Comparison

Lotus Chess vs Sparkden

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

Head to head
About

Lotus Chess

Master chess openings, tactics, and endgames with a personalized training system. Analyze your games, identify weaknesses, and learn winning strategies against human opponents. Improve your chess skills from beginner to competitive levels.

Highlights
  • Personalized opening courses from your games
  • Import games from Chess.com/Lichess
  • Master endgames with step-by-step lessons
  • 100,000+ chess puzzles
  • Offline access to lessons
  • In-depth game analysis
Features
Read full description

Lotus Chess is a powerful chess training app designed to help you improve faster than any other chess learning app. It provides a complete system for mastering openings, tactics, and endgames. Join more than 250.000 chess learners across the world — from beginners starting with the fundamentals to competitive players with 2300 Elo. Unlike most apps — which focus on engine-perfect theory — Lotus Chess teaches attacking chess that helps you win against human opponents. --- Opening Training Built for Real Games Lotus Chess analyzes up to 3000 of your online games, identifies your weaknesses, and creates a personalized, tailored course to make your openings bulletproof. Lotus Chess teaches you crushing lines that exploit common mistakes, instead of showing you boring theoretical lines that rarely happen in actual games. To do this, Lotus Chess’ AI has analyzed 100.000.000+ games to identify the lines that give you the highest win probability against real players. Opening Features • Personalized opening courses generated from your own games • Import games from Chess.com or Lichess for automatic analysis • Identify your most common opening mistakes • Train openings repeatedly until they become natural • Learn from a library of 80+ openings --- Master the Endgame Endgames decide a huge number of chess games, yet they are often the most neglected part of training. Lotus Chess includes a complete endgame course designed to teach practical endgame technique step-by-step. Endgame Training Includes • 60+ detailed lessons • Fundamental checkmates (queen, rook, etc.) • Advanced techniques like building the bridge • 180+ training positions to practice against a human-like engine Instead of only studying theory, you get to play and convert winning positions to reinforce what you’ve learned. --- Additional Features • All Endgame and Opening Lessons work offline (Great for the airplane and your commute) • 100,000+ chess puzzles • In-depth analysis of your online games • Personalized training recommendations --- Built by Chess Players Lotus Chess was created by two brothers who started playing chess at age four. After building a math learning app with over 6 million downloads, they set out to create the ultimate chess learning platform. The result is Lotus Chess: a modern chess training system that combines opening preparation, endgame mastery, and personalized analysis — which is now being used by over 250.000 learners across the world. Privacy Policy & Terms of Use: https://www.lotus-chess.com/privacy-policy

About

Sparkden

Features
Read full description

Sparkden is the apple game — a gentle place for children to play, learn, and imagine. DRAW A RAMP, ROLL THE APPLE HOME Draw a slope with your finger, press play, and watch the apple roll into the basket. Steeper means faster. Nothing is scripted: it is a real 2D physics engine, and kids push on the world and watch it push back. FIFTY LEVELS, NINE GARDENS Meadow — one slope, then longer, then a basket up on a post and a log in the way. Orchard — a bouncy mushroom, a branch to dive under, a stump to arc over. Windy hill — the wind pushes the apple along, and a windmill turns across the path. Pond — apples float! Roll it into the water and the current sails it home. Sky — one helium balloon makes the apple light; two lift it, and you tap to pop them over the basket. Moon — everything falls slowly, and more than one apple has to get home. Grove — trees, mushrooms and a little wind. Dusk — sunset ponds, then balloons in the last light. Night — moonlight, slow falls, and every apple home. A WINDING PATH, WITH LITTLE GAMES IN BETWEEN The levels run along a path, garden by garden. Between apple levels there are little games: drag glowing sparks into a jar, put the numbers in a line, stack a block tower that stands, sort coloured apples into matching baskets, tap stars in order, send butterflies home. SAVED PROGRESS Every solved stop earns up to three stars and lights up the next. Progress is saved on the device, so the game picks up right where your child left off. Stars from earlier versions stay on the same first twenty-one puzzles. SAFE TO FAIL Falling is never a failure — the apple just hops back to the start. Try again is the point. SAFE BY DESIGN 100% free. No ads, ever. No accounts, ever. Play on the device — nothing to sign up for, nothing collected. Sparkden is for kids roughly ages 3–8. An adult nearby is recommended for the youngest.

Screenshots

Lotus Chess4 screens
Sparkden4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Sparkden at none against Lotus Chess's 4. On price, update cadence, ads 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. Lotus Chess sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Sparkden asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Lotus Chess versus Sparkden: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLotus ChessSparkden
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (1.1K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews86.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.1K — better—
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size245 MB19 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLotus Chess UGOlga Shestakova

Bugs and requests

Lotus Chess

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Login screen freezes
  • Incompatible with older devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Library to explain the WHY behind the moves
  • Link to an online library
  • Ability to remove pre-selected openings
  • Review of daily correspondence games

Sparkden

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Lotus Chess

Subscriptions4
  • Pro Subscription - 1 Month7 Days trial$7.991 Month
  • Pro Subscription - 1 Month7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Pro Subscription - 1 Year7 Days trial$49.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Pro Subscription - 1 Year7 Days trial$69.991 Year
None

Sparkden

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Lotus Chess free?
Lotus Chess is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Sparkden free?
Sparkden is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Lotus Chess or Sparkden have ads?
Neither Lotus Chess nor Sparkden shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lotus Chess or Sparkden?
Lotus Chess ships an update weekly, and Sparkden weekly. Most recently, Lotus Chess was updated on October 25, 2026 and Sparkden on October 19, 2026.

Other comparisons