Comparison

Chess Move vs Chessmax

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

Head to head
About

Chess Move

Features
Read full description

Join Chess Move: Your Ultimate Chess Companion! Play Chess Online: Compete with players from around the world in real-time matches, or challenge friends directly from your friend list. Offline Play: Practice against our powerful AI with five adjustable difficulty levels, perfect for beginners and experts alike. Puzzles to Sharpen Your Skills: With over 318,000 chess puzzles available, you can practice winning in 1, 2, 3, or 4 moves. Flexible Time Controls: Adjust time settings to match your playstyle—perfect for quick games or thoughtful strategies! Key Features: • Powerful AI: Challenge yourself against a strong AI opponent that adapts to your skill level. • Extensive Puzzle Library: Enhance your tactical skills with thousands of puzzles designed for all levels. • Player Profiles: Monitor your rating, league ranking, and game performance with detailed statistics. • Chat with Friends: Stay connected and strategize with friends through in-app messaging. • Customizable Gameplay: Choose from various boards, chess piece styles, and backgrounds to personalize your experience. • Learn and Improve: Use the AI to solve challenging puzzles and learn effective strategies. Why Choose Chess Move? Whether you’re a seasoned grandmaster or just starting, Chess Move offers endless opportunities to improve your game. Compete in thrilling puzzles or relax with a friendly match. By using this app, you agree to Apple’s Standard Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Download Chess Move today and climb to the top of the leaderboards! Join a global community of chess enthusiasts and elevate your skills with our advanced features!

About

Chessmax

Features
Read full description

Chessmax is an immersive 3D online chess platform built for both competitive players and casual fans. Whether you want intense ranked matches, relaxed custom games, or single-player AI challenges, Chessmax delivers a polished, social and highly customizable chess experience. Core features - Real-time 3D matches: Smooth camera controls and crisp visuals put you at the center of every game. - Deep customization: Personalize your profile with customizable pieces, boards, profile icons and emotes. Build a signature look and bring personality to the board. - Multiple modes: Play Ranked, Custom, or against AI (Easy / Medium / Hard). We’re constantly expanding modes and game types. - Tournaments & leaderboards: Join live tournaments, track standings and compete for prizes. Our Redis-backed leaderboards and tournament caching keep results fast and consistent. - Loadout & Randomize: Equip your favorite pieces, boards, icons and emotes in Loadout. Randomize is being expanded to include emotes and icons for fresh combinations and discovery. - Secure purchases: In-app purchases are verified and hardened to ensure reliable, secure transactions. Polish, performance & reliability This update brings a major profile and UI refresh, reduced build size through asset cleanup, and many behind-the-scenes improvements to server performance and caching. Profile loading, match history, and tournament queries are faster thanks to Redis-driven optimizations. We also improved IAP validation flows and version sync for more dependable updates. Why players love Chessmax - Express yourself with unique piece sets, boards and emotes. - Climb the ranks in competitive play or try new strategies against AI opponents. - Compete in well-managed tournaments with fast leaderboards and responsive matchmaking. - Regular updates, performance optimizations and active bug-fix cycles keep the game evolving. Get involved Join the Chessmax community: customize your loadout, climb leaderboards, and test new modes. If you find an issue, use the in-game Bug Report to help us improve. We read everything and push updates frequently. Download the update and step into Chessmax — the next level of 3D online chess awaits.

Screenshots

Chess Move4 screens
Chessmax4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Chessmax at none against Chess Move's shown. Chessmax also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 6 months). On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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 Move sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Chessmax sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess Move ships an update every 6 months, Chessmax weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 4 level
Chess Move versus Chessmax: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess MoveChessmax
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsWeekly — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size166 MB259 MB
Age rating12+17+
DeveloperFahd EsmailZOIHUB LLC

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Chess Move

Subscriptions4
  • Monthly Gold Subscribe3 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Monthly Diamond Subscribe3 Days trial$5.991 Month
  • Yearly Gold Subscribe3 Days trial$11.901 Year
Show 1 more
  • Yearly Diamond Subscribe3 Days trial$23.901 Year
One-time6
  • get 500 coins$2.99
  • Special message king of chess$2.99
  • Message "Watch me and learn.$3.29
Show 3 more
  • Get 1000 coins$3.99
  • purchase a 100 random puzzle$4.29
  • Special msg Move or Leave Now!$4.29
6 purchases

Chessmax

One-time6
  • 64 Zoi Coins$0.99
  • 192 Zoi Coins$2.99
  • 320 Zoi Coins$4.99
Show 3 more
  • 640 Zoi Coins$9.99
  • 1280 Zoi Coins$19.99
  • 2560 Zoi Coins$39.99

Questions

Is Chess Move free?
Chess Move is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chessmax free?
Chessmax is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Chess Move or Chessmax have ads?
Chess Move shows ads; Chessmax does not.
Which is updated more often, Chess Move or Chessmax?
Chess Move ships an update every 6 months, and Chessmax weekly. Most recently, Chess Move was updated on September 24, 2026 and Chessmax on September 29, 2026.

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