review tournament results and recent performances • Track your rating, puzzle history and category progress CONNECT LICHESS — HOOD LEARNS FROM EVERY GAME Add your Lichess username and Hood can study your games, your results and your mistakes. Don't have a Lichess account yet? Create one, play a few games, and Hood will start learning how you play. Every game you play is a lesson Hood uses to shape your next training session. GO PRO — TRAIN WITH THE FULL POWER OF HOOD Chesshood PRO unlocks the complete Hood AI experience: Hood AI coaching with its growing set of skills, Lichess game analysis and the Opening Explorer, all without ads. Try it first, and when you are ready to improve faster with a coach that knows your games, PRO is the way to train. Chesshood offers auto-renewable monthly and yearly subscriptions. Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. Your subscription automatically renews unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel subscriptions in your App Store account settings after purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://chesshood.com/privacy

Screenshots

Chess Notation Lab4 screens
Chesshood4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Chess Notation Lab at none against Chesshood's shown. Chess Notation Lab also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 4 weeks). Chesshood's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.6). 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. Chess Notation Lab sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Chesshood sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess Notation Lab ships an update every 3 days, Chesshood every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Chess Notation Lab versus Chesshood: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess Notation LabChesshood
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (6 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings6 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 4 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.615.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB82 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNishat MajidLukasz Piecha

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Chess Notation Lab

One-time1
  • Full Version$9.99
2 purchases

Chesshood

Subscriptions2
  • Chesshood Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Chesshood Pro Yearly$24.991 Year

Questions

Is Chess Notation Lab free?
Chess Notation Lab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chesshood free?
Chesshood is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Chess Notation Lab or Chesshood have ads?
Chesshood shows ads; Chess Notation Lab does not.
Which is updated more often, Chess Notation Lab or Chesshood?
Chess Notation Lab ships an update every 3 days, and Chesshood every 4 weeks. Most recently, Chess Notation Lab was updated on October 14, 2026 and Chesshood on October 7, 2026.

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